“Couples and families are going through veritable storms, nowadays”, and, confronted "with ordeals, sometimes very painful ones", "families in distress should be assisted, helped to understand the greatness of marriage and encouraged not to give a relative meaning to God’s will” and to His "laws". "The Church explained the Pope, mentioning the "extremely painful" situation of remarried divorcees faithfully retains the principle of the indissolubility of marriage, although enveloping in the greatest affection those men and women who, for some reasons, fail to abide by it”. "Initiatives aimed at blessing illegitimate unions are not acceptable”, warned the Pontiff, according to whom "for decades in many countries the laws have been giving a relative meaning" to the family as the "primeval cell of society”, by passing "laws" that "are more of an attempt at adapting to the customs and claims of specific individuals or groups than at promoting the good of society”. Not to mention that, for some, "the stable union of a man and woman, designed to build wellbeing on earth by giving birth to children donated by God, is no longer the model which marital commitment aims at”. On the contrary, "the family is the sound foundation which the entire society rests on” and for Christians it is "the live cell of the Church" as well”. (continued)
