Killing the "normal" family: suicide of politicians and society
Milan (AsiaNews) - The VII World Meeting of Families drew to an end yesterday after a week that saw families from over 150 countries, many of them Asian, come together. The theme of the meeting, at the time chosen by Benedict XVI is "Family: Work and Celebration". The Theological-Pastoral Congress that began the week with wide spread reflections on the biblical foundations of the unity between man and woman, on the procreation of children, as well as the blessing of work ("stewardship of the earth Genesis 2.15) on the celebration and the rest of God and man (Genesis 2.2). From here, different speakers - and above all Benedict XVI, who intervened in the concluding days of the Meeting - have traced some consequences such as the importance of striking a balance between time to devote to work and family, or the value of rest from work and on Sunday, which many States want abolish in the name of trade and production "h24x7".
That there is a contrast between utilitarianism, which has maximum profit as an ideal, and the Christian faith, which puts man at the centre of its concerns, is quite well known. But what struck me throughout the meeting is that the Christian position was defended and underlined with the scientific and sociological topics.
Thanks to research by prof. Pierpaolo Donati, University of Bologna, one learns, for example, that the very "normal" family, the most maligned and now considered a relic of the past - that of faithful union between a man and a woman, with two or more children - makes people "most happy" and also spreads this happiness in the workplace and in society. The children of the families of this type are more stable from a psychological standpoint, less driven to crime, more generous, more capable of solidarity with others. In contrast, as shown by research in other countries, where the attempt to destroy the "normal" family is more advanced, in France children raised without fathers are 80% of those hospitalized in psychiatry; 50% of drug users and those who achieve less in school. In the U.S., fatherless children are 63% of youth suicides, 72% of adolescent murderers, 60% of rapists, 85% of young prison inmates[1].
No better for same-sex couples: gay male couples register twice the rates of domestic violence as heterosexual couples, in lesbian couples women show a high percentage of psychological problems (75% of them received psychiatric treatment), paedophilia for 10% of adult male homosexuals, 29% of their children have been sexually abused (for the children of heterosexual couples, the percentage is of 0.6). And all this without speaking of unmarried couples - 6 times more fragile than married couples without children - and the poverty that affects divorced women with children.
Without wanting to blame or marginalize anyone for their choices, or tendencies, it must be said that the "normal" family really is the basis of a lively social network that embraces children and the elderly; creates friendship and solidarity with our neighbours in the world of work, creates less public order problems. In a world like ours where "human capital", the ability of positive imagination, to work as a team, with a passion for knowledge (and therefore of selfless love and caring, source of love for study), if society is to survive, then the this type of "normal" family must be helped.
One wonders why, instead, in our so-called "Christian"world, the family is penalized by higher taxes, by rigid work hours, denial of motherhood, from a morbid tendency to embrace "different families" and contempt for traditional ones.
For many sociologists it is now startlingly clear that all publicity given over to women's independence and divorce, as well as gay and lesbian lifestyles is the result of a utilitarian calculus that emphasizes the individual and consumption: the more people are alone , the more they have to buy the essentials, increasing purchases. But it is also clear that in this way society risks mass suicide. "Politicians who are only looking for votes - the pontiff said at the vigil of the families at Bresso North Park - should become more responsible for the good of all."
[1] To see all of this data. P.DONATI (ed.), The Family Resource Company, Mulino, Bologna, 2012, p. 37-38.
.png)
