Culture weakening family foundation, Benedict says at year's last Angelus

VATICAN CITY (Catholic Online) - Contemporary culture continues to pressure the family today, undermining its foundation as a social institution, said Pope Benedict XVI in one the last public messages of 2006.

In Dec. 31 remarks delivered from his apartment window overlooking St. Peter's Square to tens of thousands pilgrims and tourists gathered here, the pope said that the family is "a living cell" of society and the Catholic Church and serves as "a sign and instrument of unity for all mankind." "With joy," the pontiff said in the last Angelus message of the first full year of his pontificate, "I greet all the families of the world, wishing them the peace and love which Jesus gave us, coming among us at Christmas." He pointed to "the holy family of Nazareth" as "the prototype of each Christian family," which is united together through the sacrament of marriage, fed the word of God and the Eucharist and called to realize its "vocation and mission" to be a sign and instrument for "unity for all mankind." Jesus learned from the example of his parents about "the beauty of faith, of love for God and for his law, the pope said. "From them, he learned in the first place that God's will be done and that spiritual ties are worth more than blood ties." Pope Benedict called for the protection of Mary and Joseph for "each family, especially for those in difficulty." "May they support them so that they will be able to resist the disintegrative pressures of a certain contemporary culture that undermines the very foundations of the institution of the family," he said, offering a prayer that Christian families throughout the world would be "a living image of the love of God." In his holiday greetings offered in several languages, Pope Benedict told pilgrims in English that "our hearts turn today to all those for whom family life is marred by sadness, tragedy or violence." In an early evening Vespers service on New Year's Eve, the pope gave thanks for his safety during his recent pilgrimage to Turkey and prayed for peace throughout the world in the coming year. "For all the benefits that the eternal father has accorded us during the last year," the pope said, let all "sing in the certain hope of future good." "That which is impossible for men, becomes possible for those who believe," Benedict said in his homily at the year end service in St. Peter's Basilica, praying for "peace, comfort, justice." The pope noted that his thoughts that day turned to "that unforgettable visit" to Turkey Nov. 28-Dec.1. "How can I not express my filial gratitude to the holy mother of God for the special protection that she granted to me in those days of grace?" the pope said. He pointed to secular New Year's celebrations that are "often carried out as an escape from reality" that seek not to call upon God for help but to wish for "unlikely fortunes." The Catholic Church dedicates Jan. 1 as the feast of Mary, Mother of God, and the World Peace Day, a theme that was expected to figure prominently in Benedict's homily during New Year's Day Mass in St. Peter's Basilica.

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