By Brian Dryden, Canadian Catholic News
[Ottawa – CCN] – With new COVID-19 restrictions being put in place as yet another wave of the deadly global pandemic impacts daily life across the country, the idea that every Catholic household in Canada is a “domestic church” will take on even greater meaning this year when Canadian Catholics are asked to mark Life and Family Week May 9-16.
In a letter addressed to “Catholic Families,” Winnipeg Archbishop and Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) president Richard Gagnon said that while no one is perfect, all baptized Catholics share in the mission “to proclaim the good news of God the Father’s saving love in Christ Jesus.”
Archbishop Gagnon said the theme of the week of May 9-16 will be “Family, the Domestic Church: A Sign of Hope and Life.”
“Some people may ask, ‘How can I or my family live up to the ideal of being a domestic church?’ The truth is no family is perfect; each one of us is affected by sin and therefore we all fall short of the ideal,” Archbishop Gagnon said.
“The good news is that through our baptism we have been ‘incorporated into the Church and made sharers in her mission,’” he said.
“This mission to the world is meant to be carried out not only by bishops, priests, and religious, but it is for lay people and families, too. In the early Church it was not only the Apostles who spread the faith,” Gagnon said. “Pope Francis reminds us that ‘from the very beginning, Christianity was preached by lay people.’ Our Holy Father repeats this teaching of his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, stating that ‘in order to take root in people’s land and develop actively, the commitment of these families, these spouses, these Christian communities, of these lay faithful was necessary.’
“So too, in our day, the family’s commitment to Christ is necessary. As St. John Paul II remarked in 1979: ‘Evangelization depends largely on the domestic church.’ Recognizing our own limitations and weaknesses before such a lofty task we ask that the Holy Spirit be rekindled in you and your families so that you may proclaim joyfully the good news of salvation with a spirit of power and love,” Archbishop Gagnon said.
“With my brother bishops, it is my prayer that during this year’s Week for Life and the Family, you and your family, through the grace of your baptism and through the intercession of the Holy Family, be able to live your lives as a domestic church. Empowered by the Holy Spirit, you will be a sign of hope and life attracting others to the beauty of God’s saving love in Christ Jesus,” he said.
This year the annual Life and Family Week is part of a larger celebration of family within the Catholic Church. Pope Francis announced at the end of 2020 that the year 2021 will be dedicated to families to mark the fifth anniversary of his apostolic exhortation Amoris laetitia – The Joy of Love.
According to a press release cited by the Vatican’s Catholic News Agency in Dec. 2020, 2021 will be known officially as the Year Amoris Laetitia Family.
The press release from the Dicastery for Laity, Family, and Life said “the pandemic experience has highlighted the central role of the family as the domestic Church and has shown the importance of community ties between families, which make the Church an authentic ‘family of families.’”