May 15, 2006 / 22:00 pm
During a Mass in Valencia in preparation for the World Meeting of Families in July, the Archbishop of Toledo, Cardinal Antonio Cañizares, said the refusal to appropriately support the family is “irresponsible and suicidal” and would lead to “crisis and destruction of incalculable consequences.”
“Society today has the unavoidable duty to protect and defend the foundation of the family, which is the exclusive and indissoluble marriage between a man and a woman based on love and open to life,” the cardinal said in his homily.
In encouraging the Spanish to “overcome and renew the dominant culture that is spread by the extremely powerful media, which shamefully opposes the true requirements of the family,” Cardinal Cañizares emphasized the duty to ensure the family has the benefit of the “legal, economic, educational and labor means it needs to be able to carry out the mission that corresponds to its very nature and truth.”
The cardinal expressed his thanks and appreciation to all those who are working hard to prepare for the V World Meeting of Families, which will take place in Valencia, Spain, July 1-9, and will be attended by Pope Benedict XVI.