Archbishop Mgr Pawl Cremona OP said yesterday a negative message was sometimes being conveyed on marriage and the family and this was having a powerful influence on the break up of marriages and families, increasing the apprehension many young people felt about committing themselves to forming a family.

He was speaking in a homily at Mass celebrating the feast of St Francis de Sales, patron saint of journalists.

It was not all negative, he said. Very often proper consideration was given to events emerging from the world of the Church, such as liturgical celebrations and feasts. But importance should also be given to initiatives which could show another alternative to reality, especially to young people.

Every culture felt it would not be replaced. That is what the Roman Empire felt and today’s society resembled it greatly in its materialistic and hedonistic aspects, especially in the last years of the empire, before it dissolved. That was also what the two great ideologies of the last century felt – Communism and Nazism.

What would be left, Mgr Cremona said, and which would lead to their destruction, was that something in humankind which eventually distinguished right from wrong. They could call it man’s innate wisdom, or natural law. But it was certain that in man there was this power that distinguished right from wrong, which helped him overcome whatever was hindering his real human development.

Particularly in the West, it was a society and culture which for some was the summit of history. If this were so, it would be the first time ever that a culture was not replaced. But if they were to learn from history, even this culture would see its end. That was why it was important for there to be journalists and people from the social communications world who would be courageous enough not to base themselves only on what was popular, which earned money, or gave power, but also on what they saw as innately good.

Today’s culture depicted itself as liberal and pluralist but sometimes aspects of it arose which smacked of totalitarianism in the name of a dominant secularist ideology. It was censorship when Pope Benedict XVI was recently not allowed to speak at La Sapienza University. It was intolerance to call someone unreasonable who spoke from a Christian inspiration, rather than from a materialistic reflection.

The Church, Mgr Cremona said, was not there to impose. It was more comfortable today when the only power it had was the Message of the Word. What it asked was for room to be given to the values which emanated from Christian reflection.