Sixth World Meeting of Families: continued

ZENIT are carrying a series of reports of events at the Sixth World Meeting of Families in Mexico City.

One report is entitled Families Praying for Families, and describes the availability of the Sacrament of Penance, of daily celebration of Mass and of Eucharistic Adoration during the pastoral-theological congress that has been taking place Wednesday-Friday.

Michael Waldstein offers a range of reflections on the situation of parents in relation to their children in the north American countries. This address urges parents to really take up their responsibility as the first educators of their children, and not to delegate that responsibility to schools, particularly given the increasingly secularised nature of public schooling. He ended his address referring to home schooling:

In describing the situation of the United States and Canada, however, I must also point to a more radical way in which parents are becoming involved in the education of their children, namely, homeschooling. According to recent credible estimates, there are about two million families in the United States that educate their children at home. My wife and I have eight children. We have been and are educating them from first grade all the way up to the end of high school. Four of them have already entered universities. The main reason why we began home schooling was the report we heard from close friends about the effect of home schooling on their family. The children, they said, became more friends with each other, because they shared the same experience of schooling in the home. The parents also became more friends with their children, because they shared more of their life. Like many other homeschoolers, we have seen that the global youth culture is not an irresistible force. It is possible to pass on our own Christian culture. The generation gap is not inevitable.

For parents who find themselves unable to home school, however, the question is raised here of the correct relations between the responsibility of the parents and the responsibilities of the school. Michael Waldstein highlights that this relationship should not rightly be one of delegation of responsibility from the parents to the school. It should represent a much more balanced, collaboration of the school in assisting parents in fulfilling their responsibility. And that, by implication, begins to set boundaries as to the engagement of the state in the running of schools. Public funding should not be equated to public control ...

The Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Migrants and Travellers, Archbishop Agostino Marchetto, highlighted Families With Greatest Challenges: Immigrants. This is a very topical question in the current situation of the world.

Further reports can be found at the ZENIT homepage.