EUROPE/RUSSIAN FEDERATION - Catholic Archbishop in Moscow assures full support to pro-family efforts by Catholic faithful and Bishops in Spain because what is at stake is ‘the family as God created it’

Moscow (Fides Service) - On June 18 in Madrid Catholics from all over Spain will take part in a pro-family demonstration organised by the Spanish Family Forum to protest against the proposed amendments to the law to equal same sex unions to marriages and allow same sex ‘parents’ to adopt children. The pro-family demonstration has the full support of the Spanish Bishops’ Conference.
“Tragic is the only word with which I can describe the news that the Spanish government indents to change the law on marriage” Catholic Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz of the Mother of God archdiocese in Moscow, Russia, told Fides. “It is scarcely believable how something like this can even be considered in a Catholic country such as Spain with an age old Christian tradition where the Gospel has been proclaimed for centuries and a nation which has given the Church so many mystics. I therefore give full support to the efforts of Spain’s Catholic laity and Bishops”.
“What is at stake here is the family as God created it” Archbishop Kondrusiewicz told Fides. “We must ask ourselves what sort of upbringing can be guaranteed to children who are denied the right to have a mother and a father? What will be the future of society ? We can never overestimate the important and determinant role of the mother in the education of children and, not least, in the handing on of the faith. Here in Russia we say the mother is the first to make the sign of the cross on her child’s forehead. And I myself have experienced the importance of the mother for the faith in the times of atheism imposed by the state”.
With regard to Church activities to promote the family the Archbishop underlines the importance of ecumenical and inter-religious efforts: “This question is at the heart of all religions, Christians, Catholics and Orthodox, and also Muslims because the family is of unique value. Therefore it is necessary to harness the efforts of all the Churches and religions in this sense”.
Archbishop Kondrusiewicz speaks of the threats to Russian families today. “The difficulties we encounter are different: first of all the increase in the rate of divorce with the consequent break up of the family. At the moment about 50% of marriages in Russia end in divorce and among young couples the rate is 70%. Another problem which denotes a crisis in families is the growing number of street children estimated unofficially at between 1 and 3 million. The future of our society and our families is threatened by a falling birth rate. Every year the population diminishes by 800,000 units as births fail to compensate deaths”. The Catholic Archbishop in Moscow closes with an appeal: “As Catholics we must work with all the Churches to defend and promote education to the values of the family!”. (MS) (Agenzia Fides, 16/06/2005 - 34 righe, 422 parole)