Introduction

"And when they saw him they were astonished; and his mother said to him, "Son why have you treated us so? Behold your father and I have been looking for you anxiously." And he said to them, "How is it that you sought me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?" And they did not understand the saying which he spoke to them. And he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them; and his mother kept all these things in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom and in years, and in favour with God and man. (Lk. 2, 48-52)

My dear Sisters Daughters of Mary Hep of Christians, my dear Salesian confreres, members of the Salesian Family and friends of Don Bosco; my dear young people, who give joy and meaning to our lives, to all of you an affectionate greeting as we move from 2005 to 2006. I wish each and every one of you a year full of the blessings that God the Father of tenderness and mercy had in mind to grant us when he decided to send his son into the world so that we might have abundant life.

"The challenge of life" - said Pope John Paul II of revered memory  in his last address to the Diplomatic Corps in January 2005 - "has also emerged with regard to the very sanctuary of life: the family . Today the family is often threatened by social and cultural pressures which tend to undermine its stability; but in some countries the family is also threatened by legislation which - at times directly - challenges its natural structure, which is and must necessarily be that of a union between a man and a woman founded on marriage. The family, as a fruitful source of life and a fundamental and irreplaceable condition for the happiness of the individual spouses, for the raising of children and for the well-being of society, and indeed for the material prosperity of the nation, must never be undermined by laws based on a narrow and unnatural vision of man. There needs to prevail a just, pure and elevated understanding of human love, which finds in the family its primordial and exemplary expression. [1].

Accepting the Pope's invitation to defend life through the family, and prompted by the 150 th anniversary of the death of Mamma Margaret, mother of the educative family created by Don Bosco at Valdocco, I have thought it well to invite the Salesian Family to renew the commitment to Ensuring that special attention be given to the family, the cradle of life and love and where one first learns how to become human .

If it is through mankind that the Church fulfils its role, it is through the family that men and women pursue their destiny, the natural setting in which they open themselves to life and to their role in society. It is the place where their affective life flowers, the context in which they come to know themselves. The place where they learn to become human, the means by which their religious sensibilites develop, the family provides that stability necessary for the harmonious growth of the children and for the educational mission of the parents in their regard.

Believing in its crucial importance for the future of the human race and of the Church, John Paul II made the family one of the priorities of his pastoral programme for the Church in the third millennium: "Special attention must also be given to the pastoral care of the family , particularly when this fundamental institution is experiencing a radical and widespread crisis.. It is necessary to ensure that through an ever more complete Gospel formation Christian families show convincingly that it is possible to live marriage fully in keeping with God's plan and with the true good of the human person - of the spouses, and of the children who are more fragile [2].