Dubrovnik, (IKA) — The president of the Croatian Conference of Bishops, Archbishop Cardinal Josip Bozanić of Zagreb, commented on the problems of the modern family during a Mass held in front of the Dubrovnik cathedral in commemoration of the 1,032nd celebration of the Feast of St. Blaise (sveti Vlaho), the patron saint of the historical city of Dubrovnik and the Dubrovnik Diocese. According to Archbishop Cardinal Bozanić, we live in a programmed and planned society, owing in great part to powerful economic interests ruthlessly targeting the family, decreeing the way people think, behave, make judgments and life choices, endangering the fundamental values of marriage and the family, even the very institutions of marriage and the family. He also said that the prevailing culture attempts rob the family of the fundamental value upon which it is based, the value of the religious relationship with God. “Infected by secularism, the family begins to define itself exclusively according to worldly and totally independent reality. It negates life’s connection with God, considering it entirely unimportant and without influence in making life decisions, explicitly rejecting it. In such a cultural atmosphere, the family can no longer consider itself to be a divine institution but simply as a creation of human intention, the fruit of human desires, left entirely and exclusively to the freedom of the individual. When the family is robbed of its fundamental Christian value, it is also robbed of other connections with God’s intention imprinted on the natures of a man and a woman. The family thus loses the need to be based upon the unique, exclusive, indissoluble and faithful love that is the fruit and sign of the union of a husband and wife. In such cases, the husband and wife forget, moreover negate, the authentic and profound significance of the word love: I love you, only you, forever! Thereby, they actually leave the door wide open to social and legal measures, lawsuits, divorces and remarriages between divorced persons,” explained the cardinal. He also warned of another harmful influence on the family concerning fertility, saying that regarding fertility, the family is called to bear witnesses to its readiness to have children, because as the Holy Father says, “without children there is no future.” The cardinal then warned that giving birth to children confronts a married couple not only with health, child raising or other difficulties, for example, uncertainty or fear of the future, but also with serious economic and other discouraging behavior from the society such as, for example, the high cost of children’s food, shoes and clothing. “Our cultural and social context actually often does not favor the family and the calling of parents. Many parents who would like to have more children are practically forced not to do so due to economic difficulties,” said the cardinal. He also spoke about all the things that modern times take away from the family, such as the beauty of family unity, solidarity with neighbors, hospitality toward travelers and the homeless, Sunday as a day of rest and holiday fellowship. As the main reason for the difficult state of the family in our times, the cardinal emphasized the incorrect definition of freedom: “Freedom is understood as an absolute and individual value. The unavoidable result of such a concept of freedom — absolutist and individualistic — is the ultimate privatization of marriage. Marriage becomes exclusively the concern of the individual. Thus, an individual can simply request recognition from the society and law, even partners who refute the difference and complementary nature of the sexes.” He urged families to work actively for the truth and the good of the family and marriage. “We must not stop at the sociological significance of family pluralism but we must try to understand the nature of marriage and the family in the light of faith and human understanding. Thus, it is essential that Christian families join together in defense of their own identity, that will be capable of unambiguous, consistent, fully valid, influential and sincere dialogue with all,” said the president of the Croatian Conference of Bishops.