Every human being, born into this word, has a fundamental right to family. A child, born of its parents, is supposed to be a welcome entrant into a family setting. Every adult has the right to the choice of marriage and to found a family.
Today, on the International Day of families, we wish every family a happy and homely existence.
We wish peace in broken hearts and homes. We wish prosperity in poor familes so that their members may enjoy the fulfilment of their needs.
Isn’t it a sad reality that many families break down, couples divorce at the least provocation or families are displaced by wars waged by ambitious and cruel statesmen? Wars in the African continent, war in Syria, war in Ukraine and the atrocious war of Netanyahu in Palestine! These manmade calamities destroy human lives and disorient family life.
The latest count in Gaza is 35,000 Palestinians killed, 14,000 children among them , thousands wounded, a million out on the streets as homeless persons and on the road to nowhere. Who thinks of their family life?
The Syrian civil war resulted in the deaths of about six hundred thousand people. Vladimir Putin’s Ukranian attack has caused over five hundred thousand deaths. Many homes and families have been destroyed and people are migrants without proper family life.
As long as cruel rulers sit and fiddle, their agents are on a warpath.
Pope Francis, addressing the Plenary Session of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, stresses the importance of human lives and family life. He noted that “social changes are altering the living conditions of marriage and families all over the world,” and that “prolonged and multiple crises” are putting a strain on family life.
Who cares? Even the responsible world body like the UN is powerless to arrest the path of the cruel rulers whose sole obsession is power.
“Family is a life jacket in the stormy sea of life.” – J.K. Rowling