Marriage & Family Life

Italy’s declining birthrate is alarming, and groups that assist Italian families must do more both in terms of lobbying and witnessing to the joy of family life, Pope Francis said.

The importance of the family for the Catholic Church and for society means that theological reflection on family life and pastoral responses to the joys and problems of families must focus on more than the relationship between a husband and wife, Pope Francis said.

Addressing the Schonstatt Fathers, who were in Rome for their general chapter Sept. 1, the pope urged them to be “bearers of a message of hope in these dark situations that people in every stage of life are going through.”