Msgr. Anthony Figueiredo warns that there is a brief window of opportunity, and that if Christians don't respond to what is happening in the world today, it may be too late to effect change.
There is an attack on family life; and the only way back is through prayer. That's the message from Msgr. Anthony J. Figueiredo, a full-time Consultant to the newly established Vatican Dicastery for Integral Human Development.
Monsignor Figueiredo will travel to the United States this week to speak at the 20th Annual Holy Trinity Apostolate Lenten Symposium in Michigan. He talked to the Register from his offices in Rome.
“You know,” he said, “that the theme for this year's Conference is 'The Family That Prays Together... Stays Together.'” And indeed, without prayer, there is a decline in family life. “I was just reading the news here in Italy,” said Msgr. Figueiredo, “and one of the headlines was that in the last year, the birth rate here in Italy fell by 86,000. This represents a historic low in the birth rate – and Italy is a Catholic country!”
The attack on the family, Msgr. Figueiredo acknowledged, occurs on two fronts: against marriage, and against the child in the womb. We see many permutations of marriage: unions between two persons of the same sex, couples living together without benefit of sacramental marriage, and more. As for the attack on the womb, there is, of course, the prevalence of abortion; but also, many women make the decision not to have children at all – with the result that the children who should be in the pews are not there, and the Church cannot thrive. “Every child born,” said Figueiredo, “is a victory over death, over the evil one.”
But too often, Christians have not responded (or are not responding) to the message of the Church. “If we were really true to our beliefs and our faith, to the teaching that Pope Paul VI gave us in Humanae Vitae,” Msgr. Figueiredo argued, “we would have an answer. What is happening in society today is exactly what Paul VI warned would happen, if we entered into a contraceptive mentality.”
Msgr. Figueiredo worried that there is a brief window of opportunity, and that if Christians don't respond to what is happening in the world today, it may be too late to effect change. If the birth rate continues to fall, while large Muslim families continue to have more children, Catholic believers will become just a small minority of the population – with wide-ranging results: Churches will close, parishes will be forced to merge. There will be a decrease in vocations to the priesthood and religious life. “How much more,” Msgr. Figueiredo asked, “do we really need, before we begin having a strong word of faith? We need to begin again to pray.”
