“The Pope’s visit will be above all a breath of fresh air for the families of the world" and "will help them achieve their mission and be the seed that transforms society”. With these words, according to the international agency Fides, Eduardo Hertfelder, president of the family policy institute of Spain (Ipf), greets Benedict XVI’s impending visit in Valencia (July 8th and 9th) on the occasion of the V World Family Meeting, which according to some estimates should be attended by over one million people. Before the "worrying scenario" of a country "with fewer and fewer children and more and more broken families” and to which “the government has imposed sectarian and clearly non-family-orientated laws”, such as those, says Hertfelder, on "comparing gay unions to married couples, unilateral and instant divorce, in vitro fertilisation that opens the way to cloning”, the Pope’s support and presence "urge the families to realise they are not alone and to become aware of the need to defend their rights”. But, according to Hertfelder, they also urge "the civil administrations and the politicians" on the priorities they must give to families, and the "mass media, which are called to consider whether they can estimate and spread the social importance that such institution has
