From time to time the Church has been accused of not doing enough to stem the unrelenting tide of crime in the nation. It is a reminder to the Church that it has to continually seek creative ways of making its message heard.

During this week, the Pontifical Council for the Family will host the Fifth World Meeting of Families, in Valencia, Spain. In nine assemblies the meeting will reflect on the teaching of the Church on the family, review the present state of the family and allow for dialogue on the role of the family.

At the heart of these assemblies is the understanding that the family is the first and principal transmitter of the faith. In one of the prepared papers for the meeting, the Council affirms that the Pope and the bishops are the ones principally responsible for bringing God’s salvation to people of all times and cultures. But it reminds participants “every Christian faithful also takes part in this responsibility by virtue of the prophetic mission he or she received from Christ in Baptism.”

It is the Christian family, the “domestic Church”that “becomes the first and principal institution” for passing on the faith to our children.

Important questions for the Catholic family today which the meeting will consider are whether the family sees itself as a transmitter of the faith or ignores or relinquishes its mission and whether Christian families are aware that to succeed in their mission they must have on-going contact and dialogue with the parish.

Seed of Faith

The family cannot act as though it was a “self-sufficient or autonomous institution” in passing on the faith, states the Council, but also “the recovery of a vigorous, evangelising Church passes by way of the restoration of the family as the basic institution for transmitting the faith.”

The Church needs its families if it is to recognise and fulfill its mission but Christian families also need the life of the parish if they are to achieve their ultimate end and influence society in positive ways.

The Valencia meeting and the areas of discussion are important not simply for the Church, of course. The quality of family life determines the kind of society our children will inhabit.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that, “the family is the original cell of social life.” And again, “the importance of the family for the life and well-being of society entails a particular responsibility for society” (2207, 2210).

Last year a small group of parishioners in Santa Rosa took the initiative to plant, as they say, “a seed of faith, without then, being fully conscious of that fact”.

What started out as a way of giving support to catechists in the parish has evolved into a resource centre which is helping young people, children and adults to learn about the faith even as it serves as a means of providing that connection between families and the Church.

The Seed of Faith and centres of its kind are vital if the Church is to sustain itself and fulfill its mission in the present environment.