Cabo Verde: Diocesan Forum emphasises the importance of education in the family.

Rádio Nova de Maria, Cabo Verde and Vatican News English Africa Service.

Augusta Teixeira, together with her husband José Teixeira, are representatives of the Commission coordinating couples of the Catholic Diocese of Santiago de Cabo Verde in the city of Praia. The coordinating office is known as the Diocesan Secretariat for the Promotion of Family Values (SDPV). Augusta recently told Vatican News that the Fifth Diocesan Family Forum was open to couples whose marriages are blessed in Church, young people preparing for marriage, newlyweds and married couples whose marriages are recognised by the state.

The family: Where education first happens

According to Augusta, the Forum was an event for sharing and disseminating information about the importance of Christian family life as lived in Cabo Verde.

Families, for example, were updated about the status of Moral and Religious Education in school. The topic generated much discussion.

Salt of the earth and light of the world

Father Bruno Varela, who also works with the Diocesan SDPV office, added that the Diocese wants to draw attention to the current need for children’s faith development within the family. He said, notwithstanding the various transformations happening in Cabo Verdean society, and in the words of Pope Francis, the family continues to be “the first and essential place of education.” It is in the family that Christian values are first imparted and planted.

“Family: salt of the earth and light of the world” was the theme of the Fourth Diocesan Family Forum, held in April 2018, at the Parish of Santo Amaro Abade, in the municipality of Tarrafal, Santiago Island.