Bucaramanga (Colombia), 06/01/2022, Sr. Maria Eugenia Ardila Rueda.- The International Day of Families, celebrated every year on 15 May, was proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in its resolution 47/237 of 20 September 1993, with the aim of raising awareness of family issues and fostering family ties, given the importance of family ties in the development of children.
Pope Francis: "The family is a precious treasure. It must always be sustained and protected"
He advises "to recover communication in the family, not like children who chat with their mobile phones at the table". On the feast of the Holy Family, whose Gospel of the day recounts the flight to Egypt to escape the attempted murder of the infant Jesus by King Herod, Pope Francis has assured that Jesus, in escaping with Mary and Joseph, "he is in solidarity with all the families of the world, forced into exile, with all those forced to leave their own land because of repression, violence and war.”
ANALYSIS OF THE REALITY OF FAMILIES
FAMILY INSTABILITY
"The family, commonly catalogued as the cell of society, is currently in an acute crisis as a consequence of the lack of personal, emotional and spiritual maturity on the part of the parents, which ends up having a negative impact on the children who live in these homes".
In research by Child Trends, Social Trends Institute and eight universities around the world, including the Universidad de la Sabana for Colombia.
They analysed indicators from 49 countries, including our country, and their picture is not the best:
- 55% of Colombia's children live with adults other than their parents, this makes them vulnerable to violence, overcrowding and abuse
- 11% live without parents;
- 84% of babies are born to single mothers.
It is the country with the highest growth of free unions with a percentage of 35%. Only 19% have stable marriages
A very marked fact in Colombia is that domestic violence against women is one of the main reasons for the separation of couples.
The psychologist Victoria Cabrera, professor at the Family Institute of the Sabana University, says that one of the causes of so many separations is that people do not want to assume their family responsibilities.
Other cases are due to the conflict in Colombia, where there are parents who die beforehand, or who have to move to work in other cities.
Regarding the dimension of marriage, Professor Salazar says, "people do not realise the responsibility and depth that it means to share a whole life with a person, they do not value what marriage means, many people take it for the economic aspect, and not for its dimension as an institution of a sacred nature, designed by God".
The American psychologist Alvin Witten in his book "The New Family" says that the issue is not so much that people do not want to get married, but that it is becoming increasingly difficult for them to find a partner who is suited to their personal interests.
IN CONCLUSION
Why?
It is in the home that socialisation skills are usually learned, conflict resolution and forgiveness are worked on.
Campo dos- Tibu - ColombiaWHAT CAN WE DO?
EDUCATE
- Educate in morality
- Strengthen the bonds of affection between parent and child.
- Have authority that generates self-esteem
- Take into account the model
(Diocesan Delegation of Family Pastoral Care - Tibu.)
Prayer for families
you placed your only begotten Son, our Saviour, in a family.
a family. Not just any family.
But in an outcast family, a family that was so easily overlooked.
inn, a family that had to flee oppression and murderous brigades.
murderous brigades. A family that was forced to flee
Loving God, it was your will that your beloved son and our Saviour
our Saviour Jesus would choose the most humiliated and forsaken
and from among them to choose his closest friends and messengers.
Help us to hear their voices of supplication and see their situation.
Give us the grace of conversion.
Give us the eyes to see and the ears to listen
to the families suffering the consequences of climate change,
those whose fields have become a desert,
those whose livelihoods have been threatened by heat, rising waters and hurricanes,
rising waters and hurricanes.
May your Holy Spirit give us the courage and grace to judge.
Help us to act, to act prophetically.
Give us the words to accompany others in their ecological conversion.
Help us to be instruments of your peace,
so that we may be your hands and feet in our world,
in our countries, in our regions,
in our communities, in our neighborhoods and in ourselves.
Build and repair Your gift to us,
knowing that we are one family dwelling in a common home.
For You are Emmanuel, God with us.
Amen.