PIMENTEL COUPLE SPEAK ON ROLE OF GRANDPARENTS
AT WORLD CONGRESS OF FAMILIES

VALENCIA, SPAIN -- Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Nene Q. Pimentel, Jr. and wife Lourdes or Bing stressed the important role of grandparents in imparting Christian values to family members during the World Congress of Families at the Feria Mall in Valencia, Spain over the weekend.

Speaking at the Forum on the Role of Grandparents in the Family, the Pimentel couple said they try to show to their grand-children, by word and example, the kind of life as children of God they should live.

They said, however, they are conscious of their limitations as grandparents. They said they know that their role in shaping of the lives of their grandchildren is secondary only to the duty of their parents to help mold their lives directly.

Hence, our role as grandparents, as I see it is to respect the primary duty of their parents to make their children grow up in the love of the Lord so that they become not only devoted children of God but also useful citizens of our country, Pimentel said.

The Pimentel couple are blessed with six grandchildren through five of their six children.

The senator said that in discharging their duties as grandparents, they try to follow the rule of subsidiarity.

What their parents can do and ought to do, we leave to them. If we see that something needs emphasizing, we emphasized. If we see something needs to be done, we do it but again, mainly, as a remedial measure.

Pimentel said they are directly blessed in that they come from prayerful families that have passed on to their belief in the Almighty, their faith in the Church as Gods embodiment on earth and their love for humanity as the expression of Gods salvific vision for His people.

We try to show by example what it means to be our brother-keepers, what charity consists of, that the other side of right is duty, that happiness in life means serving others, not merely oneself, Pimentel said.

Above all, we try to teach them in so many words that the 10 Commandments are good guide to their own happiness in this world. And a sure insurance of continued happiness in the next.

Meanwhile, Couples for Christ lead couple Frank and Geraldine Padilla put the Philippines on the map of the Christian world at the 5th World Congress of Families in Valencia, Spain Saturday.

In the presence of Pope Benedict XVI, the Padilla couple spoke of the work that the Couples for Christ is doing to evangelize not only Philippine society but other peoples as well.

The Couples for Christ is famous for its Gawad Kalinga housing programs and for using philosophy to underline its evangelizing among the poor.