Bishops Issue a Joint Pastoral Letter for the Family

Seoul (AsiaNews) – Beginning the season of Advent from November 28, 2004, a pastoral letter for the family was made public by the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Korea, titled "Family, Place of Love and Life," in which the bishops pointed out the crisis of family in Korean society and urged the faithful to make efforts for the evangelization and sanctification of the family.

Composed of 83 paragraphs in three chapters, the 33-page Letter was first planned at the 2004 Spring General Assembly of the CBCK and also inspired by the Eighth Plenary Assembly of the Federation of Asian Bishops' Conferences held in Korea in August 2004.

In the Letter, bishops expressed deep concern over the family crisis, saying, "Today our families face serious problems, such as lost meaning of marriage itself, trend of open sexuality, preference to single lifestyle, increasing live-in couples, domestic violence and juvenile delinquents." Thus, they emphasized that every family should positively participate in the work to recover the injured and broken families.

"Based on the awareness that the agent of sanctification and evangelization of the family is family itself, all families should struggle to become the community of communion and love," the Letter said.

It also made practical suggestions, including to develop and operate family programs by establishing institutes or facilities for family ministry in the Church, to promote Small Christian Communities focused on the family, to train pastoral worker for the family ministry, to offer special pastoral care to the divorced, remarried, and single-parent families and families afflicted with domestic violence.

The CBCK will publish the Letter in the form of booklet and distribute to parishes, asking them to be dedicated to family ministry for the sanctification of family, especially the Catholic families.

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