Fabrizio Piciarelli
We anticipate the translated text of Prof. Malo’s lecture, Family or Families? Toward a Better Understanding of Humanization and Generativity, given on February 5 th in Budapest during a conference organized by the Pázmány Péter Catholic University of Hungry.
It’s a compelling anthropological reflection on the cultural battle taking place in the West that can change the face of the family with countless damaging repercussions for persons involved. The family is the place for the humanization of the person. It’s written in its DNA. But it cannot just be triggered or programmed automatically.
The 1994 international conference about population and development in Cairo tried to replace the “family” with the concept of “families”. The attack was blocked, but only partially because the chapter dedicated to family completely ignored the institution of marriage. Furthermore, instead of recognizing the family as a natural and universal institution, they explained that “various forms of the family exist in difference political, legal, social, and cultural systems” and “the composition and structure of the family” can change with the evolution of society.
It’s clear that in order to modify the family, you have to wipe out marriage: a destructive process happens first by weakening and trivializing the institution until finally abolishing it completely. The first step of this strategy is obviously recognizing de facto unions and above all, same sex marriages.
One may think that changes in the family and its foundation- marriage- are not that serious. It’s thought that on one hand, technology allows for continual production of human beings, and on the other hand, new forms of sexual relationships constitute a suitable environment for the growth and education of children.
The author of this essay argues against this pretense because, as he amply demonstrates, the family is the first place for the humanization of the person due to its capacity to generate and regenerate persons and their relationships, and because donation and gratuity arise precisely from marriage and family.
Link
