CCEE-FAFCE: Memorandum of Understanding. Mr. Bassi, “faced with the pandemic of loneliness, we are called to be witnesses to the joyful responsibility of families”

Commenting on today’s signing of the Memorandum of Understanding between the CCEE and the FAFCE, the President of the Federation of Catholic Family Associations in Europe, Vincenzo Bassi, said: “As Pope Francis pointed out at the General States of Birth on 14 May, Europe is now ‘becoming the old continent no longer because of its glorious history, but because of its advanced age’. Faced with the pandemic of loneliness, we are called to be witnesses to the joyful responsibility of families and to develop family networks everywhere. For this we place ourselves at the service of the Church in Europe and of our communities, a family of families”. The mission of FAFCE, for its part, is twofold: “on the one hand, it represents families at the European level as ‘protagonists’ of public life with their specific ‘responsibility for transforming society’ (Saint John Paul II, Apostolic Exhortation Familiaris Consortio, 1981, no. 44)”, and on the other, it “also has the task of inspiring family associations and promoting family networks, in a spirit of collaboration with the Catholic Church in different countries and with the Apostolic See”. It is within this spirit that this cooperation with the CCEE takes place. As defined in the Memorandum of Understanding, FAFCE participates in the meetings of the CCEE Commission for Family and Life “to provide its expertise and support”. The FAFCE also contributes to other bodies of the Catholic Church in Europe, among them the COMECE. This memorandum was adopted ad experimentum and will be subject to a joint evaluation after three years.
Valentina Bombelli