Today a press conference was held at the Vatican press office with the participation of Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, president of the Pontifical Council for the Family, Helen Alvare, professor of law in the United States, and Francesco D’Agostino, an Italian jurist, to present the international work-conference on “The Rights of the Family and the Challenges of the Contemporary World”, underway through Saturday.
In his address, Archbishop Paglia described the family as the subject of rights which are strictly related to the rights of the individual; “indeed, the family is a communion of persons, and its self-realisation depends to a significant degree on the correct application of the rights of those who compose this unit. Some of these rights are directly related to the family, such as the right of parents to responsible procreation and the education of their offspring; other rights, instead, relate to the nuclear family only indirectly”.
The archbishop emphasised that the Charter of the Rights of the Family, 30 years after its publication, is unfortunately still a “little-known document”, despite being “a prophetic appeal in favour of the institution of the family, which should be respected and defended from all forms of usurpation”.
He added that the Pontifical Council wished to convene an international conference, linked to the Association of Italian Catholic Jurists, to “return to the inspiration for these principles. It is true that we find ourselves in a new cultural context that questions the institution of the family even more radically than in the past. But the validity of the principles gathered and ordered in the Charter stands firm to this day”.
