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maintains the basic values of its cultural past even today in whichever
cultural situations it is found. But it is also true that it would be unwise to
rely too much on the past experience of the traditional stability and sanity of
Southist families. Yet, Knānāya families are invited by the Church to go
beyond the borders of India with their treasured traditions to proclaim the
greatness of life as a gift from God, with the mission to be proclaimers of
the “Gospel of life”.

In the contemporary world, parents will find support in their
parenting when they are aware of the importance of faith formation and
education in moral values to establish intra- and inter-personal relationships
with God, the Church, and society at large. This paper recognizes that the
diocesan-level marriage preparation courses, which give special attention to
the mission of Christian family as Domestic Church and Sanctuary of Life,
and the richness of the family customs of the Southists are of great
importance for the local Church, the wider Church, and the good of society.

This study also recognized that Christian families face a number of
contemporary challenges that affect the process of becoming a Sanctuary of
Life. The values and preferences of the family have undergone vast changes.
Families are encouraged to realise that their identity as a community and
their rich family traditions invite them to a special responsibility to serve
life in a better way and to witness the Christian faith to the whole world.
This responsibility is called the “Knānāya responsibility”. Despite the
changes in society and in family values, families can exist today and
manifest the moral values of love, life, unity and sacrifice. “Let us hope that
we Christian families gradually respond creatively to the new changes, and
can relate our faithfulness to Jesus’ message to new way of living as a
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family”.
The universal Church is a communion of churches. Unity in the
Church must not be confused with uniformity. The Church has recognized
this cultural pluralism. Accordingly, cultural pluralism does not necessarily
harm the life of faith; rather it “can stimulate the mind to a deeper and more
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accurate understanding of the faith”. Pope John Paul II re-affirmed the need
for inculturation for the riches of the faith to be manifested ever more

6
GONZALEZ, MARIFE RAMOS, “The Family and Moral Decision; How Should the
Christian Family Respond to the New Moral Challenges of Today?” in LISA SOWLE
CAHILL and DIETMAR MIETH (eds.), The Family, 85-92, Concilium Series, VoI. 4,
Orbis Books, London, 1995, p. 73.
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Cf. SACROSANCTUM CONCILIUM OECUMENICUM VATICANUM II, Constitutio
Pastoralis: De Ecclesia in Mundo Hujus Temporis, Gaudium et Spes, no. 62, 7 December,
1965, in AAS 58, 1966, pp. 1025-1120.

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