The Federation of Catholic Family Associations in Europe (FAFCE) insists on the need to ensure “adequate protection” of the family “at the social, judicial and economic levels” in the document released on the occasion of the 20^th anniversary of its foundation and today’s audience with Pope Francis. Specific reference is made to the need to reconcile work and family life and to provide specific protection to working women in the event of maternity. The text issued by FAFCE also calls on the governments of European countries to see the family as a subject of rights; to “acknowledge and protect the uniqueness of marriage as a union between a man and a woman for the good of the spouses and their children”; to promote and design “national family policies and to implement family-friendly actions” in the European Union while respecting in particular the “subsidiarity principle and national competences in family law”. Then again attention is drawn to the reconciliation of work and family life, the unemployment of young people and the conditions to create their own family, the education of children. Family relations should serve as a “model for cooperation between nations in Europe and across the world”.