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T. Walsh: Building One Family Under God, One Family at a Time
Written by Dr. Thomas G. Walsh, UPF Secretary General
Monday, May 18, 2009
Address at a Celebration of the UN International Day of Families
UN Headquarters, New York, USA
May 18, 2009
UPF has called for all its chapters to celebrate the International Day of Families. You have seen slides from some of the programs convened in many parts of the world. There is no more important task that to work to strengthen the institution whereby we not only reproduce the human species but educate, nurture, and train the members of our species to be truly human, that is, beings who aspire to and achieve the highest levels of moral, spiritual, and professional excellence.
Sons and daughters who are the peacebuilders the world needs.
Before any human being enters a classroom, or a place of work, or before they enter a mosque, synagogue, temple or church, they are nurtured by a mother and a father who teach them what the world is really like.
- The family is the school of love.
- The family is the school of peace.
- The family is the first seminary or theological school.
- The family is the first school of citizenship.
In UPF’s “Declaration on Families” we underscore 5 recommendations:
- The family is the central building block of society and the instrument of reconciliation and peace.
- The family is the universal school of love and ethics.
- Marriage and family are the basis of human development.
- We must focus on strengthening the family if we are to build a world of lasting peace and prosperity for all.
- Global solidarity, as One Family under God, is built one family at a time; we all share a common heritage, deriving from one common origin.
Before we are Christians or Jews, Muslims or Hindus, Sikh or Jain, Buddhist or Baha'i, we are sons and daughters of God. Before we are Chinese or Nigerian, American or Japanese, German or Indonesian, Brazilian or Russian, we are sons and daughters of God.
We are all members of one human family under God.
If we can grasp this essential truth, then we can begin to see hope to resolve the conflicts in the Middle East, in Israel and Palestine, in Kenya, in South Asia or the South Caucasus, on the Korean Peninsula, the Taiwan Strait, or Mindanao.
Thank you for attending this program today. Let us work together to build a world of lasting peace, beginning with ourselves and with our own families.