Buenos Aires, Argentina, Sep 5, 2013 / 15:04 pm
Archbishop Andres Stanovnik of Corrientes has said Argentines need to return to living their faith, because a weak faith life has led to a crisis in marriage and to a lack of respect for human life.
"We need to look for deepest symptoms of the crisis of Christian marriage and the family in the weakening of the life of faith," the Archbishop of Corrientes, in northern Argentina not far from Paraguay, said Aug. 29 at a Catholic congress on the family.
"This fragility comes after a gradual loss of the Christian understanding of life, in this case of conjugal and family life, caused by multiple factors, including a certain inconsistency in Christian formation, and as a consequence, the scarce practice of the life of faith."
Archbishop Stanovnik said this weakening of the life of faith is also bearing consequences for priestly and religious life.
When there is a decrease in one's faith life, "instead of expanding, life folds in upon itself … enthusiasm for the mission, which entails going out to meet others, leaving one's own shore and 'putting out into the deep,' also suffers."
"Reviving the faith means giving it a new vitality," he continued, "because faith is above all a gift and not a product of pastoral strategies. We need to ask for it. Both Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis agree on the primordial importance of prayer and adoration."
He encouraged an observation of "the multitude of 'small' virtues of daily life," as well as a renewal in family ministry to help families cultivate and pass on Christian values and learn to love and to be loved.