There is a thread joining the last World Meeting of the Families in Mexico City (2009) and this Meeting in Milan: “The attitude of bishops, cardinals and the whole ecclesial community to give greater priority and attention to the pastoral care of the family and life”. It is the assessment made by Mgr. Rodrigo Aguilar Martinez, Bishop of Tehuacán and person responsible for the “Dimension for Life” of the Mexican Catholic Bishops’ Conference. Simona Mengascini met him on behalf of SIR in the pavilions of MICO where the event is taking place.
Laws in defence of life. In Mexico, one of the “fruits” of the 2009 World Meeting had been the laws to protect life from conception to natural death, which have been approved by 18 local parliaments. This increased sensitivity shown by the public institutions, though, had been somewhat counterbalanced by a law which, only in Mexico City, has maintained the illegality of abortion, as in the rest of the country, but does not consider child-bearing as “pregnancy” until the twelfth week, thus allowing de facto its interruption. Contradictions of “a society – said the bishop – in which the influence of relativism is very strong, but meanwhile there is a general weakening of the concepts of marriage, family and life and a widespread permissive and ultra-tolerant mentality which has eventually turned freedom into licentiousness”.
An intense secularism. The Mexican society is characterized by many ambiguities: “everyone feels an aspiration to the family, it is the institution which people trust the most”, but “the public opinion is very secular and anti-clerical, and it is possible to discuss some topics only in sociological, scientific, and legal terms, but one can never mention morality and the faith”. “This is why we are working hard on personal contacts and we encourage the laity to commit themselves for the defence, in the public institutions, of inalienable values”. In Mexico different types of family are spreading, and the number of people living alone is rising. “We would perhaps need more formation for our lay faithful – the pastor reflects – and even we as bishops have dedicated two of our general assemblies to the topic of the family”.
A Foundation for the Family. The Fundación Incluyendo Mexico deals with development, education, adults and poverty. “It deals with these issues from the perspective of the family – says its General Director Vicente Segú Marcos – because you cannot have development without considering the family, which is the only real provider of human capital to the benefit of society”. The director told us that a sector in which the foundation is most committed is education: “We supported the creation of interactive TV programs for children, which have been successful and contributed to reducing the rate of high school leaving by 65%”. In Mexico, for many years, “no one has taken care of the social fabric of the family, which has consequently frayed, and many children and women were left alone, because so many men have migrated to the U.S. to find a job”. On a political level, in the past, “there was a climate of letting people alone, and negotiating with organized crime, but now the situation has changed, the government is fighting the mafia and we shall not return to the attitude of compromise”.
(02 June 2012)
