Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Lima (Agenzia Fides) - The Catholic long-distance learning program, Cirilus, which is available on-line, is offering a new course beginning in April called, “Marriage and Family.” The course is an educational opportunity meant to promote a rediscovery of the true worth of the vocation and sacrament of marriage and discuss the main challenges faced by the family today. This was what one of the project’s coordinators, Luisa Fernanda Puerta, explained in a statement made to Agenzia Fides.
“Although marriage is a fairly widely-addressed topic, it is often presented in a negative light, especially in publications that deform its true meaning and reduce it to the mere living out of daily activities, turning it into just another lifestyle or perverting it into the union of any two people - no matter their gender - who decide to live together,” the statement said. With these challenges, Cirilus wishes to present a course based on the Magisterial documents of the Church and contributions from other authors, as well as experiences and formation from a married couple, members of “Nazareth” - an association of the Christian Life Movement - that seeks to form married couples into holy families, through a formation program made up of a series of periodical meetings.
The course is geared towards people who are interested in learning more about the vocation to marriage and openness to life; people who work with pre-marriage couples and those working in the area of vocational discernment; couples preparing for marriage, and for spouses who wish to enrich their daily life and discover the value of their vocation.
The course’s objectives are: understand the vocation to marriage as a path to holiness that God has desired since man’s beginning, understand the importance of marriage as a sacrament; discover that the essence of conjugal love is in the sincere gift of self; to give clear criteria for defending openness to life and seeing children as the greatest gift in a marriage; and to discover the mission of marriage and the family within God’s plan.
Some of the themes that will be discussed are: Marriage, A God-Given Vocation; Marital Life: Communion, Conjugal Love, Chastity, and Other Virtues; Children and Openness to Life: Contraception, Family Planning, and Infertility from a Christian Perspective; Challenges: The Mission of Marriage and the Family Today. The course begins April 24 and will last 4 weeks. (RG) (Agenzia Fides 18/4/2008; righe 32, parole 389)
