Towards the World Meeting of Families: Welcoming love

"There are different roles in a family, but one identity unites us all: we are all children! No one chooses to be born. Each of us owes his existence and his life to a mother and a father. We cannot give life to ourselves; we can only receive it and cherish it."

These words can be read in the fourth catechesis in preparation for the 10th World Meeting of Families. As usual, the catechesis is accompanied by a short film made by director Antonio Antonelli, entitled "Welcoming love".

The protagonists are a family from Rome. A mother, a father, and three daughters. They attempt to have a fourth child, but suffer miscarriages.

They then choose to adopt a girl with a severe disability, Manuela.

Alessia, the eldest daughter, tells the story of this 'normal, special family'. She is twenty years old, and welcomes us into her home, amidst laughter and love.

There is no shortage of difficulties, but what emerges above all is the tenderness and love that unites the four sisters.

We learn fraternity precisely from the fact of being children. As Pope Francis says: "In the family, among brothers and sisters, we learn human coexistence, how we must live together in society. Perhaps we are not always aware of this, but it is precisely the family that introduces fraternity into the world! Starting from this first experience of fraternity, nourished by affections and family education, the style of fraternity radiates like a promise on the whole of society and on relations between peoples."