Pope Francis cannot stress the importance of family enough, saying the joys brought by having a family have the ability to rescue a person from indifference and loneliness.

"Like Saint Peter, the Church is called to be a fisher of men, and so, too, needs a new type of net. Families are this net," the Pope told pilgrims who were gathered in St. Peter's Square on Wednesday for his general audience.

Families, he added, "free us from the sea of loneliness and indifference, so that we can all experience the freedom of being children of God."

The Catholic News Agency reported that the Pope touched upon the topic of families during his general audience with the theme, "The vocation and mission of the family in the Church and in the contemporary world."

Pope Francis said he would start a new catechesis on the "indissoluble" relationship between the Church and the family, explaining that the family today "requires our full attention and care, and the Synod must respond to this demand."

"When families journey along the way of the Lord, they offer a fundamental witness to God's love, and they deserve the full commitment and support of the Church," he said.

The Pope believes that families have the power to teach individuals about the bonds of fidelity, sincerity, trust, cooperation, and respect, and they learn to exercise these even during difficult times.

Not only that, but it is also in families where children learn the importance of honouring one's word and to respect one's and other people's limits, he said. They also give "an irreplaceable attention to members who are smallest, most vulnerable, wounded and devastated in life."

Pope Francis said the importance of family is often not supported by political and economic sectors, and this is why the Church needs to uphold it. For the Church, the family "is like her Magna Carta: the Church is and must be the family of God," he said.