Letter of the Archbishop of Valencia about the family (25-11-2004)

Valencia - The Archbishop of Valencia, Agustin Garcia-Gasco stated in his letter of this week that "The family is fundamental to marriage and is the future of humanity". He added that "family is the right bet for good politics, because laws that attack the family bring about the silent death of the people."

In reference to the current situation, he expressed that the Church cannot remain impassive to this irresponsible method of governing. Furthermore, on the contrary, "It must encourage with great determination that marriage and family occupy the social and political space that they deserve" because "without communities there are no governments, there are no states: there is only a libertarian society and the law of the jungle."

He remembers that the family, based on marriage is a "natural reality prior to the State, it is not a legislative or cultural product, not even a religious creation but a natural institution." The legislation "is not the creator of matrimony as it is not the creator of society nor of people." That is why the State "must acknowledge, respect, protect and promote the matrimonial institution and it lacks sovereignty and is not entitled to determine what the essence of matrimony is", stated the Archbishop.

However, "unfortunately, all these obvious statements do not seem to be in the minds of a large number of present day intellectuals and politicians." He describes how "we are now facing a dramatic reality; the State is weakening families, despising them and abusing them." Monsignor Garcia-Gasco refers to other methods of co-existence, unsteady couples, who do not constitute matrimony nor can be put on the same level with it. Besides creating a "destructive confusion of society," the laws being processed "only intend to destroy married couples in order to make them become unsteady couples," the Archbishop states. He regrets that "frivolity or pure political animosity" around families impedes "homosexual people from facing their problems" and also "alters dramatically the concept of matrimony."

In the same way, nowadays, instead of helping to solve family matters, "rapid mechanisms to annul matrimony are designed without regard to prevention or non-traumatic family re-composition." In addition, "the problems with juvenile violence and civil education are not faced, nor are measurements devoted to helping parents and teachers carry out and promote their educational duties." Lastly, the archbishop also says that "Catholic families are being denied an education in harmony with their principles and are even denied the right to the dignity of classes in religion."

The Archbishop concludes his letter stating that "it is impossible to see that all these measurements as a whole are a continuous attack on the family and society."