Bassi also highlighted a need for work-family balance to promote family life, including Sunday as “a common day of rest,” as part of a “right to disconnect.”
“It is possible to have a Europe where we workers are productive and also are able to enjoy valuable family time,” Bassi said. “Mothers and fathers need a balance of work and family life, for the sake of their children, themselves, and wider society.”
“Intergenerational balance is a prerequisite for intergenerational solidarity,” he told CNA. “Work-family balance is also crucial, so that parents are supported in their joyful responsibility of caring for their children.”
Bassi also emphasized encouraging pregnant mothers in their careers and giving them “the possibility to put their creativity and entrepreneurship to practice as well as motherhood.”
Protecting children from pornography
Another issue that Europe and the rest of the world faces is digital safety for children. As one 2023 study by the National Institute of Health describes, “Children are often exposed to psychological damage, abuse, and violence owing to a lack of internet monitoring.”
FAFCE encouraged the development of policies to protect children in the digital world, expressing to candidates the need for a European Parliament campaign to show the risks of exposure of children to pornography.
“It is Europe’s children that must be better protected too, particularly with the public health issue of pornography;” Bassi told CNA, “both with regards to the need to remove abusive material online but also to research the damage caused by widespread access and addiction to pornography, which is exacerbating an already alarming pandemic of loneliness.”
“Pornography exposure has been correlated with nonrelational or recreational sexual attitudes and behaviors in previous studies,” the 2023 study noted.
“We reiterate also that institutions have a duty to ensure that children are not consumers of harmful material online,” he continued. “Children’s exposure to po***graphy is already a form of online sexual abuse that our societies are tolerating.”
This story was updated on June 7, 2024, at 10:57 a.m. ET with additional quotes from FAFCE president Vincenzo Bassi.
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Kate Quiñones is a staff writer for Catholic News Agency and a fellow of the College Fix. She has been published by the Wall Street Journal, the Denver Catholic Register, and CatholicVote, and she graduated from Hillsdale College. She lives in Colorado with her husband.