Press Release | 30 years of the Convention on the Rights of the Child: our Common responsibility
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- Category: Family
- Published on 20 November 2019
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Press Release | FAFCE Board: Call for a European Natality Pact
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- Category: Family
- Published on 10 October 2019
FAFCE Members gathered this week in Brussels, where they adopted a new Resolution for a European Natality Pact (here) and renewed the Bureau, by electing Vincenzo Bassi (Forum delle Famiglie, Italy) as new President and confirming Cornel Barbut (Association of Catholic Families 'Vladimir Ghika', Romania) as Vice-President and Alfred Trendl (Katholischer Familienverband, Austria) as Treasurer. Antoine Renard, outgoing President, was warmly thanked by his generous and fruitful service and has been nominated as Honorary President of FAFCE.
He declared: "We are happy to hand over to our Italian friends the responsability of the FAFCE Presidency, after now 10 years". Antoine Renard took the FAFCE Presidency in 2009, on behalf of the National Confederation of Catholic Families Associations in France (CNAFC). "At this Board Meeting - he said - we saw how our Federation is first and foremost a community where we confront our ideas together, we dialogue, putting into practice ourselves what we ask to the European institutions: to never dissociate subsidiarity and solidarity".
After his election, Vincenzo Bassi declared: "We continue the great work done in all these years, developing it and seizing the great window of opportunities opened with a portfolio on demography in the new European Commission. The demographic issue is an urgent question for all Countries in Europe and for their development. Our ultimate goal is that everybody, States, societies and EU and international institutions, recognize the role of the family, at the service of the whole society".
FAFCE Board Resolution | Call for a European Natality Pact
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- Category: Family
- Published on 10 October 2019
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Press Release | Rebuilding Europe Restarting from the Family
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- Category: Family
- Published on 15 May 2019
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Happy Easter from FAFCE
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- Category: Family
- Published on 20 April 2019
Brussels, 20th April 2019
Dear friends,
With this message I would like to send you the best wishes for the Easter, from the entire Federation of Catholic Family Associations in Europe (FAFCE). The events of recent times have deeply affected the spirits of many in Europe, far beyond practicing Christians, and these have in a way prepared us for the celebration of the Resurrection of Our Lord.
The Cathedral of Notre-Dame of Paris, burned for causes still unknown at the beginning of the holy week, shed light on our Christian roots, living roots from which we are called to work for the rebirth of our continent.
The ashes on the Ile de la Cité remind us of the spiritual ashes of Europe. It is urgent to overcome any kind of conformism and distorted secularism. As stated by the Archbishop of Paris, Mgr. Michel Aupetit, "This cathedral was built in the name of Christ. It is a sum of stones inhabited by a spirit. It is not a functional building. Some sculptures are in places you cannot see, it's good for something bigger and more beautiful!".
How to disregard this reality in a Europe in search of meaning? How can one look at the prevailing ignorance of the problems of the family, the poor, the unborn? Catholic Family Associations across Europe are working to bring about a reality-based response. They are not a lobby and do not represent special interests. Catholic Family Associations remind everyone of the fundamental role of the family for the common good.
That is why we are working on the current campaign for the European elections with a manifesto that our members are proposing to all candidates, calling for a natality pact, as we have had the opportunity to announce it in the past months (click here to read it in several languages). The reasons for the current demographic decline cannot be reduced to mere economic and financial analyzes we must admit that the birth rate of our countries reveals a cultural void and an acute form of despair.
On 14 and 15 May, the FAFCE Board will meet in Malta for its spring meeting: from here, ten days before the European elections, we will launch an appeal to all families in Europe and will make known the names of the candidates who will have signed our manifesto (published on http://voteforfamily2019.eu/?language=en).
We can only continue to do this work thanks to the support of the members of our Federation and the generosity of many of you. Expressing our gratitude, we allow ourselves to renew our request for economic support: consider your contribution, small or large, as a contribution to the reconstruction of our continent, for the future of our children.
We especially thank you for your support in prayer, because in the face of spiritual ashes we first need spiritual tools. May the Easter festivities give us zeal to accomplish the mission entrusted to us.
Happy Easter,
Antoine Renard
President