14. For all these reasons, in the Apostolic Exhortation Familiaris Consortio ≈ which brings together the results of the 1980 Synod on the Family ≈ His Holiness John Paul II indicates that "More than ever necessary in our times is preparation of young people for marriage and family life" (FC 66). He urges the promotion of "better and more intensive programmes of marriage preparation, in order to eliminate as far as possible the difficulties that many married couples find themselves in, and even more in order to favour positively the establishing and maturing of successful marriages" (Ibid.).

Along the same lines, and in order to respond in an organic way to the current threats and demands, it seems timely for the Episcopal Conferences to publish with some urgency "a Directory for the Pastoral Care of the Family" (Ibid.). In such Directories, the elements considered necessary for a more incisive pastoral care should be sought and delineated which aim at recovering the Christian identity of marriage and the family so that the family itself will succeed in being a community of persons at the service of human life and the faith, the first and living cell of society, a believing and evangelizing community, a real "domestic church, centre of communion and ecclesial service" (Ibid.), "summoned to proclaim, celebrate and serve the Gospel of life" (EV 92, and also 28, 78, 79, 105).