CISF Report 2020: "The family in the post-family society"
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According to the 2020 Report of the International Center for Family Studies (CISF) "The family in the post-family society", the future will be increasingly marked by the impoverishment of the family presence in the sense in which previous generations have known it.
«Current society - explained Francesco Belletti, director of the CISF, in presenting the report - increasingly seems to abandon the family to the self-determination of individuals». This process seems unstoppable, up to the idea of thinking of a society where the family would seem to evaporate and appear without identity.
In our country, from the survey carried out, two very strong polarities emerge on which various family models are based: on the one hand the family as an institution and on the other the family centered on relationships. The first reflects the traditional family, that of the past, the second typology is the family of future generations. There is, then, a good group of families located in the center between the two blocks, represented by a fifth of the sample, mostly young and middle-aged families, with high education and good socio-economic status.
In truth, the report does not tend towards discouragement, in its final analysis it does not represent the end of an institution. What comes to light is the tendency for his resistance to fade, which seems to have reached a critical point: the family is still there, but for how long? And who will support its future?
«The family, as a family, has been abandoned to itself, to give space to an individual aimed at experiencing all the freedoms of the possible otherwise. Over time the individual will understand that the family is not an aggregate of individuals who are together only because they find pleasure, but is a commitment to a project of human relationships. Appeals to altruism, brotherhood, understanding, solidarity and responsibility are important, but alone they cannot do much. Families as such will have to struggle to find their identity. They will have to build a new family order, which in any case will be an order built on the brink of chaos."
But precisely in the chaos designated by Covid, which made us all feel in the same boat, it emerged with renewed clarity that «the family is the first place of custody and protection of the human being, and at the same time an indispensable resource of social cohesion and responsibility towards the common good: a social capital that is practically impossible to replace".
To combat the virus, Italian society has in some way relied above all on internal family relationships which have proven, in the vast majority majority of Italian families, a precious resource for the new generations.
Italy's restart, the organizers of the report hope, will necessarily also have to start from the ability to support families and their relationships, as the social fabric that holds a people together, which has proven essential for balance and social stability.
Data:
- 25,8 million families present in Italy. According to Istat data, 26,8 million in 2038 but childless couples (+2,7%) and single people (+2,2%) will increase.
- 9 million couples with children. In 2040 they will drop to 7-8 million.
- 8,2 million families made up of a single person. In 2040 they will rise to 9,1-10,1 million
- 37% people between 25 and 34 who remain in the family as children. Twenty-five years ago the percentage was 24%
- 33% women with children between 25 and 34 years old. Twenty-five years ago the percentage exceeded 50%
- 57% men between 25 and 34 years old who in 2038 will show the propensity to remain in the family as a "son" (women will be 47%)
Carlo Acutis: a computer saint
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For the first time since the beatification which took place last Saturday, the Church celebrates on October 12 the liturgical memory of Carlo Acutis, who used the Internet to teach the world about love for the Eucharist. Fortunato Ammendolia, computer scientist and artificial intelligence expert: "he has left us a great teaching as a gift: using the internet in an ethical sense"
The life of this fifteen-year-old shows that following the path of holiness is possible especially when one is young and determined "not to find gratification only in ephemeral successes, but - underlines Cardinal Vallini - in the perennial values that Jesus suggests in the Gospel, that is : putting God first, in the large and small circumstances of life, and serving our brothers, especially the least."
The beatification of Carlo Acutis, son of the land of Lombardy, and in love with the land of Francis of Assisi, is good news, a strong announcement that a boy of our time, one like many, has been conquered by Christ and has become a beacon of light for those who want to know him and follow his example.
Witness to a faith that immerses us completely in life, showing us the path we can follow as Carlo did because only on that path can our life "shine with light and hope".
Carlo Acutis also leaves a legacy to all the world's computer scientists and young digital natives. A real compass to follow scrupulously: “Pope Francis – explains Fortunato Ammendolia – presenting him as a model of holiness in the digital age, inPost-synodal encyclical Christus vivit, writes that Carlo knew very well that the mechanisms of communication and social networks can be used to make us sleepy subjects. However, he knew how to use them to convey the beauty of the Gospel. Well, I like to read this sentence as an invitation to ethical use of the internet."
Even if different, all brothers
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«Fratelli tutti» is the expression of Saint Francis that Pope Bergoglio uses to open his third encyclical letter and which therefore gives the title to the entire text on fraternity.
Let's remember the first two were «Lumen fidei» in 2013 and «Laudato si'» in 2015.
Document of eight chapters, divided into 287 points. A document evidently inspired by the figure of Saint Francis, and by the meetings he had with exponents of other religions, as well as by the letters that reached him from all over the world. This is why Pope Francis decided to address not only the Church but "all people of good will". In the background, Bergoglio reveals, there is also what the entire planet has experienced and is experiencing with Covid-19, an obstacle to true brotherhood, but which has made us remember how «no one saves themselves, that we can save only together."
Pope Francis recalls in his analysis of current affairs that there are many social, cultural phenomena and economic interests that risk pitting us "all against all". And in this tension the weakest are left on the sidelines. Technological and information means also risk creating divisions if they do not help to build an "us" but take individualism to the extreme.
In the proactive part, the Pope chose the parable of the Good Samaritan to point the way and build an authentic brotherhood between individuals and peoples.