Fr. Patrick Troadec on His Book "The Catholic Family" (Clovis)
Father, you have been the director of the seminary of Flavigny for many years. How does the Catholic family concern the ministry of a priest charged with the formation of future priests?
At the seminary of Flavigny, my role is essentially to form future priests and religious, but I realize that the young men who knock on the seminary door are heirs. They owe much, especially to their parents. Indeed, it cannot be denied that the more solid the formation given by the parents to their children, the more stable, lasting and fruitful the vocations themselves are; hence this book that treats of the union of the couple, the education of the children and their future, of family life and of its influence in the Church and in society.
What is more, as I regularly prepare young people for marriage, it seemed useful to me to help the young faithful to know the outlines of their formation for this new state of life.
Today’s society is hardly supportive of the traditional family. We hear more and more today of broken families, of “single-parent” families… Is your book an overwhelming observation (yet another!) of this dramatic situation?
It is true that this book was written for persons living in the 21st century, in the present-day context of the loss of moral values, of the precariousness of many matrimonial unions, of unemployment and delinquency. But the present situation, dramatic as it may be, is not irreversible. There exist solutions. There are still today healthy, balanced, profoundly Catholic families that it is a joy to see. What is their secret? That is what it is important to know. Without pretending to give all the keys, this book gives the reader some pointers to reflect upon, that will be able to help him build a united, lasting and fruitful home. One enthusiastic reader wrote me after I had sent her a version of the book before it was complete: “Congratulations on your beautiful work. It absolutely must be edited; you will save couples.”
Does writing on the family mean offering general and abstract considerations to those who have a family life made up of very concrete daily concerns?
I am well aware that today many people have a hard time reading works that content themselves with presenting Catholic doctrine timelessly. So, without neglecting to recall the unchanging principles, thanks especially to pastoral letters from over forty bishops of France of the first half of the 20th century, it seemed to me necessary to illustrate and show the actuality of Catholic doctrine by presenting to the reader very concrete examples. The words of encouragement that I received from the first readers showed me that they found this practical and concrete side particularly interesting.
Thus this book that embraces at once the past, the present and the future of the family, was conceived as an apostolic tool, and I hope that it will help those who wish to work for the Catholic rebirth of France.
-Extract from Bishop Bernard Fellay’s letter to the author: “With the help of statistics, you are unfortunately obliged to describe the state of decomposition in which the family finds itself today in post-modern society. But you also feed the reader’s virtue of hope, showing him that there still exist truly Catholic families. The beautiful examples that you bring to your demonstration prove that Tradition, as it is lived in these families, is truly a living, and therefore livable, tradition, since these families show that it is really possible to live thus.”
Fr. Patrick Troadec, La famille catholique, Clovis ed., 630p. 22€
(sources: FSSPX/Flavigny – DICI#248 Jan 13, 2012)
