As\nleaders from around the world raise their voices on the crisis that so far has\ninfected at least two and a half million people and killed nearly 170,000, the\nwords of Cardinal Robert Sarah, a top Vatican official, ring out with compelling\nclarity and insight: In an interview on April 13, he observed, \u201cThis virus\nacted as a warning. In a matter of weeks, the great illusion of a material\nworld that thought itself all-powerful seems to have collapsed\u2026. A virus, a\nmicroscopic virus, has brought this world to its knees\u2026. The economy has\ncollapsed and the stock markets are crashing. Bankruptcies are everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Suddenly,\ncontinued the cardinal, the word \u201cepidemic,\u201d previously \u201can outdated, medieval\nword,\u201d is in everyday usage to describe a phenomenon wreaking catastrophe\nacross the globe\u2014while at the same time opening our eyes to dangerously forgotten\nrealities. \u201cThis epidemic has dispelled the smoke of illusion. The so-called\nall-powerful man appears in his raw reality\u201d with all \u201chis weakness and\nvulnerability\u2026 Being confined to our homes will hopefully allow us to turn our\nattention back to the essentials\u2026.\nWhen everything collapses, only the bonds of marriage, family and friendship\nremain.\u201d And \u201cabove all, we have rediscovered that we are dependent on God.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This timeless truth about family has been emphasized\nby sages through the ages, as expressed by the likes of Confucius when he\ndeclared that only when the ancients \u201cregulated their families\u201d were\n\u201ctheir states\u2026 put into proper order,\u201d whereupon \u201cthe whole world became\npeaceful and happy.\u201d Or Cicero when he observed that \u201cthe family, itself the\nbasic natural human association in which all things are held in common, is the\nfoundation of the city and the nursery of the state.\u201d Or Winston Churchill when\nhe insisted that \u201cit is around the family and the home that all the greatest\nvirtues, the most dominating virtues of human society, are created,\nstrengthened and maintained.\u201d Or the wise drafters of the Universal Declaration\nof Human Rights when they called the family \u201cthe natural and fundamental group\nunit of society\u201d and \u201centitled to protection by society and the State.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
With so many throughout the world now confined\nto home, never has there been a more opportune time to strengthen the family\nand provide the protection to which it is entitled, especially in light of what\nPope Francis warned before COVID-19 became a reality: \u201cMarriage\nand the family are in crisis. This revolution in manners and morals has often\nflown the flag of freedom but in fact it has brought spiritual and material\ndevastation to countless human beings.\u201d Never has the work of the International\nOrganization for the Family been more urgent. We invite you to join us at this\ncritical time. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
With so many throughout the world now confined to home, never has there been a more opportune time to strengthen the family and provide the protection to which it is entitled.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":14825,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"mc4wp_mailchimp_campaign":[],"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"subtitle":"With so many throughout the world now confined to home, never has there been a more opportune time to strengthen the family and provide the protection to which it is entitled.","format":"standard","video":"","gallery":"","source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override":[{"single_blog_custom":"","sidebar":"","second_sidebar":"","share_position":"","share_float_style":"","post_date_format":"","post_date_format_custom":"","post_reading_time_wpm":"","zoom_button_out_step":"1","zoom_button_in_step":"1","number_popup_post":"1"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"","single_post_gallery_size":""}],"trending_post_position":"","trending_post_label":""},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":""},"jnews_social_meta":{"fb_title":"","fb_description":"","fb_image":"","twitter_title":"","twitter_description":"","twitter_image":""},"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[804,510,805],"tags":[1587,911,427],"class_list":["post-14584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","category-family","category-foreground","tag-covid-19","tag-family","tag-marriage"],"yoast_head":"\n