In an address to participants in the 47th Social Week for Italian Catholics, Pope Francis said that "a population that does not take care of the elderly and of children and the young has no future, because it abuses both its memory and its promise.”

According to the Vatican Information Service, the pope's address was given to the Italian faithful who met in Turin from September 12-15. In it, he referred to the family as “a path for generations through which faith, love and fundamental moral values are transmitted . . . and also plans, hope, and future."

Hope and future "presuppose memory," he wrote. "The memory of the elderly gives us the support we need to continue on our path. The future of society ... is rooted in the elderly and the young: the latter because they have the strength and youth to carry history forward, and the former because they are the source of living memory. A population that does not take care of the elderly and of children and the young has no future, because it abuses both its memory and its promise”.

He also spoke about Church teaching on the family which is rooted in the Book of Genesis and in the unity in the difference between man and woman and the fruitfulness of this complementarity.

"The family understood in this way remains the first and principle building block of society and of an economy on a human scale. … The consequences, positive or negative, of decisions of a principally cultural or political nature in relation to the family touch upon the various areas of the life of a society and a country”.

He went on to warn that we cannot ignore the suffering of many families caused by a lack of employment, housing problems, the fractures that may develop within a family or a marriage, and “the violence that unfortunately lurks and does damage inside our homes”.

However at the same time, he concluded, we must remember the “simple, but beautiful and courageous witness given by many families, who experience matrimony and parenthood with joy, illuminated and supported by the grace of the Lord, without fear of facing the moments of the cross that, lived in union with the Lord, do not obstruct the path of love, but rather make it stronger and more complete."

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