When cardinals from around the world gathered in Rome in February for the consistory, they heard a lengthy exposition from Cardinal Walter Kasper, reproduced in part here, on the importance of the family – and of mercy when all is not well When we speak of the family and of the beauty of family, we may not proceed from an unrealistic, romantic ideal picture. We must also see the hard realities and share the sorrow, the worries and the tears of many families. Biblical realism can, in fact, provide a certain solace. It shows us that what we bemoan today is not something that occurs nowadays for the first time; in principle, it was always this way. We may not succumb to the temptation to romanticise the past and then, as is fashionable in many circles, view the present as a story of t