Pope Francis asks broken marriages not to cause pain to children

The Pope Francisco He recalled that during confinement coexistence has been very hard for many marriages and many have experienced their breakdown and asked that “they do not stop seeking help so that conflicts can be overcome in some way and do not cause even more pain” to them and their children .

This is how it reads in the letter published today that Pope Francis wrote on the occasion of the year dedicated to the “La family of love“, Five years after the publication of the Apostolic Exhortation, and in which the pontiff also expresses” closeness and affection “to marriages that have broken down.”

“However, for some married couples the coexistence to which they have been forced during the quarantine has been especially difficult. The problems that already existed were aggravated, generating conflicts that many times have become almost unbearable. Many have even experienced the breakdown of a marriage that had been enduring a crisis that was not known or could not be overcome, “he explained.

For the Pope “the breakdown of a conjugal relationship generates a lot of suffering due to the disappointment of so many illusions; the lack of understanding provokes discussions and wounds that are not easy to repair” and “neither is it possible for children to save the suffering of seeing that their parents they are not together anymore”.

But she advised: “Still, don’t stop seeking help so that conflicts can somehow be overcome and do not cause even more pain between you and your children“And that they seek forgiveness” that heals every wound. “

Although he also explained that the pandemic and confinement has had as a positive thing to increase “the time spent together” and this has been “a unique opportunity to cultivate family dialogue”.

“Of course, this requires a special exercise of patience, it is not easy to be together all day when in the same house you have to work, study, recreate and rest,” he said.

And he added: “That fatigue does not beat them, that force of love Encourage them to look more at the other, at the spouse, at the children, than at their own fatigue ”.

To young people preparing for marriage, Francisco warned that “if before it was difficult to project a future when it was difficult to find a stable job, now it increases even more with the situation of job uncertainty.”

For this reason, he invited the couple “not to be discouraged, to have the creative courage that Saint Joseph had“And not hesitate” to lean on your own families and friends, in the ecclesial community, in the parish, to live conjugal and family life learning from those who have already walked the path that you are beginning. “

Regarding the grandparents and grandmothers “who during the time of isolation were deprived of seeing and being with their grandchildren” and the elderly who lived in these days “even more radically loneliness”, the pope affirmed that “the family cannot do without grandparents, they are the living memory of humanity”.

He also reminded spouses that “children, and especially young people, observe you carefully and seek in you the testimony of a strong and trustworthy love.” “How important it is that young people see with their own eyes the love of Christ alive and present in the love of married couples!, who testify with their concrete life that love is possible forever! ”, he added.

The pope reiterated one of his advice: “Never end the day with the family without making up.” “Do not be ashamed to kneel together before Jesus in the Eucharist to find moments of peace and a mutual gaze made of tenderness and kindness. Or to take the other’s hand, when he is a little angry, to get a knowing smile from him. Perhaps say a short prayer, recited aloud together, before falling asleep at night, ”he advised. (I)