Every Family Matters!
It’s quite a number of years now that I have been submitting this column under the heading “Family Friendly”. Apart from the feedback I get from time to time, I do sometimes wonder whether...
Category: Family
Raising Our Boy with Autism
Janine Scott dos Santos’ son has autism, a condition still not understood well by society. Here she shares her journey. ‘These days, everybody has a label. When we were kids, there was no autism,...
Priests and Bishops Attend Family Violence Conference
Priests and bishops from various dioceses attended a conference on the family and violence in Benoni, Gauteng. The guest speakers, from Canada, were clinical psychologist Dr Christauria Welland and her husband Michael Welland. Bishops...
Joy of Families is the Joy of the Church
The Australian writer and gender activist GD Anderson observed of that empowerment: “Feminism isn’t about making women stronger. Women are already strong. It’s about changing the way the world perceives that strength.”
50 Years of Humanae Vitae
Much has changed in the half century since the release of Pope Paul VI’s controversial encyclical Humanae Vitae (“Of Human Life”), and yet a lot of it is more prophetic now than it was...
Family: What More Can be Done?
Participating in a conference of the Department of Social Development was enlightening and for me also affirming. I know that those in the DSD Family Directorate and the family services forum understand and base their...
The Importance of Family Prayer
Stephen A Clark, Manila, Philippines – My wife and I participated in a panel discussion on conflict resolution in families several years ago. As the building block of society and the Church, what happens...
Sports on Sunday Ok, but Not to Skip Mass!
A new Vatican document cautions against the dangers of highly competitive children’s sports, political and economic pressures on athletes to win ‘“at all costs” and the unsportsmanlike or violent behaviour of fans. The document...
May: Month of Mary and Mom
Ideally two parents belong together, ideally too a dad and a mom. But this is not necessarily the case today as more children are being brought up by single moms than in two-parent families.
Fruits of Our Family Mission Statement
When our children were small, we tried to show them who they were from the inside by being godly on the outside. Our parents instilled in us great principles and values and we wanted to do the same for our children so that they could be responsible citizens of the world. We encouraged them to be strong on the inside and at peace on the outside.
Do Families Have Rights?
Rights and responsibilities balance one another out, but when it comes to rights and respect, which comes first? Do rights flow from respect, or do rights lead to respect, or both?
Power of Prayer Saves a Family
More than a year ago, my daughter’s divorced husband suddenly began action for custody of their 23-year-old mentally challenged daughter, after 20 years of apparently friendly separation. A legal battle ensued and we began praying to Our Lady for a just settlement.
