What may we expect from the family? Surveys confirm that there remains in our time a great desire for family. This means that much is still expected from the family. But is this a well-founded expectation? A great desire does not in itself guarantee the happiness that is wished for. And when we look at the crisis of the family, we find that many of these desires suffer shipwreck. With sorrow we are thinking of the crisis of so many broken families, the worrying decline in birth rates in many countries, the children who are neither accepted nor educated by their parents. This leads us to reverse the terms of the question: In whom can the family place its hope? What is the basis of this great desire that resonates within the heart? These questions also pose a challenge for Christians: Can families hope in the Church? And what can they expect from her?

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