Marthica and Louis Carlos Pinilla, the presidents ofICCFM in Latin America, announced that the ICCFM 12thWorld Assembly and 16th General Assembly will be heldin Bucaramanga, Colombia. ICCFM Presidents Gary andKay Aitchison said the theme is “Christian Families: Find-ing our Voice in a Global World.”

The gathering is scheduled June 28, 29, 30 and July 1,2013. Planning details will be forthcoming as the timedraws near.

Flight informationPalonegro International Airport (Aeropuerto Interna-

cional de Palonegro) is located in the town of Lebrija, 30kilometers west of Bucaramanga, with access to interna-tional and domestic flights.

About BucaramangaColombia is a republic with 32 departments (states)

and a Capital District, Bogotá. Santander is a departmentof Colombia, located in the north central part of the coun-try. Its capital is the city of Bucaramanga.

Bucaramanga is the sixth largest city in Colombia,with 1.2 million people in its metropolitan area. It is lo-cated on a plateau in the Colombian Andes, at an altitudeof about 3,100 feet. Bucaramanga’s climate is moderate,with temperatures between the mid-60s and the mid-80s,75 degrees Fahrenheit being the average.

Bucaramanga has over 160 parks scattered throughoutthe city and has been given thenicknames “La Ciudad de LosParques” (“City of Parks”) and“La Ciudad Bonita de Colom-bia” (“Colombia’s BeautifulCity”).

Nearby sites of interestThe Parque Nacional del

Chicamocha features colonialbuildings, cultural opportuni-ties and history, as well as eco-

tourism and adventure sports. A cable car provides a dra-matic crossing of Chicamocha Canyon.

San Gil, located between Bucaramanga and Bogota, isan urban, educational, industrial and tourism center. Fea-tures include an ecological park and adventure sports suchas canoeing, mountain climbing, rappelling, caving, bikingand motocross.

Barichara, with its white stone walls and woodengates, is known as “el pueblito mas lindo de Colombia,”the prettiest village in Colombia.

Curití is the place to learn of the indigenous life of thisregion and its legacy, to see handicraft dis-plays and to visit Indian burial grounds.Visitors may also explore nearby gypsumcaves.

Socorro, about 75 miles from Bucara-manga, is the cradle of the independencemovement in Colombia, where the Commu-nards Revolution of 1781 against Spainbegan. Visitors will find colonial buildings,stone walls, historic churches and otherbuildings from the 17th and 18th centuries.

VOLUME 12 • ISSUE 2 • SUMMER 2012

ICCFM World Assembly XII to meet June 28 - July 1 in Bucaramanga, Colombia

A view of the Parque Nacional del Chicamocha

In his Apostolic Letter, Porta fidei, Pope Benedict XVIproclaimed a year of Faith.

The year will begin Oct. 11, 2012 on the fiftieth an-niversary of the opening of the Second Ecumenical VaticanCouncil, called by Blessed Pope John XXIII in 1962. It isalso the twentieth anniversary of the Catechism of theCatholic Church, promulgated by Blessed Pope John Paul IIin 1992. It will conclude on Nov. 24, 2013, the Feast ofChrist the King.

Porta fidei, the “door of faith,” (Acts 14:27) “is alwaysopen for us, ushering us intothe life of communion withGod and offering entry intohis Church,” said the pope.“To enter through that dooris to set out on a journey thatlasts a lifetime.”

In his letter, the popesaid, “Ever since the start ofmy ministry as Successor ofPeter, I have spoken of theneed to rediscover the jour-

ney of faith so as to shed ever clearer light on the joy and re-newed enthusiasm of the encounter with Christ.”

He said he wants this year “to arouse in every believerthe aspiration to profess the faith in fullness and with re-newed conviction, with confidence and hope. It will also bea good opportunity to intensify the celebration of the faithin the liturgy, especially in the Eucharist . . . .”

He said the Year of Faith will also be “an opportunityto intensify the witness of charity.”

He quoted the letter of Saint James. “What does it

profit, my brethren,if a man says he hasfaith but has notworks? Can his faithsave him? If abrother or sister isill-clad and in lackof daily food, andone of you says tothem, ‘Go in peace,be warmed andfilled’, without giv-ing them the things needed for the body, what does it profit?So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.”

During the Year of Faith, in cooperation with the Pon-tifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity, variousecumenical initiatives are to be planned, aimed at “therestoration of unity among all Christians” which “is one ofthe principal concerns of the Second Vatican Council.”

At the conclusion of this Year, there will be a Eucharistcelebrated by the Holy Father, in which a solemn renewal ofthe profession of faith will take place.

During the year, dioceses and other church entities willbe promoting study opportunities, Lenten penitential cele-brations and other observances.

Pastors are encouraged to give more attention to thedocuments of Vatican II and the faithful are encouraged toread Porta fidei.

“Every initiative for the Year of Faith should bedesigned to aid in the joyous rediscovery of the faith and itsrenewed transmission,” said a statement from the Congrega-tion for the Faith.

Year of Faith . . . to include good works, ‘joyous rediscovery of the faith’

YEAR OF

FAITHOctober 2012 — November 2013

BELIEVEFeed the hungryPRAYGive drink to the thirstyCELEBRATEClothe the nakedPROCLAIM

✙

The door offaith is always

open for us,ushering us

into the life ofcommunion

with God andoffering entry

into his Church

Chaplain’s columnHow good and how new the Good News really is

Mary the evangelist

When we celebrated the feast of the visitation on May 31the gospel passage from St. Luke (Lk 1:39-56) was aboutthe visit of Mary, the mother of Jesus, to Elizabeth, whowas pregnant with John the Baptist. Mary the youngteenager who had just conceived Jesus made the journey toher older relative Elizabeth, who, even though beyondchildbearing age, was also surprisingly pregnant. God’screative word had come through the angel Gabriel, first toZechariah and through him to Elizabeth and then sixmonths later to Mary. This divineword not only sparked the concep-tion of new life in the two moth-ers, but it broke into our world andour human lives with the goodnews that God is with us in a waywe never anticipated.

When today, with our knowl-edge of the immensity of our uni-verse and all its galaxies, we seeour own little blue orb of earthfloating as a speck in the MilkyWay and we imagine in faith thecreative and loving word Godspoke to these two women, infini-tesimally small creatures like our-selves, we begin to get a glimpseof how good and how new theGood News really is. How muchbetter could that word be than tocome from the heart of God? How much more new could itbe than to spring from the very source of everything?

In the small intimate gospel portrait of one mother greet-ing another we are invited to discover and to learn to be goodnews and to speak good news to everyone around us. In thisgospel encounter we witness the first instance of Christianevangelization, of Christ’s Good News for us and our world.God had been whispering this news in many different wayssince Adam and Eve, especially through the prophets of theOld Testament. When the divine Word became flesh in Jesusof Nazareth God would speak more clearly. In Mary’s greet-ing to Elizabeth the Word of God broke into real humanspeech, in fact, into family speech, as a familiar, lovinggreeting. Was not Mary intuitively practicing Observe,Judge, Act in her personal and family situation?

The good news of Mary’s unborn child was carried bythe voice and words of his mother through Elizabeth to herunborn John, who “leaped in her womb” as he was stirredby the excitement of knowing that the salvation of all wasreally going to happen and he was already in its vanguard.All of this happened not on a mountaintop or in a royalcourt or in a great city or among the political or religiouselite, but between two unborn children nestled within theirpeasant mothers. God almost always begins at the bottomof the ladder/level/heap, etc., however that may be meas-ured, because there he finds hearts and souls that are at-tuned to him and sincerely open to the stirring of his Spirit.

Their human and religious experi-ence had brought them to placetheir most basic trust in his lovingpresence to them, something farbeyond what can be trusted in ourmaterial and even human world.

Mary and Elizabeth are cer-tainly these kind of people, appar-ently among the lowliest toworldly and human eyes, but atthe top with those whose soulsand spirits are nurtured andstrengthened by being an intimatepart of God’s dream for the world.For any of us, I think, God’s king-dom, his dream for the world, willbe brought about by those whoare entranced by his dream, sensi-tive to its appeal and constantlystrengthened by his Spirit, which

He sends out (cf. Gen. 1:2) to undo the gnarled web of ourwayward desires and passions and to fashion us and ourworld into the beautiful form of his original vision. Shouldthat seem strange to us? Given what we experience withinourselves and in our world, is it not the Marys and the Eliz-abeths who are our models for this evangelization?

In our Gospel passage, the unborn Jesus speaks a greetingthrough Mary and from Elizabeth we hear that in responsethe unborn John “leaped for joy.” What transpired here?What power, what life, what good news was carried in thatgreeting? The simple, affective word of Mary pierced deepwithin and infused John with a joy that literally swept himup. Elizabeth recognized what was happening and voicedher surprise as “and how does this happen to me, that themother of my Lord should come to me? For at the moment

the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in mywomb leaped for joy.” The greeting was absolutely goodnews, because it was proclaimed by someone “who believedthat what was spoken to [her] by the Lord would be ful-filled.” It was not a trick or promotion or external appear-ance but came from deep within and was carried tofulfillment by the Holy Spirit.

That beautiful spirit-filled scene may seem so distantfrom our lives, our families and thehuman race as a whole. Mary and Jesusand Elizabeth and John, however, werejust as human in that moment as we arein the moments of our daily lives andfamilies today. In addition, that sameHoly Spirit is also in us and is con-stantly inspiring us to help bring aboutGod’s dream for all of us and our world,but our fears, pride, desires, sinfulness,self-centeredness and even stubborn-ness dull our sensitivity to the breath ofthe Spirit which is constantly trying tofind a way to surprise us, enlighten us, even shock us backinto the original vision of God. There is good news to begiven to others, but sometimes we’re too bored or distractedto get excited about it like John the Baptist was. Yet everyday in our lives, in our families, in our work, even in ourleisure, opportunities of the Spirit, possibilities of goodnews, are no further away than a simple greeting, a word ofcomfort, a touch or embrace, a gesture of compassion, ashow of support, a bit of time or patience. We may notachieve the same effect that Mary’s greeting had on John theBaptist, but any good news that we offer to another is, inone form or another, conveying a possibility for the Spirit tobreak through even all the obstacles we may put up and toopen someone else or a situation to be “re-newed” — even

if they do not leap for joy every time.Mary’s response was to lift her soul and her voice in her

Magnificat, “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord;my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,” and to give us at leastthree suggestions of how we might see some opportunitiesthe way she did. (1) “He has shown the strength of his arm”reminds us that we do not have to depend entirely on ourown puny strength, but we can summon up resources thatmay have previously seemed to be beyond our vision and

our strength, if we tap the lively faithwhich we not only profess in church butreally try to live by. (2) “He . . . haslifted up the lowly” recalls the anawim(“the lowly”) of the Old Testament, whoin a sense were the apple of God’s eyebecause their hearts, souls and wholeselves were really centered on their cre-ative, loving, forgiving and all-embrac-ing God. (3) “He has filled the hungrywith good things” which brings us face-to-face with what kind of hunger do wehave and which good things will fill the

deep yearning and emptiness within us.

Should we not let this touching gospel scene spark somereflection on how we can improve our Observe, Judge andAct to be more in line with what Mary did so naturally andwhich proved to be just the thing that turned an intimatefamily moment into lively evangelization, joy-filled goodnews. Do we not have many such moments in our families,work, conversations and relationships? Can we step for-ward to be evangelists as simply and naturally as Mary did?

Father Billl YoungICCFM Chaplain

Report: ICCFM membership increased during 2011-2012In a message to ICCFM leadership, Gary and Kay Aitchi-

son announced that there has been an increase in world-wide membership in 2011-2012.

Membership is spread across 48 countries in 5 conti-nents. There are 82,187 families, 900 priests and religiousand 30,000 youth participating directly in the family lifemovements of the ICCFM. In addition, there are hundredsof families who support the movement but are not includedin the count. Much of the growth in the movement is re-lated to increased numbers of families and youth participat-

ing in Latin America. The size of the movement is largestin Latin America followed in order by North America, Eu-rope, Asia and Africa.

The International Confederation of Christian FamilyMovements (ICCFM) is a confederation of organizationsand movements of Christian families. CFM/MFC supportsfamilies, helps them to grow and empowers them to reachout in action to their brothers and sisters in Christ. For morethan 60 years, the Christian Family Movement has been abeacon to families throughout the world.

ICCFM Country Members and Affiliates

AFRICAAngolaCameroonCentral AfricaEast AfricaGhanaMalawiNigeriaUganda

ASIAHong KongIndiaJapanPhilippinesSingaporeSouth KoreaSri LankaThailand

Carmen and Cyril D’Souza report that the9th Asia Continental Conference of CFM/CFSM will be hosted by CFM PhilippinesThursday 25th October to Sunday 28th October2012 at Betania Retreat House of Religious ofthe Virgin Mary Congregation, Lahug, CebuCity, Philippines.

Asian CFM meets every three years in theyear preceding the ICCFM World Assembly.The last assembly was in Raiburi, Thailand.

The theme of the meeting in Cebu City willbe announced at a later date.

Bangalore CFM sponsored an awareness pro-gram about human trafficking presented by theorganization Justice and Care and INSA-India(International Services Association) on April 22at Ascension Church in Bangelore.

Human trafficking is reported to be the thirdlargest business in Bangalore. The program,which was open to all interested persons, waswell attended and the crowd overflowed theroom set aside for the presentation.

Local president Judith D’Souza told us thatthe event was organized and sponsored by thesenior CFM group in the city. Participants wereencouraged to take some form of action as a re-sult of their new awareness.

According to D’Souza, “Some committed toactively participating in the raids, some to do-nating to the cause, some to praying.” Postersand other types of literature were available forparticipants to take and distribute appropriately.

D’Souza also reported that CFM Bangalorehas an intercessory prayer group that will be up-dated on prayer concerns around this issue.Some attendees committed to organizing pro-grams on trafficking in other parishes or institu-tions

CFM Bangalore is scheduled to hold elec-tions at its annual meeting on July 29.

Judith and Richard D’Souza’s term as presi-dent couple ends at that time.

Following are reports from the continents that were submitted for publication in the Sum-mer issue of LINK/LAZO.

ASIA

Bangalore CFM acts on topic of Human Trafficking

EUROPECroatiaCzech

RepublicHungaryItalyLatviaMaltaPortugalRomaniaSlovakiaSpain

EUROPE

After celebrating the 15th anniversary ofMECS in 2011, our service has continued faith-fully.

Today about 120 parish-based CFM groupswork in Hungary in 12 regions led by 12 cou-ples. The couples use printed booklets with de-tailed outlines for 10 monthly meetings each.The booklets are devised by a board of couplesand revised by priests. The group leaders re-ceive the booklets at their regional meetings

held twice a year. Regional leader couples alsomeet twice a year. This spring they also at-tended a spiritual weekend presented for theMECS leaders with Bishop Janos Szekely, aux-iliary Bishop for the Budapest-EsztergomArchdiocese.

MECS regularly presents Fr. Gabriel Calvo’sFIRES (original Encounter) programs with thehelp of 10 organizer couples and four priests.Father Calvo’s programs are for teenagers, en-

Hungary 2012: MECS (CFM/FIRES)

gaged and married couples, individu-als, and priests, both inside and outsideof CFM. These programs are the mainsource of new young couples joiningCFM and starting new groups, espe-cially the Engaged Encounter, organ-ized six times a year, with anattendance of about 120 young couplesper year.

Many couples and groups find usalso through the internet. We have twowebsites available in English and Hun-garian: www.cfm.org.hu andwww.fires.hu

With the assistance of the HungarianCFM/FIRES team, all of the booksand booklets by Fr. Gabriel Calvo

have been made available on the inter-net through the FIRES website. TheEnglish, Japanese and Spanish transla-tions of the books can be downloadedfree of charge fromhttp://www.fires.hu/download.php.

The valuable online resource in-cludes:

• Face to Face: a practical workbookfor married couples

• Hand in Hand: a marriage prepara-tion workbook for engaged couples

• Family Energy: a guidebook forfamilies to release the energy of love

• Within and Beyond: a uniqueguidebook for discovering oneself

• Dialogues for Sons and Daughters:outlines for meetings of young people

• A book on the history of MarriageEncounter

• A booklet describing most of theprograms devised by Fr. Calvo

• A collection of testimonies of peo-ple from all over the world for whomthe experiences set forth by Fr. GabrielCalvo have brought joy and given newmeaning to their lives.

Ambitious plans are being made fora MECS pilgrimage to San GiovannniRotondo, Italy, to the shrine of SaintPadre Pio in October of 2012.

Balazs and Krisztina MenesiPresident coupleMECS (CFM/FIRES) Hungary

CFM Portugal (the Portuguese Christian HomeMovement) is celebrating its 50th anniversary. It was foundedby the Portuguese Father Joaquim Alves Brás in 1962.

This celebration has included several events, butmainly a pilgrimage to Fatima on the 20th May, which wasorganized by all the founder’s institutions: the Family Co-op-erators’ Secular Institute, Santa Zita’s Work, Family Co-op-eration Centres (of children’s education) and the youthmovement, Hope Focus. There were about 2000 people.

The main theme of the jubilee was “Family, discoveryourself in your essential task: communion and testimony”.The lecture was given by Msgr. Augusto Cesar, emeritusbishop of Portalegre/ Castelo Branco at Paul VI Hall. Therewere several performances of music, folk dance, ballet, the-atre and two couples’ testimonies.

Two books were also edited: História do MLC: 50

anos ao serviço da Família, da Sociedade e da Igreja andFamília. 50 anos de partilha, estudo e oração, (a collectionof the the main support texts of the Movement month meet-ings).

In the past three years the MLC has established a newunit in Cabinda, Angola. MLC members lead monthly meet-ings and gather in pilgrimages to some of the Portuguesesanctuaries and celebrations during special religious and fam-ily traditional feasts such as Christmas. MLC guidelines fornew units have been prepared. It also organizes sessions foryoung couples who are preparing to get married.

CFM (MLC) Portugal has integrated several nationalmovements that also work for the family.

Antonio & Maria MonizMLC – Portugal

Gruppi Familji Nsara (GFN)Groups of the Christian Family Movement in Malta

The year 2011 was a special mile-stone for Malta’s Gruppi Familji Nsara(Christian Family Groups). The 450members who comprise the 56 differ-ent GFN groups celebrated the 40thanniversary of the Groups’ foundation.

The GFN is part of the Cana Move-ment founded by Msgr. Charles Vellawith the aim to help persons preparefor marriage, to help couples and fami-lies grow in life, joy and stability and

to stand by couples and individualswhen they are facing difficulties inmarriage. The mission of the CanaMovement is to present marriage as arelationship that is lifelong, faithfuland open to life. GFN groups were anatural introduction into Cana 40 yearsago. GFN is present in 37 parishes inMalta and its sister island of Gozo.

It goes without saying that 2011 wit-nessed a new effort to introduce the

Groups in parishes still lacking theirpresence. Contact was made with noless than 14 parishes, with four takingan immediate initiative to form newgroups. For logistical reasons, a couplefrom the Central Committee wasspecifically appointed to co-ordinatethis task.

Preparation for the yearly handbookto be used starting in January 2012during the Groups’ monthly meetings

Portugal: CFM celebrates fiftieth anniversary

IN MEMORIAM

It is with greatsadness that wereport the passingof Tony Gauci ofMalta on January26.

Tony and hiswife Lily weretireless workersfor the ICCFM inEurope andthroughout theworld.

They were pastmembers of theICCFM Secretariat, served for many years asNGO representatives for ICCFM to the U.N.and were vibrant leaders in Malta.

Tony and Lily’s positive impact on familieswas enormous. Their work will continue to rip-ple out to untold thousands of families in theyears to come.

Tony will be greatly missed by his manyCFM and ICCFM friends. May he rest in peaceand may the Lord and his angels bring comfortto Lily and their children.

was, as always, an important pri-ority. Formulated against the40th anniversary backdrop andspearheaded by the Spiritual For-mation Commission, Skemi 2012was launched during a socialevent for Lead Couples in De-cember 2011. The main themepresented for the year is actuallyGFN Malta’s own identity state-ment, namely: “We bear livingwitness to God’s love for uswhen we live to the full our callin marriage.” Apart from theusual monthly scheme of meet-ings, Skemi 2012 also includes aschedule of regular prayer to befollowed by the couple at home,and an outline plan for a spiritualretreat to be followed by thegroup.

2011 also saw national meet-ings during Lent and Advent,with the former laying specialemphasis on discussion about theintroduction of divorce legisla-tion in Malta. In the light of this,GFN Malta issued a statement tothe press promoting marriage’sindissolubility. The Groups alsoparticipated in a related FamilyFestival held in May in favor of

family life and Christian mar-riage.

The year’s highlight and cli-max was definitely the HighMass in the packed Co-Cathedralof St John in Malta’s capital,Valletta, on Saturday 15th Octo-ber, commemorating GFNMalta’s 40th anniversary. Themain celebrant, Archbishop PaulCremona O.P., was assisted by,amongst others, GFN Malta’sNational Chaplain Father JosephMizzi and Assistant NationalChaplain Father Carmel Mer-cieca.

2011 also marked the end ofthe Central Committee’s three-year term, Tony and MiriamSammut having served two con-secutive terms as president cou-ple, nominations for committeeseats were entertained. By De-cember, Cana Movement’sCouncil had screened the nomi-nations received and James andMarica Chappell from the GruppSagra Familja (Holy FamilyGroup) of Dingli were appointednew President Couple by Arch-bishop Cremona.

TONY GAUCI

Spanish CFMReaching out with ‘Families for Families

Spanish CFM has a groundbreakingsocial program called “Families forFamilies” to reach out to needy fami-lies to provide a wide range of serv-ices based on the approach ofwelcoming, listening to and assistingdistressed families in a loving way.This CFM Service has assisted hun-dreds of poverty-stricken families inSpain which is in the throes of a terri-ble economic crisis with high unem-ployment which has resulted in morethan one million Spanish familieswith all their family members unem-

ployed.When a needy family is identified,

Spanish CFM members contact thefamily to determine its needs andalert the local chapter of the CatholicCharities and the appropriate publicsocial services. Local CFM membersare also informed and asked to pro-vide all available material assistance.In the case of illegal immigrants,Spanish CFM members inform thefamily of their legal rights and thepublic services to which they are enti-tled and assist the family members in

doing the necessary paperwork inorder to have access to the necessarypublic services and obtain residencypermits. Some Spanish CFM mem-bers provide free Spanish languagecourses and private tutoring to immi-grant children to enable them to at-tend the local schools, thus helpingthem to become more integrated intoSpanish society. Other CFM membersprovide material, legal and spiritualsupport to needy families with mem-bers in prison, who have no source ofincome.

The Christian Family Movement in Spain has always beenespecially concerned about the adequate preparation of cou-ples for marriage and parenthood. Members of the ChristianFamily Movement have been giving marriage preparationcourses for more than forty years in many Spanish dioceses.

The Papal exhortation “Familiaris Consortio,” and the“Family Ministry Directory published by the SpanishCatholic Church” explicitly underline the serious need toprepare couples for marriage.

This publication of the Christian Family Movement in Spainaims to assist future spouses in becoming committed hus-bands and wives and responsible parents according to theGospel teachings, so that they might live their vocation tomarried life to the fullest and teach Christian values to theirchildren.

The book is unique for several reasons. Firstly, six mar-ried couples and seven chaplains, all members of the Chris-tian Family Movement in Spain, have worked closely tocontribute valuable insights into marriage and parenthoodbased on their rich pastoral experience. This handbook willprove extremely useful not only to couples preparing formarriage, but also to recently married couples and those in-volved in the Church family ministry, who wish to delvemore deeply into the meaning of the Sacrament of Marriageand its profound relevance in the modern world.

This marriage handbook also provides answers to nineteenkey issues regarding married life and parenthood such as:“Why should we get married?” and “Why should we getmarried in the Catholic Church?” These issues go to the heartof Christian marriage and the responsibilities of parenthoodand they should be discussed by couples preparing for mar-riage and subsequent parenthood. Emphasis is placed on theneed to love and be loved, which are the essential elements

of all happy marriages.

Like all the materialspublished by the Chris-tian Family Movement inSpain, this handbook isdesigned for discussiongroups, personal reflec-tion and a fruitful dia-logue within the coupleitself.

Each chapter of this bookshould be read individu-ally and then discussed bythe couple prior to theirmeeting with other cou-

ples. The questions at the end of each chapter refer to themost important issues covered in that chapter and they willassist the group moderator in channeling the discussion in away that best benefits the couples who participate in thegroup discussion.

Each of the nineteen chapters begins with a Bible passage re-lated to marriage or parenthood that lends itself to personalreflection and subsequent group discussion. A chaplain canplay a useful role in this group discussion by responding toany questions raised by the couples on the meaning of theBible passage or specific Church teachings.

The book, which is already in its second edition, has beenpublished by the Salesian publishing house in Spain, Edito-rial CCS, www.editorialccs.com, and distributed worldwide.

Maria Rosa Maria and Ramon BernácerCountry President Couple of the Christian Family Movementin Spain

The latest publication by the Christian Family Movement in Spain‘PREPARÁNDONOS PARA EL AMOR CONYUGAL’ (HANDBOOK ON CHRISTIAN MARRIAGE AND PARENTHOOD)

World Meeting of Families held in Milan:Pope says, ‘family life is the first and irreplaceable school of social virtue’

Rosalinda Campos and Jorge Carrillo, vice-pres-idents of ICCFM, were present at the 7th WorldMeeting of Families held May 30 through June 3 inMilan, Italy. Members of the Christian FamilyMovement from Costa Rica, Argentina, Mexico, ElSalvador, Peru, Spain, Honduras and Ecuador alsoattended.

Taking advantage of the opportunity presentedby the World Meeting, representatives of El Sal-vador, Argentina, Mexico and Spain attended ameeting of ICCFMers organized by the presidentcouple of Spain. A married couple from Englandwho is working towards the establishment of theChristian Family Movement in London also at-tended. The Carrillos agreed to send them materi-als to help them in this task. Gary and Kay

Aitchison, worldwide presidents of theICCFM, sent their greetings to the group.The group also had time to become betteracquainted, pray and take many pictures.

The meeting consisted of three mainevents: a pastoral theological congress, afestive and testimonial gathering, and aclosing Mass. The theme for the meetingwas “The Family: Work and Celebration.”There was also a “Family Fair” with ven-dors of books and other materials avail-able during the meeting.

At the International Pastoral Theologi-cal Congress, key themes related to thefamily were touched upon. More than100 presenters spoke – bishops, pastoralworkers, academics, and other experts –presenting a realistic picture of the chal-lenges of family life. There were tenkeynote lectures and 26 panels at themain venue with additional work at theparishes across Milan and the region ofLombardy.

On Saturday, June 2 there was a “Feastof Testimonies” at Bresso Park. This meet-ing was organized around five questioners:a seven year old Vientamese girl asked thepope about his own experience of family,a couple from Madagascar contemplatingmarriage who shared their fears about thelifelong aspect of marriage, a family fromAthens, Greece who expressed their fearsfor the future of their family in this time ofeconomic crisis, a family from New Yorkwith six children who questioned the popeabout the balance of time between workand family, and a Brazilian psychothera-pist and his family who asked the pope for

a sense of hope in the face of all the pres-sures that families face.

On Sunday, in his homily during theMass closing the 7th World Meeting ofFamilies, with more than one millionfaithful present, Benedict XVI told cou-ples to remember that, despite the difficul-ties facing the vocation of marriage inthese times, love “is the only force thatcan truly transform the world,” the lovethat exists in marriage “is fruitful, foryourself, because you want and do good toeach other, experiencing the joy of receiv-ing and of giving.

“God created humans male and female,with the same dignity, but also with com-plementary characteristics, so that the twoare a gift to each other, they value eachother and conduct a community of loveand life. Love is what makes the humanperson an authentic image of God.

“Before you is the testimony of so many fam-ilies, indicating the ways to grow in love bymaintaining a constant relationship with Godand participating in church life, cultivating dia-logue, respecting the other’s point of view, beingready to serve, being patient with the faults ofothers, forgiving and asking forgiveness, over-coming possible conflicts with intelligence andhumility, agreeing on the educational orienta-tions, being open to other families, caring for thepoor, being responsible in civil society.

“All these elements build the family. Live to-gether with courage, with the assurance that asyou live in mutual love and love for all, with thehelp of divine grace, you will become the livinggospel, true Church.”

The pope announced that the next WorldMeeting of the Families will be held atPhiladelphia, PA, USA in 2015. Pope Bene-dict plans to attend. Philadelphia Arch-bishop Charles Chaput announced that thearchdiocese anticipates a meeting of 60,000to 80,000 people rather than the larger gath-erings that have been seen at other FamilyMeetings The archdiocese is facing finan-cial constraints at the present time. It an-nounced earlier in the summer that it hadsuffered a $12 million loss in the last fiscalyear.

Additional information about the WorldMeeting of Families can be found atwww.es.catholic.net and www.fam-ily2012.com.

LATIN AMERICA

ESTABLISHING BONDS OF BROTHERHOODLatin American president couple Luis Carlos and Marthica Pinel-

las report that the 25th Latin American General Assembly was con-vened in LaFalda, Argentina on October 30th, 2011 with the theme“FOR THE UNITY OF THE MFC IN LATIN AMERICA.”

In a report to Gary and Kay Aitchison, Luis Carlos and Marthicasaid, “We told you that we are missionaries in Chile and proceededto Uruguay on June 7. We have been on mission toCentral America in El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica. We also vis-ited the MFC in Venezuela. On June 15 we left for Mexico and wevisited the Dioceses of Monterrey, Queretaro, AguasCalientes and Chihuahua.”

LATIN AMERICA

MexicoCosta RicaHondurasEl SalvadorCubaGuatemalaPanamaColombiaVenezuelaRepublica

DominicaEcuadorPeruArgentinaBoliviaBrazilChileParaguayUruguay

These visits help in establishing bondsof brotherhood in the community. The Pinel-lases talked to the groups about the structureof the MFC in Latin America and LatinAmerican MFC’s commitment to theICCFM. “We speak to them of Resilience bywhich we mean the practice of being re-made. We also encourage participation inour Evangelical Solidarity Project in coun-tries that already use it and promote it inthose countries who will adopt it.” The ob-

ject of this project is to apply a new form ofevangelization and training within MFC,committed to the principles and vision of theSocial Doctrine of the Church. The move-ment’s leaders seek to promote a new com-mitment to MFC, capable of responding tothe demands of our time. MFC members arecommitted to solidarity, spirituality, educa-tion and promotion of the movement. In ad-dition, they challenge family disintegrationin modern society.

NORTH AMERICACanadaUnited States

CFM USAMFCCMFC LA

NORTH AMERICA

USA Board members and their families gather for a group photograph at the 2011 SummerBoard Meeting at the Cabrini Center, Chicago.

Luis Carlos and Marthica Pinellas stand in the center among leaders at the LatinAmerica General Assembly.

The National Association of Catholic Family LifeMinisters  (NACFLM) invited CFM-USA to partici-pate in the Marriage-Building Summit of NationalMarriage and Family representatives to be held July24-25, 2012 in Dallas, Texas.

CFM was invited because of our “long history ofworking on strengthening marriage within theChurch and have given a great gift to society andthe Church by their work.” Secretary couple DaveLanger and Donna Richard-Langer of Iowa andICCFM North American couple John and LauriPrzybysz of Maryland will attend. 

The Summit is being convened with the assis-tance of the United States Conference of CatholicBishops Committee and staff of Laity, Marriage,Family Life, and Youth. The purpose of the gather-ing is to bring together organizations that have beenworking in marriage and family ministry or “Mar-riage Champions” to discuss ways all the groupscan work together to build up marriages. The organ-izations are asked to identify how their efforts over-lap and find ways to collaborate for the commongoals of helping marriages succeed and influencingsocietal structures that impact marriage as an insti-tution.

Family Life Ministers invite CFM to marriage-building summit

At the Winter Board Meeting, March 2012, Bishop Rassas encouraged treasurers John and MaryPoprac, California, and Illinois representative Ken Kielisewski to continue the work of CFM for families.

CFM-USA hasadopted a new logo.The new image art-fully incorporatesboth an image of theHoly Family and asilhouette image of amother, father andchildren.

Local CFM action groups work with Knights of Columbus in Maryland to helpbuild an addition on the neighborhood food pantry. Below left, Ian Morfeld andTom Nappi cut a sheet of plywood. Below right, Ian Morfeld and Tom Nappi work atthe site.

MFCC presidents visit states of all membersEncourage families to service: Levanten, Animen, Motiven

Tony and Loly Layton, havecompleted one full year of service asnational presidents of MFCC andthey report they have traveled to allthe states where MFCC exists.MFCC serves approximately 5,300families of many different Hispanicnationalities.

At this time, MFCC is present inWashington, California, Arizona,New Mexico, Colorado, Kansas,Texas, Iowa, Mississippi, Alabama,Washington DC, New York, NewJersey, Massachusetts and NewHampshire. Each state is generallystructured as a region, however,large states like California and Texas

have multiple regions.

The national spiritual director ofMFCC is Padre Juan Rogelio Gutier-rez, from the Diocese ofBrownsville, and Auxiliary BishopOscar Cantu from the Archdiocese ofSan Antonio represents the MFCC-USA at the USCCB. Both have beenaware of the movement fromchildood. Padre Juan Rogelio’s par-ents are still active and BishopCantu’s mom is also active with agroup of single moms within theMFCC-USA.

Tony and Loly say they “striveto encourage our members to enjoy

the service of the Lord by using theletters “ LAM”. In Spanish they rep-resent, “Levanten (lift up), Animen(encourage) y Motiven (motivate)”.We feel that lifting, encouraging andmotivating each other can bringabout an attitude of love and com-passion and be for us the example ofour patron saints, the Holy Family,Jesus, Mary and Joseph. They areour inspiration and our models:Jesus, for His Love and giving HisLife for our salvation; Mary, forbeing obedient and faithful to theLord; and Joseph, for his commit-ment in caring for the family.”

LINK/LAZO publishes reports from groups using the Cardijn method of Observe-Judge-Act, actively participating inICCFM. Thanks to all the contributors!

Presidents Team Presidents: Gary and Kay Aitchison, gaitchis@iastate.edu Vice Presidents: Jorge and Rosalinda Carillo Campos, publitogrod@hotmail.com Chaplain: Father William T. Young, wtyoung@blessedsacrament.com

Past Presidents Team Past Presidents: William and Esilda Cheng, williamyesdilda@cwpanama.net Chaplain: Rev. R. F. Jose Majadas, OSA,

Working Secretariat Treasurers: Peter and Carolyn Broeren, pbroeren@aol.com Webmaster: Andy Pozdol, webmaster@iccfm.org NGO Committee for the Family: Csaba and Greta Horvath, Horvath@vati.hu and Horvath.greta@chello.hu Link/Lazo Editors: Paul and Jane Leingang, jeleingang@gmail.com

Continental Presidents Asia: Cyril and Carmen D’Souza,

manntiger@dataone.in Africa: Andrew and Bernadette Simango, andysimango@yahoo.com.uk Europe: Robert and Carmen Kimball, robertkimballp@gmail.com; Fr. Miai Tegzes, chaplain, mtegzes@yahoo.it Latin America: Carlos and Marthica Pinella, prela@mfcia.org North America: John and Laurie Przybysz, drsprzy@verizon.net; Fr. Donald Conroy, chaplain, dconroy@comcast.net

International Confederation of Christian Family Movements • Executive Secretariat