The Australian Catholic Marriage & Family Council is pleased to offer the 2016 edition of the St Valentine’s Day initiative. This initiative is part of the Council’s ongoing desire to use the innate joyfulness of the feast of St Valentine to promote and affirm marriage and life-long romantic love.

In a culture that is increasingly intolerant of Christian values and beliefs, feasts that have captured the imagination of the secular community, like St Valentine’s Day, represent a unique opportunity for the Church. It is an opportunity for joyful support for deeply held life-giving values that are shared by many in the wider community. In doing so, we highlight the positive good that such values have and reinforce the need to protect them for the benefit of the whole community.

In this period of reflection following the two Synods on the Family, you are invited to use the resource to focus parish or school attention on the beauty and importance of marriage.