The Manila Times

Pope Francis: It is necessary to restore the social honor to fidelity of love

[The Holy Father’ s stirring address on October 21 during the general audience. It deals with the promises made between husbandand­wife. He said: “No other school can teach the truth of love if the family does not do it .” Translatio­n from theItalian­byZen

- FRANCIS

Dear Brothers and Sisters, good morning!

In the last meditation we reflected on the important promises that parents make to their children, when they were thought of in love and conceived in the womb. We can add that, looking at it well, the whole family reality is founded on a promise: think about this well: the family identity is founded on a promise. It can be said that the family lives from the promise of love and one another. This implies the commitment to receive and educate the children, but it is also carried out in taking care of elderly parents, in protecting and helping the weakest members of the family, in helping one one’s limitation­s.

And the conjugal promise extends to sharing the joys and sufferings of all fathers, mothers and children, in generous openness to all that is related to human coexistenc­e and the common good. A family that is shut of the promise that made it be born and that makes it live. Never forget the identity of the family; it is always a promise that extends and is extended to the whole family and also to the whole of humanity.

No one wants to be loved only for his goods or out of obligation

the promise of family life is very weak- ened. On one hand, by a misunderst­ood right to seek one’s own satisfacti­on, at all cost and in any relationsh­ip. It is exalted as a non-negotiable principle of freedom. On the other hand, because they rely exclusivel­y on the constricti­ons of the law in regard to the bonds of the life of relationsh­ip and of the commitment for the common good. However, in reality, no one wants to be loved only for his goods or out of obligation. Love, as well as friendship, owes its strength and beauty precisely to this fact: that it generates union without taking away freedom. Love is free; the promise of

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