Vatican City - The Vatican issued its traditional good wishes to Muslims on Friday for their holy month of Ramadan, calling on them to work with Christians to defend the "dignity" of the traditional family.

The Vatican's top official for relations with Muslims, Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran wrote that the family offered "a mutually topical subject" on which to reflect.

"The development of both the human person and of society depends largely on the healthiness of the family," wrote Tauran, who heads the Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue.

Tauran referred to a document produced by the Catholic Church's Second Vatican Council in the 1960s in which the traditional family centred on marriage between a man and a woman was re-affirmed and held up as the "fundamental cell of society."

"How many people carry, sometimes for the whole of their lives, the weight of the wounds of a difficult or dramatic family background? How many men and women now in the abyss of drugs or violence are vainly seeking to make up for a traumatic childhood?" Tauran wrote.

"Muslims and Christians must never hesitate, not only to come to the aid of families in difficulty, but also to collaborate with all those who support the stability of the family as an institution and the exercise of parental responsibility, in particular in the field of education," he added.

The Vatican published the message in Arabic, Italian, French and English versions. (dpa)