February 8, 2011. Benedict XVI asked Catholics to pray for society to respect the family and acknowledge its special contribution to society. According to the Pontifical Charter of the Apostleship of Prayer, this is his February intention in an initiative that involves 50 million people from around the world.

The family has always been an important issue for Benedict XVI. In 2006 he traveled to Valencia, Spain to preside over a World Meeting of Families, which was attended by 1.5 million people.

He told the pilgrims that the family is “the privileged setting where every person learns to give and receive love.”

Benedict XVI
"To recognize and assist this institution is one of the greatest services which can be rendered nowadays to the common good and to the authentic development of individuals and societies.”

During his recent trip to Barcelona, the Pope highlighted the fundamental value of marriage and family, which he called “the hope of mankind, and the place where life is welcomed. "

Benedict XVI
“The generous and indissoluble love of a man and a woman is the effective context and foundation of human life in its gestation, birth, growth and natural end. Only where love and faithfulness are present can true freedom come to birth and endure.”

Benedict XVI has called on all families to a new World Meeting of Families to be held in Milan, Italy in the summer of 2012.