In an interview recorded for the Catholic Television Network of Detroit, the archbishop said the U.S. and global Church’s recent focus on issues pertaining to the family is particularly important because the family is for many people the most direct path to sainthood.
Archbishop Allen Vigneron speaks with the Catholic Television Network of Detroit. (Courtesy of CTND)The archbishop spoke in light of several important events in the life of the Church regarding the family, including the Synod of Bishops in Rome, a statewide “Year for Marriage” next year in which Michigan dioceses will participate, and Pope Francis’ recent announcement that he will visit Philadelphia in September 2015 for the World Meeting of Families.
A critical piece of the Church’s support for families comes in the form of marriage preparation, which pastoral leaders in the Archdiocese of Detroit are “putting a lot of effort into,” Archbishop Vigneron said.
“I think we’re working very hard to help people prepare for their marriage — with more emphasis on that than to prepare for their wedding,” the archbishop said. “We want people to find Christ in their lives and be able to respond to him in their marriages.”
The archbishop acknowledged the many ways family life is under attack both within and outside of the Church, and added it’s important not to avoid controversial subjects and tough questions. However, “the challenge is to not make that the whole conversation,” he said.
Instead, Catholic pastors and laity are called to “accompany God’s people and all people of good will as they try to be healed of these hurts,” he said, borrowing an expression Pope Francis has often used to describe the Church’s pastoral care.
The Church must continue to walk with people and proclaim the truth and beauty of marriage “not because we want to beat you up or achieve a kind of mindless conformity, but because this is good news, and we are confident that the Good News of Jesus is for everybody.”
Because parents are ultimately teaching their children how to one day be parents themselves, he continued, it’s important for the Church’s faithful to encourage and sustain one another in that role. Having family friends and other couples who share similar values is indispensable, he added.
And of course, “the faithful can promote family life by their prayer, asking God to give them the strength they need in order to show that love and call forth that love in one another,” the archbishop said.
In response to Pope Francis’ announcement that he will visit Philadelphia for the World Meeting of Families, Archbishop Vigneron called it a “great thing” and said he is “looking forward to the delegations that will come from our diocese, and I certainly plan to participate.”
“I think the pope’s presence always brings a lot of energy,” he said, but added the visit isn’t just about the United States.
“It’s a meeting for families throughout the world to come and pray, to reflect, and to be re-energized as evangelists — what Pope Francis calls the ‘joyful’ missionary disciples. And we’re on the mission for families, to spread the good news about families,” he said.
Though a steady stream of negative statistics and trends such as divorce rates, cohabitation and marriage declines can leave some in the Church “feeling kind of hopeless, wondering what the future holds,” Archbishop Vigneron said Christ’s message still resonates.
He said a priest of the archdiocese recently spoke to him about changes in the culture, and about how it was causing him to “feel like we’re pushing this rock that gets bigger and bigger and up an ever-steeper slope.” The priest asked the archbishop for words of encouragement.
But, Archbishop Vigneron said, “I have nothing to offer but Jesus … however, what better could I offer?”
“I am confident that our Lord’s life, his way of life, is what people really want,” he said. “And I think people will recognize it when they see it in us. Our Lord said, in the world you’re going to have some trouble, but ‘take heart, for I have overcome the world.’”
