Recently Fr John Giampietro PIME gave a talk in the parish. The content is about how couples adhere to and live out their marriage vows, how parents cultivate their children’s faith, and how they build up true faith and harmony in the family.

Rev. Giovanni Giampietro founded the “Hong Kong Family Movement” sixteen years ago. The goal and spirit of the movement are now printed below:

A brief introduction of the Hong Kong Family Movement

Background: In today’s generation lots of people question the value of marriage. Even Christian families are subjected to this great challenge. How to strengthen the relationship between couples and between parents and their children, to develop faith as the healthy base and vitality of the family community, is indeed a top priority.

Goal: To establish a Christian family community, centering on couples fulfilling their promise of marriage and educating their children in the faith.

Spirit: 1. Promote a religious life of faith in couples, living out their marriage vows with appreciation for and acceptance of each other.

2. Parents must implement the promises made during baptism of their children, taking on the mission of cultivating their faith. 3. Strengthen the relationship between parents and children, enabling their children to feel loved and accepted under mutual respect, so that they too will learn how to love, respect and accept others.

4. Promote communion between family members, strengthening the sense of belonging in the family, sharing responsibilities, joy and sorrow and experiencing the meaning of communal life. 5. Pay attention to all kinds of social issues and policies which affect the quality of family life.

Note: The Hong Kong Family Movement is a spontaneous religious community, made up of small groups of families. Each family group comprises of 3 to 5 families. These groups can be formed by district, age and occupation. Their activities are promoted and supported by the Diocesan office for Laity Formation Centre & Caritas Hong Kong. Any family who is interested in joining this movement may contact the Diocesan office for Laity Formation Centre at 25606622 for more information.

(Source: website of Diocese of Hong Kong)

In the Diocesan meeting of the year 2000, the Hong Kong Diocese strongly promoted and established the “the Diocesan Pastoral Commission for Marriage and the Family" (abbr. as “DPCMF”). The conference has suggested the following:-

Proposing to set up “DPCMF” to complement and support the plans and services of the “Marriage and Family Pastoral Committee”.

The diocese can set up the guidelines for “DPCMF”, which can also match with existing related parish groups, complementing each other or merging together.

The work of “DPCMF” may include – matching up and supporting the programs and services of the “Marriage and Family Pastoral Committee”: i) match up the plans of the Committee to provide pre-marital preparation and continuation of marriage counselling; ii) implement in a practical way the program of “Natural Family Planning” promoted by the Committee; iii) recommend to the Committee mature and potential couples to participate in the pastoral service of marriage and family life, including becoming volunteers for a longer term.

Other: iv) complement and implement the plans of the marriage and Parish Council (Parish Pastoral Council) v) arranging different types of activities to promote family harmony and cohesion; vi) organizing couples and family gatherings along with promoting family prayer; vii) making good use of the traditional festivals (Father’s Day, Mother’s Day etc.) or other celebrations (Birthday or anniversaries etc) to promote family life and enhance the relationship between parents and their children. viii) promote family visits, to put love and care into action and to enhance a community sense of belonging; ix) to care about the elderly, couples separated by off-site, single parent families, child abuse and domestic violence issues within the parish; x) strengthen marriage and family counseling services; xi) the establishment of marriage and family nurturing library; xii) provide appropriate referral services for those experiencing red light marriage or broken marriage both physical and mentally; xiii) to foster the correct idea of marriage, family values and mature personality such as: learning to establish a good relationship with the family, the philosophy of making friends, emotional stability etc.); xiv) to pass on the positive message of a content and happiness marriage to the youth, particularly through attractive mediums such as drama and music.

To save resources and encourage more Catholics to participate, some of the above may be considered in implementing through the head office of the parish.

(Source: the website of Diocese of Hong Kong)

Someone asks what is the relationship of “the Hong Kong Family Movement” and “DPCMF”? Fr John Giampietro replied, “Both can be synchronized but cannot replace each other. He believes “the Hong Kong Family Movement” focuses more on specific family “internal” trainings, while the goal to set up the “DPCMF” is to provide different activities for the parish families and the position of the members can be replaced from time to time, it is different in need to the members of “the Hong Kong Family Movement”.

In any case, the divine graces are different, but the goal is the same to establish the mystical body of Christ: the Church.