Parents' Day is a simple occasion offering an opportunity to recognize and promote parenting as a central vocation for our families and communities. Certainly we all know that we need more than just another day of celebration. Unfortunately, our popular culture over the past several decades has emphasized self-fulfillment and self-gratification. Such focus on the self runs counter to the essence of parenthood, which fundamentally involves sacrificial love.
National Parents' Day gives us an opportunity to focus attention on the centrality of strong and stable families to the well-being of society, and the essential role of committed parents to such families. It is true that we already have Mother's Day and Father's Day, but it is our conviction that children need both mother and father, preferably together. In a time when our nation struggles with effects of teen violence and alienation, more and more voices are calling for a re-examination of our priorities and fundamental values. Too often we have let other concerns take precedence over our responsibilities as parents. Yet is there any more important calling than that of nurturing and raising a child?
It is the nature of parent’s love to give totally for the sake of children. And the well-being of children is best served in the family that includes father and mother, faithful husband and wife. Through Parents’ Day activities, we hope that this simple but central perspective can be reinforced in a multitude of ways.
