In many seminaries theological formation on the sacrament of marriage ‘risks remaining theoretical, without an adequate comparison with the real experience of family life’.
Cardinal Kevin Farrell warned that families are not raising their children as Catholics, leading to a dramatic fall in participation in the sacraments.
“Without a doubt, the transmission of faith in families is weaker than in the past,” said Cardinal Farrell, prefect of the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life.
Writing in L’Osservatore Romano following a dicastery seminar on “Marriage, Faith and Munus Docendi: The challenge of priestly education for concrete support for families”, the Dublin-born prelate discussed how in recent decades “profound cultural transformations” have redefined the processes of family formation.
He described how bishops on ad limina visits to Rome report the “enormous difficulties” they have in reaching the families of the baptised faithful who no longer take part in Church life.
“Marriage is no longer considered necessary for the emergence of the family alliance and coexistence becomes the choice, considered by many now almost obligatory, to verify the consistency of the couple in the perspective – but not always – of a more solid subsequent bond,” Farrell wrote.
He observed that between 1991 and 2021, baptisms of children under seven globally fell by 31.1 per cent, while Catholic marriages fell by 48 per cent.
“In the face of these numbers, we must not be discouraged, but be aware of them in order to make it an occasion for ecclesial rebirth,” he said.
The dicastery held the seminar to reflect on how the formation of priests can make them more embodied in pastoral reality and capable of bringing new Christian families to the faith. Farrell said the question was how to make the teaching of the Church more fruitful.
In many seminaries and pontifical universities, he continued, there is no lack of solid theological formation on the sacrament of marriage but “it risks remaining theoretical, without an adequate comparison with the real experience of family life and the cultural transformations taking place”.
Several dicasteries, seminary rectors and teachers took part in the seminar to reflect on the relationship between the sacrament of marriage, faith and munus docendi – the office of teaching in the Church.
Farrell said this was timely in light of the tenth anniversary of Amoris Laetitia and the Ratio Fundamentalis Institutionis Sacerdotalis.