Acta Apostolicae Sedis - Commentarium Officiale310

a clear and united witness on such matters. Even more important, though, is

the gradual opening of the minds and hearts of the wider community to

moral truth. Here much remains to be done. Crucial in this regard is the role

of the lay faithful to act as a ''leaven'' in society. Yet it cannot be assumed

that all Catholic citizens think in harmony with the Church's teaching on

today's key ethical questions. Once again, it falls to you to ensure that the

moral formation provided at every level of ecclesial life reflects the authentic

teaching of the Gospel of life.

In this regard, a matter of deep concern to us all is the state of the family

within society. Indeed, Cardinal George mentioned earlier that you have

included the strengthening of marriage and family life among the priorities

for your attention over the next few years. In this year's World Day of Peace

Message I spoke of the essential contribution that healthy family life makes

to peace within and between nations. In the family home we experience

''some of the fundamental elements of peace: justice and love between broth-

ers and sisters, the role of authority expressed by parents, loving concern for

the members who are weaker because of youth, sickness or old age, mutual

help in the necessities of life, readiness to accept others and, if necessary, to

forgive them''.12 The family is also the primary place for evangelization, for

passing on the faith, for helping young people to appreciate the importance of

religious practice and Sunday observance. How can we not be dismayed as we

observe the sharp decline of the family as a basic element of Church and

society? Divorce and infidelity have increased, and many young men and

women are choosing to postpone marriage or to forego it altogether. To some

young Catholics, the sacramental bond of marriage seems scarcely distin-

guishable from a civil bond, or even a purely informal and open-ended ar-

rangement to live with another person. Hence we have an alarming decrease

in the number of Catholic marriages in the United States together with an

increase in cohabitation, in which the Christ-like mutual self-giving of

spouses, sealed by a public promise to live out the demands of an indissoluble

lifelong commitment, is simply absent. In such circumstances, children are

denied the secure environment that they need in order truly to flourish as

human beings, and society is denied the stable building blocks which it

12 No. 3.