We live in a time in which “the mother of my children is not necessarily my wife”, but the family environment and the relationships generated within families have never been so much in debate. This is a time of family antagonism.
The month of March is an example of this. One day, we recalled and discussed cases of domestic violence, bringing to the public debate, in different ways, this social scourge that should interrogate us all in a very incisive way, leading us to question how death/crime can happen/ violence where there should be safety/comfort/love.
However, not days have passed since this necessary debate when real-life contests, or reality shows, where women are introduced to men in such a way that we feel there is less dignity there than when a sheep is sold at Ovibeja, or a mare is sold at the Feira da Golegã.
These real-life contests are instantly audience leaders, even though they take us back to times when women were objects and objects of political, financial, etc. agreements. , even if it is reading another magazine full of stories and “investigations” about each of the characters…
What amazes me most is that those who provide such spectacles do not question or reflect that it is precisely the devaluation of human beings and their most intimate relationships that is at stake and that makes any of us, especially women, historical and still - Unfortunately! – socially more vulnerable, being at the mercy of energimen who, of human beings, I apologize for the rawness, have very little.
On the other hand, and also providing us with another type of reflection on the importance of the family, the controversy over the existence of different family relationships within the current Government remains alive.
And, once again, it doesn't help to make family and family relationships a weapon of trust or political pitch, forgetting that belonging to a certain family group does not make us incompetent or, on the contrary, good professionals and excellent people.
More: being from a certain family should also not be a springboard for political escalation or for questioning and sifting through all our actions as citizens of a particular country.
But this only happens because we trivialize and vulgarize our family relationships, which must be the deepest, those where we know that there is an endless space of safety, comfort and love, despite all the differences that exist between human beings, even if they are familiar . Because it is in this relationship and in these affections that we build ourselves. They are the invisible evidence of our identity and our being.
I don't want to be, nor am I, a moralist. I try to limit myself to thinking and reflecting on what the world I live and inhabit presents to me in each moment.
But I know that if we are playing at families, making the creation of marriages and family relationships a contest (as if going back to medieval times), or political strategy, we only increase our schizophrenia and domestic violence.
The media and communication are infinitely greater than at the time of true and unfortunate feudalism. Today everything is known, even in the family and before the family. Why only on the moon there is no wind.
Author Father Miguel Neto is director of the Information and Pastoral Ministry of Tourism of the Diocese of Algarve, as well as parish priest of Tavira.
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