Hajja Salesjana - May June 2016

Quo Vadis Famiglia? 26 According to us, the basic reasons that explain the why of the existence of the family, understood as the nucleus of human society, formed by a man and a woman having the intention of a long lasting bond and procreating children , are let us say, two. The first is the fact that man has the innate need of belonging. Nobody likes to be the child of no-one! In other words, we are all born with the need of parenthood, paternal and maternal. It is an inborn need and therefore so natural that the young child does not care much who has brought him/her into the world but more so who will take care of him/ her. If the three or four children that are born as you are reading these lines could speak, they would say “We are not stones: it is not enough that we exist. We are not plants: it is not enough that we breathe. We are not animals: it is not enough that we eat. We are persons: we need that someone looks after us: we really need to belong to someone!” There now; that is how we are made, all having the yearning for another heart . Whoever finds it lives; who does not, dies. We are not talking theoretically; we are mentioning facts that by and large have been proven by thousands of psychologists who have asserted 100% the truth of the inborn need of love of every newborn child. For this to be fulfilled, it is necessary to have these characteristics: be consistent, be personalized and be total . Well, it is only the familial womb that can give to the young one the love with these three characteristics. We are sorry that due to the limitations of space we cannot prove in detail that this is so. However, for brevity's sake, we would like you to know that we are quite convinced about what we are saying, that is, that the family is the ideal institution to satisfy the need of belonging, the natural human need of love with these three mentioned features. The moment that one finds an institution that will satisfy better these basic needs, we We will speak about facts proven by and large by thousands of psychologists who have asserted the innate need of love of every born human being. For this to be fulfilled, it is necessary to have these characteristics: be consistent, be personalized and be total. Article orginally printed in the Bollettino Salesiano 2015 and translated by Ray Scerri, Salesian Cooperator