‘WE should communicate the family as the good news, as gospel…. Let the Filipino family proclaim that our wealth, our joy, is our family.”
Archbishop of Manila Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle made this statement in his keynote address at the recent 37th Catholic Mass Media Awards (CMMA), whose theme is “Communicating the Family: A Privileged Place of Encounter with a Gift of Love.”
The CMMA conferred awards on 58 mass-media workers, both individual and institutional.
Among those awarded was Ambassador Antonio L. Cabangon Chua, CMMA chairman and president, with a Special Award for Devoted Service to the Church through the Mass Media. Cabangon Chua has been president and chairman of the CMMA Foundation since 2000, when he was named to the post by the late Jaime L. Cardinal Sin, founder of the CMMA.
Tagle said Pope Francis said we should communicate the family as good news.
“It is a good news that should run in our blood,” Tagle said in his speech, mostly in Filipino.
He said that in the Bible, from the first to the last book, the family is present.
“Pope Francis said Christ is a member of a family, of Joseph and Mary. That is why the family has the love of the Son of God. This is what we should communicate.”
So, in order to make the family a good news, the family and the society should be put in order—caring for the common good, honorable and truthful.
However, he said the family has many challenges. There is poverty, violence, war, drugs, lack of food, water and education, human trafficking, violence against women and many others.
He said the family is also suffering owing to forced migration, where the parents have to work abroad, such as in Hong Kong or Saudi Arabia, and the children are just left in the care of relatives “with no parents.”
In analyzing the family, the society should also be analyzed, Tagle said.
“Let us challenge the society. What did you do to the family? Let us not use the family in committing fraud, corruption or organized crimes,” Tagle said, adding that the family is oftentimes used as an excuse in committing such crimes.
He also called the attention of the barangays (villages), parishes and dioceses to become big families and care for the homeless, so that those who would look for one would say, “I belong to a home. I belong to a family.”
Tagle said after the Synod of Bishops last month at the Vatican, he was sent to a refugee camp in Greece, where he saw the refugees from Afghanistan and Syria and other countries who had no other belongings, except for the clothes they were wearing.
“All they have were their families—the most important [belonging], their only treasure,” he said.
When he asked a teenager-refugee where his family is, Tagle said he replied: “‘I left my family in Syria.’ It was like the family said, ‘OK you go and escape [the armed violence]. It is important that you are saved.’”
In the refugee camp, Tagle said he saw fathers were already very tired, but they are still playing with their children. “They care for their children so much.” Underlining the importance of the family, Tagle said: “Let’s not wait for tragedy to strike our family. Let us tell our family, ‘You are the good news.’”
Image credits: Stephanie Tumampos