VATICAN - "Strong families are our best defense against poverty": meeting on the role of the family in the global economic crisis

Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - Around 150 people from the Vatican, Caritas organisations, pontifical universities, religious congregations and Italian dioceses will gather in Rome on 18th September to discuss “The Family: a resource to overcome the crisis.”
The initiative was organized by Caritas Internationalis and the Pontifical Council for the Family. The meeting will look at how Caritas as the charitable arm of the Church can work through families to better promote development.
The outcome of the meeting will form a basis for proposals to the upcoming Extraordinary General Assembly Synod of Bishops on the family.
Cardinal Oscar Rodríguez Maradiaga, president of Caritas Internationalis, will open the meeting. He said, “The economic crisis has increased inequality and exclusion. With so many challenges, our blood families, our global human family and our spiritual family have become more important than ever in ensuring we don’t fall into loneliness and desperation. Where economic and social systems fail, the solidarity and protection of families are the best defence against poverty.”
The seminar will look at the psychological effects of the economic crisis, migration and the pastoral and spiritual approaches for facing the challenges of the crisis, among other things. The financial crisis which started in 2008 has pushed millions of families into poverty. In many countries there are fewer jobs and families even in wealthier countries are finding it increasingly hard to feed themselves.
Caritas organisations in many countries offer a variety of services such as food and clothes banks, counselling, loans, job training, healthcare and lodging to help people to cope with the crisis. (AP) (Agenzia Fides 13/09/2014)