To help get at the root of these problems, the Holy Father in the first years of his pontificate created a university institution dedicated to marriage and the family.
His plan to announce it officially on May 13, 1981, was shattered that day by the attempt on his life. But since then, the John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family has gone on to form a generation of priests, religious and lay people, including many married couples, with a range of advanced degrees in theology with a focus on marriage and family, bioethics and pastoral studies.
The principal center of the institute is at the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome, directly dependent on the Holy See. A second center was founded in Washington, D.C., in 1988. Five years later, a center was started in Mexico, which now has branches in Mexico City and Guadalajara. A center in Valencia, Spain, was founded in 1995.
The institutes together have about 1,000 students, 214 professors and 2,800 alumni.
For more information, see the Web page http://www.pul.it/gp2.htm.
