Cardinals Ennio Antonelli (Pontifical Council for the Family) and Dionigi Tettamanzi (Archbishop of Milan) spoke to journalists at the Vatican Press Office, together with auxiliary bishops and collaborators of the "organisational machine" that was set up motorcycle for some time. "The family - said Cardinal Dionigi Tettamanzi - represents the fundamental cell of society and the attention that the Church reserves for it is from a unitary perspective: religious and human. Thanks to the family and its dynamics of love and mutual help, we start from the human to reach God".
A very important year. "The current year is very important for the Pontifical Council: it marks the 30th anniversary of its institution by Pope John Paul II, who announced his birth on 13 May 1981, the feast of Our Lady of Fatima and the day of 'Attack in St. Peter's Square'.
The card said it. Ennio Antonelli, president of the Pontifical Council, which is organizing the world meeting together with the archdiocese of Milan. "Also thirty years ago - he continued - the 'Pontifical John Paul II Institute for studies on marriage and family' was also born and the encyclical 'Familiaris Consortio' was also presented, which constitutes the 'magna carta' of family pastoral care".
Referring to the attack on the Pope coinciding with the birth of the two Vatican institutions for the family, the cardinal spoke of a "baptism of blood" for these two entities, called "to support and spread the Church's doctrine on the family, to encourage a pastoral renewal for its service and to make known the value of sexuality according to Christian anthropology, together with marital and family spirituality and a correct valorization of the social role of the family". The card. Antonelli recalled "the importance of spiritual preparation in local Churches" in view of the Milanese event, for which lay movements and associations are also involved throughout the world.

Do more for your family. "In the field of family policies, not only can but we must do more": said Card. Tettamanzi, responding to a question on the difficult situation of families that emerged from the data released by Istat on 23 May.
"If the hope is that all support policies for the most needy are strengthened, all the more reason that family policies that are so indispensable to give respite to those in difficulty should be supported", he said, adding that "Italy does not shine as it could and as it should in this sector."
The cardinal then responded to another question on the situation of women, in the family and at work, maintaining that "from the teaching of John Paul II we can and must recover his prophetic appeal so that women are adequately supported and valued in their roles of mother and worker.
And, in the same way, a vision of enhancing the value of children must also be supported, for the good of the family and society". He then reiterated that the Church "continues to propose the Catholic position regarding 'the family' and not about 'the families'", although, referring to his interventions towards separated people, he recalled that "the Lord is close to those with a wounded heart".

Open up to the world. "The celebration of the world meeting will focus on three ways of renewing daily life: living relationships (family), living the world (work), humanizing time (celebration)": thus the auxiliary bishop of Milan, mgr. Franco Giulio Brambilla, who coordinated the work of drafting the preparatory catecheses, briefly explained the contents of the volume, presented to the Pope in recent days. "The catecheses - he said - try to unravel the common thread of the theme in the tension between family and society.
Civil life struggles to take into account the social ties that precede it and pushes the family into its apartment regime (in the sense of 'separating oneself', he underlined), while the family experience experiences its fragility and is particularly vulnerable in the face of social processes, especially those that impact your daily life, such as work and leisure.
Therefore the catecheses start from daily life to open it to the world, insisting on the family as a place of free bonds".