CATH NEWS REPORT: More than 800 people attended lectures and workshops on over 40 topics related to marriage and family life last weekend in the Third National Catholic Family Gathering in Melbourne, the Archdiocese of Melbourne said in a media release.
"For it is only when the couple together open their hearts to love," he said "a love that always opens it arms in forgiveness, the unfailing forgiveness which we recall on this Passion Sunday, that they open themselves to receive all of the richness offered to them in the sacrament of marriage."The Secretary to the Pontifical Council for the family, Bishop Jean Laffitte, who delivered the closing address on April 17, encouraged those gathered to take the love of Christ in all its dimensions, as the only sure foundation and hope for the family.
"It is clear too" he said "that it is only amid this love, open as it is to the creative, life giving power of God, that the families on which a society depends, can flourish."
Pope Benedict XVI had also sent a video message offering his blessing to the delegates and assuring them of his prayers.
Matthew MacDonald from the Melbourne Archdiocese Life, Marriage and Family Office which was responsible for coordinating the event said: "As Christians, we can at times feel isolated by a culture which does not always provide the fertile soil in which families might flourish.
"But in allowing ourselves to be moulded by Christ's love, trusting in his faithfulness and with the encouragement of so many like-minded sisters and brothers here with us, how could we have anything but great hope for the future?" he concluded.
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