Wojtyla’s new book was presented June 12, 2013, in the headquarters of the Pontifical Council for Family in Vatican City. The publication Costruire la casa sulla roccia. Esercizi spirituali per fidanzati was published by the Editorial House “Punto Famiglia” in collaboration with the John Paul II Pontificate’s Center for Documentation and Research. Three mediations, which form part of the new book, date back to the Cracow period of Wojtyla’s life and present his view on family and marriage. He came to Rome with the zeal of serving this important cause of Family’s wellbeing. He maintained this view and zeal during his long pontificate as Pope John Paul II.
Wojtyla gave these meditations when he was an auxiliary bishop in Cracow, during the spiritual retreat for engaged couples which took place in the church of Saint Anna, on December 19-21, 1960. These mediations had the purpose of showing young people the importance of the preparation for Christian marriage. After more than 50 years, the meditation were published in Polish in 2011 (Budować dom na skale), now available also in Italian.
During the presentation of the Italian version intervened msgr. Vincenzo Paglia, the president of the Pontifical Council for Family, Rev. Przemysław Kwiatkowski, assistant professor in the Pontifical Institute for Marriage and Family, Marta Brancatisano, writer and lecturer in the University of the Holy Cross and Antonella Bevere Astrei, president of Fiuggi Family Festival.
Msgr. Paglia, who is the author of the Preface for this publication, in his speech presented the situation of Italian families. In his opinion the situation is dramatically getting worst. Statistics show that the number of divorced couples has been growing drastically for the last ten years. Today, there are more than 2 million families in which children are brought in a single parent home. The speaker said Italy can be described as a society in deep crisis. “To form a happy family is possible and it is a beautiful thing” – Wojtyla wrote – therefore it is society’s responsibility to motivate young people forward in the movement of family first. Msgr. Paglia underlined that books such as presented one have a important role in answering of so many the young couples have today.
According to father Kwatkowski the Publication gives important guidelines for the engaged couples or married couples, helping them to know better the figure of John Paul II. The meditations are a testimony of the difficult time in which Wojtyla used to live and work as a priest and bishop. The lecturer stressed that the communist regime wanted to hurt the Polish nation on very sensitive issues, for example: in their liberty, the family, and the education of the youth. The regime was able to do everything possible to control the life of the Polish people and to surrender the life of the nation to atheist and Marxist ideology. This is the reason why communists precluded in the social level all the Catholic Church initiatives regarding the diffusion of the view on Christian family life. Wojtyla had to face this difficult situation when the only thing priests had was a pulpit in church and the accurate words to reach the hearts and minds of people – said fr. Kwiatkowski. In each page of this book readers can find what is essential for engaged and married couple and for family life. For example, regarding the Sacrament of Marriage, Karol Wojtyła spoke to the young people about responsibility, explaininig God is called to be a part of the marriage union. Therefore Wojtyla added that God is a witness for the Bride and Groom and He is not to be called in vain. Wojtyla’s meditations for the engaged couples, included in this book are still pertinent after so many years have gone by.