In
the Press Office of the Holy See, Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, president
of the Pontifical Council for the Family, and Dr. Salvatore Martinez,
national president of Renewal in the Holy Spirit, presented the Vatican
Foundation “International Family Centre in Nazareth”, which will be
erected on the outskirts of that city above the hill that dominates the
city centre and the Basilica of the Annunciation. The press conference
also included Bishop Giacinto-Boulos Marcuzzo, auxiliary of Jerusalem of
the Latins and patriarchal vicar for Israel in Nazareth.
Archbishop
Paglia briefly outlined the history of the Centre's creation, noting
that it was John Paul II, who wanted to be remembered as “the Pope of
the family”, who, as a result of the World Encounter of Families in Rio
de Janeiro in 1997, announced the idea of an International Centre for
the Family in Nazareth. On the way to the Jubilee Year 2000, Pope John
Paul II considered the construction of this centre as a sign of
encouragement for families around the world.” However, realization of
the idea was delayed until 2009, shortly before Pope Benedict XVI's
pastoral visit of the Holy Land, when “the Secretary of State and
Cardinal Ennio Antonelli, president of the Pontifical Council for the
Family at the time, decided to recover the initiative and checked if the
ecclesial movement Renewal in the Holy Spirit was available to
undertake the project.”
After
long negotiations with the ecclesiastical, civil, and political
authorities in Israel an executive plan was approved. In 2012, during
the World Encounter of Families in Milan, the “International Family
Centre in Nazareth” was presented as a “working sign” of the Pontifical
Council for the Family. In October of that same year, Benedict XVI gave
“proper legal form to the project, ordering the erection of the Vatican
Foundation “International Family Centre in Nazareth” with public and
civil Vatican juridical personality, as well as the the 'ad
experimentum' approval of its Statute.” The Foundation was officially
established this past 18 January, and is based at the Pontifical Council
for the Family and presided over by Dr. Salvatore Martinez, national
president of Renewal in the Holy Spirit.
Referring
to the project's deep feeling, Archbishop Paglia noted Benedict XVI's
words during the blessing of the Centre's first stone on Mount Precipice
in Nazareth in 2009: “We pray that this will promote strong family life
in this region, will offer support and assistance to families
everywhere, and encourage them in their irreplaceable mission to
society.”
He
continued, outlining the tasks that the International Centre will
perform. “It will be a centre for spirituality of the family, for
formation in parental and familiar life, of pastoral care for for
workers, of preparation for the new evangelization, and activities
founded in the ecclesial and social subjectivity of the family. It will
be a permanent observatory of study on family ministry in the world,
especially in the Holy Land and the Middle East. … And it will be a
material support to families in need, especially in the Holy Land,
through international fund raising projects.”
“There
are places,” the archbishop concluded, “endowed with an extraordinary
evocative and symbolic strength. Nazareth is one of those. It is the
place where Jesus grew up, where his house was, … his family. … It is a
land—today even more than at his time—full of tension and pain. But
perhaps precisely because of this, it is a land that more than any other
claims the right to peace and universal brotherhood. … Christian
families can become co-authors of this dream.”
For
his part, Dr. Martinez expressed the desire that it “become a
privileged place for spreading the 'Gospel of the Family', a 'showcase'
of all the beautiful, the good, the true, and the just that the family
offers and witnesses to in the world.” He also noted that the Centre,
built upon property held by the Holy See as neighbouring property, will
be divided into two buildings on a one hectare area. Once fully
operational it will consist of a 500 seat auditorium, a diocesan
pastoral centre, meeting and study rooms, a 500 seat church, lodging for
a residential community, a 100 room hotel with restaurant designed to
accommodate families, a play area and outdoor children's entertainment
areas, and exterior passages, car parks, and leisure areas. The total
cost of the work will be approximately 12 million euro and the property
will always belong to the Holy See.
Dr.
Martinez announced the launch of the “Portal of the Family”. “It is a
unique proposition in the international scene. It was created with the
aim of ensuring all families, under a 'horizontal subsidiarity' and in
the name of a 'gift economy', with a wide range of free services to
support the choices and needs that grandparents, parents, and children
encounter everyday in their life journeys. … The portal, initially only
online in Italian, is intended to have analogous realisations in the
world's other countries and languages … In it, doctors, psychologists,
economists, lawyers, educators, and priests will interact with
families.”