05 October 2014 St. Maria Faustina Kowalska Comments | Letters to the editor | Church | Life | Family | Headings | Dossier | World Who we are | Subscriptions | Contacts Chronicle | Politics | Culture | Economy | Shows | Sport | Science & Technology | Video | Photo BOLOGNA | CASERTA | MILAN | ROME Avvenire Home Page > Church > What words to educate in postmodernity Church The themes of the synod What words to educate in postmodernity Luciano Moia 2 October 2014 Facebook twitter google + mail font print "How can we pass on to our children the reference values that have guided our lives? How to find the right words to explain to them the difference between good and evil in a cultural climate where everything seems blurred, confused, difficult to distinguish? And, above all, how to accompany them in the discovery of the faith in an increasingly conscious way? ». These are the questions that every parent asks himself and which, often in a dramatic and lacerating way, represent an open question for every Christian family, which must be faced and reshaped every day with patience and imagination. Because in a society where the platform of shared values seems to shrink in a conflictual and dramatic way, the great educational question passes through every phase of life and re-presents itself without interruption in the face of the many small and large problems to be faced. The challenge represented by the transmission of values and, in particular, by education in the faith is naturally at the center of various paragraphs of the Instrumentunlaboris and therefore, in a couple of days, he will intercept the many issues on the agenda of the synod fathers. "The pastoral action of the Church is called to help families in their educational task, starting with Christian education", reads the document that summarizes the thousands of responses received from all over the world to the Synod Secretariat. A complex and sometimes improbable challenge because it is directly linked "to the profound change in the relationship between generations, which conditions the communication of values in family reality". The Instrumentumthen makes an appropriate distinction between the educational difficulties of the various geographical areas. In the West, the strong generational conflict, the result of the cultural revolutions of the Sixties and Seventies, "makes parents very cautious in pushing their children to religious practice". Almost as if too many fathers and mothers were convinced of the need to leave "free field" to the choices of their children. Often an irreparable error because not telling about God to the little ones actually means denying him, excluding him from their horizon. "This - we read again in the document that represents the outline of the work for the next Synod - seems to attest to the weakness of adults and especially of young people to transmit the gift of faith with joy and conviction". The landscape represented by the educational challenge remains however "complex and changeable", Unfortunately, it is statistically proven that educational difficulties travel in direct proportion to family breakdowns. Hence, especially in the West, the growing problems of numerous local Churches. But even in this case the distinctions are numerous. Separated families are one thing, another when the children live in "recomposed" families in which the parents disagree about the path of Christian initiation. "In these cases the Church is called to assume an important mediating role, through understanding and dialogue". There are children who live in same-sex partnerships. Reality «still circumscribed - explains the Instrumentum- to "liberal-progressive" countries, but which at the moment do not raise specific pastoral questions ». Probably due to the small number of cases which does not allow us to have a significant statistical picture. Much more relevant is the problem of single mothers, particularly in Latin American countries, where "not infrequently these mothers have to delegate the education of their children to the family clan". With all the questions of the case and with the risk represented by the phenomenon of "street children". © reserved reproduction FEATURED ARTICLES Prayer vigil "Synod, sincere discussion on the family" Anniversaries 30 years of Exodus: this is Don Mazzi's gift The turning point Dietrofront in Paris: "No to rented mothers" Books and faith Francis effect on Catholic publishing Rome Strollers invade the Capitol Copyright 2014 © Avvenire | VAT number 00743840159 | Credits | Privacy | For advertising