International recognition of the importance of rural families

During the month of May, we set aside a special day to celebrate and honor our mothers. But did you know that May 15 is the International Day of the Family?

This day was proclaimed by the UN General Assembly in 1993 and reflects the importance the international community attaches to families. The International Day provides an opportunity to promote awareness of issues relating to families and their social and economic needs.

The International Catholic Rural Association (ICRA) recognizes that the family at work in agriculture is a central subject to be considered by the international community, according to ICRA Secretary General, Vincenzo Conso.

Besides the International Day of the Family, the UN has instituted the International Year of Family Farming in an effort to highlight the economic and developmental aspects pertaining to this way of life and what it brings to the economy. “Rural families are present everywhere and particularly seen in the developing areas of Asia, Africa, and Latin America,” Conso said.

[Click here for more about the International Year of the Family Farm]

Catholic Rural Life executive director Jim Ennis, who currently serves as the president of ICRA, is working with fellow ICRA members to raise the stature of family farmers.  The ICRA staff, based in Rome, advocates the importance of agricultural families with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization as well as many other international bodies. ICRA members call for initiatives to make the rural world more visible to the world community: cooperation, development, and the battle against hunger.

Pope Francis spoke on this theme in a recent audience, wishing for “clearer appreciation of the innumerable benefits that the family brings to economic, social, cultural and moral growth of the entire human community.”

“In work, the family is a model of brotherhood in living out the experience of unity and solidarity among all its members,” the Holy Father said. The family does so “with a greater sensibility for those who are most in need of care and help, by preventing the outcrop of possible social conflicts.”

[Click here to see the more news from the Pontifical Council for the Family]