APOSTOLIC
EXHORTATION OF HIS HOLINESS POPE JOHN
PAUL II ON THE FAMILY
TO THE EPISCOPATE TO
THE CLERGY AND TO THE FAITHFUL OF THE
WHOLE CATHOLIC CHURCH
INTRODUCTION
1. The family in the modern
world, as much as and perhaps more than
any other institution, has been beset
by the many profound and rapid changes
that have affected society and culture.
Many families are living this situation
in fidelity to those values that constitute
the foundation of the institution of
the family. Others have become uncertain
and bewildered over their role or even
doubtful and almost unaware of the ultimate
meaning and truth of conjugal and family
life. Finally, there are others who
are hindered by various situations of
injustice in the realization of their
fundamental rights.
Knowing that marriage and the family
constitute one of the most precious
of human values, the church wishes to
speak and offer her help to those who
are already aware of the value of marriage
and the family and seek to live it faithfully,
to those who are uncertain and anxious
and searching for the truth, and to
those who are unjustly impeded from
living freely their family lives. Supporting
the first, illuminating the second and
assisting the others, the church offers
her services to every person who wonders
about the destiny of marriage and the
family.[1]
In a particular way the church addresses
the young, who are beginning their journey
toward marriage and family life, for
the purpose of presenting them with
new horizons, helping them to discover
the beauty and grandeur of the vocation
to love and the service of life.
2. A sign of this profound interest
of the church in the family was the
last Synod of Bishops, held in Rome
from Sept. 26 to Oct. 25, 1980. This
was a natural continuation of the two
preceding synods:[2] The Christian family,
in fact, is the first community called
to announce the Gospel to the human
person during growth and to bring him
or her, through a progressive education
and catechesis, to full human and Christian
maturity.
Furthermore, the recent synod is logically
connected in some way as well with that
on the ministerial priesthood and on
justice in the modern world. In fact,
as an educating community, the family
must help man to discern his own vocation
and to accept responsibility in the
search for greater justice, educating
him from the beginning in interpersonal
relationships, rich in justice and in
love.
At the close of their assembly, the
synod fathers presented me with a long
list of proposals in which they had
gathered the fruits of their reflections,
which had matured over intense days
of work, and they asked me unanimously
to be a spokesman before humanity of
the church's lively care for the family
and to give suitable indications for
renewed pastoral effort in this fundamental
sector of the life of man and of the
church.
As I fulfill that mission with this
exhortation, thus actuating in a particular
matter the apostolic ministry with which
I am entrusted, I wish to thank all
the members of the synod for the very
valuable contribution of teaching and
experience that they made, especially
through the propositiones, the text
of which I am entrusting to the Pontifical
Council for the Family with instructions
to study it so as to bring out every
aspect of its rich content.
3. Illuminated by the faith
that gives her an understanding of all
the truth concerning the great value
of marriage and the family and their
deepest meaning, the church once again
feels the pressing need to proclaim
the Gospel, that is the "good news,"
to all people without exception, in
particular to all those who are called
to marriage and are preparing for it,
to all married couples and parents in
the world.
The church is deeply convinced that
only by the acceptance of the Gospel
are the hopes that man legitimately
places in marriage and in the family
capable of being fulfilled.
Willed by God in the very act of creation,[3]
marriage and the family are interiorly
ordained to fulfillment in Christ[4]
and have need of his graces in order
to be healed from the wounds of sin[5]
and restored to their "beginning,"[6]
that is, to full understanding and the
full realization of God's plan.
At a moment of history in which the
family is the object of numerous forces
that seek to destroy it or in some way
to deform it, and aware that the well-being
of society and her own good are intimately
tied to the good of the family,[7] the
church perceives in a more urgent and
compelling way her mission of proclaiming
to all people the plan of God for marriage
and the family, ensuring their full
vitality and human and Christian development,
and thus contributing to the renewal
of society and of the people of God.
4. Since God's plan for marriage
and the family touches men and women
in the concreteness of their daily existence
in specific social and cultural situations,
the church ought to apply herself to
understanding the situations within
which marriage and the family are lived
today, in order to fulfill her task
of serving.[8]
This understanding is therefore an
inescapable requirement of the work
of evangelization. It is, in fact, to
the families of our times that the church
must bring the unchangeable and ever
new gospel of Jesus Christ, just as
it is the families involved in the present
conditions of the world that are called
to accept and to live the plan of God
that pertains to them. Moreover, the
call and demands of the spirit resound
in the very events of history, and so
the church can also be guided to a more
profound understanding of the inexhaustible
mystery of marriage and the family by
the circumstances, the questions and
the anxieties and hopes of the young
people, married couples and parents
of today.[9]
To this ought to be added a further
reflection of particular importance
at the present time. Not infrequently
ideas and solutions which are very appealing,
but which obscure in varying degrees
the truth and the dignity of the human
person, are offered to the men and women
of today in their sincere and deep search
for a response to the important daily
problems that affect their married and
family life. These views are often supported
by the powerful and pervasive organization
of the means of social communication,
which subtly endangers freedom and the
capacity for objective judgment.
Many are already aware of this danger
to the human person and are working
for the truth. The church, with her
evangelical discernment, joins with
them, offering her own service to the
truth, to freedom and to the dignity
of every man and every woman.
5. The discernment effected
by the church becomes the offering of
an orientation in order that the entire
truth and the full dignity of marriage
and the family may be preserved and
realized.
This discernment is accomplished through
the sense of faith,[10] which is a gift
that the Spirit gives to all the faithful,[11]
and is therefore the work of the whole
church according to the diversity of
the various gifts and charisms that,
together with and according to the responsibility
proper to each one, work together for
a more profound understanding and activation
of the word of God. The church, therefore,
does not accomplish this discernment
only through the pastors, who teach
in the name and with the power of Christ,
but also through the laity: Christ "made
them his witnesses and gave them understanding
of the faith and the grace of speech
(cf. Acts 2:17-18; Rv. 19:10), so that
the power of the Gospel might shine
forth in their daily social and family
life."[12] The laity, moreover,
by reason of their particular vocation
have the specific role of interpreting
the history of the world in the light
of Christ, inasmuch as they are called
to illuminate and organize temporal
realities according to the plan of God,
creator and redeemer.
The "supernatural sense of faith,"[13]
however, does not consist solely or
necessarily in the consensus of the
faithful. Following Christ, the church
seeks the truth, which is not always
the same as the majority opinion. She
listens to conscience and not to power,
and in this way she defends the poor
and the downtrodden. The church values
sociological and statistical research
when it proves helpful in understanding
the historical context in which pastoral
action has to be developed and when
it leads to a better understanding of
the truth. Such research alone, however,
is not to be considered in itself an
expression of the sense of faith.
Because it is the task of the apostolic
ministry to ensure that the church remains
in the truth of Christ and to lead her
ever more deeply into that truth, the
pastors must promote the sense of faith
in all the faithful, examine and authoritatively
judge the genuineness of its expressions
and educate the faithful in an ever
more mature evangelical discernment.[14]
Christian spouses and parents can and
should offer their unique and irreplaceable
contribution to the elaboration of an
authentic evangelical discernment in
the various situations and cultures
in which men and women live their marriage
and their family life. They are qualified
for this role by their charism or specific
gift, the gift of the sacrament of matrimony.[15]
6. The situation in which the
family finds itself presents positive
and negative aspects: The first is a
sign of the salvation of Christ operating
in the world; the second, a sign of
the refusal that man gives to the love
of God.
On the one hand, in fact, there is
a more lively awareness of personal
freedom and greater attention to the
quality of interpersonal relationships
in marriage, in promoting the dignity
of women, to responsible procreation,
to the education of children. There
is also an awareness of the need for
the development of interfamily relationships,
for reciprocal spiritual and material
assistance, the rediscovery of the ecclesial
mission proper to the family and its
responsibility for the building of a
more just society. On the other hand,
however, signs are not lacking of a
disturbing degradation of some fundamental
values: a mistaken theoretical and practical
concept of the independence of the spouses
in relation to each other; serious misconceptions
regarding the relationship of authority
between parents and children; the concrete
difficulties that the family itself
experiences in the transmission of values;
the growing number of divorces; the
scourge of abortion; the ever more frequent
recourse to sterilization; the appearance
of a truly contraceptive mentality.
At the root of these negative phenomena
there frequently lies a corruption of
the idea and the experience of freedom,
conceived not as a capacity for realizing
the truth of God's plan for marriage
and the family, but as an autonomous
power of self-affirmation, often against
others, for one's own selfish well-being.
Worthy of our attention also is the
fact that in the countries of the so-called
Third World, families often lack both
the means necessary for survival, such
as food, work, housing and medicine,
and the most elementary freedoms. In
the richer countries, on the contrary,
excessive prosperity and the consumer
mentality, paradoxically joined to a
certain anguish and uncertainty about
the future, deprive married couples
of the generosity and courage needed
for raising up new human life: Thus
life is often perceived not as a blessing,
but as a danger from which to defend
oneself.
The historical situation in which the
family lives therefore appears as an
interplay of light and darkness.
This shows that history is not simply
a fixed progression toward what is better,
but rather an event of freedom, and
even a struggle between freedoms that
are in mutual conflict, that is, according
to the wellknown expression of St. Augustine,
a conflict between two loves: the love
of God to the point of disregarding
self, and the love of self to the point
of disregarding God.[16]
It follows that only an education for
love rooted in faith can lead to the
capacity of interpreting "the signs
of the times," which are the historical
expression of this twofold love.
7. Living in such a world, under
the pressures coming above all from
the mass media, the faithful do not
always remain immune from the obscuring
of certain fundamental values, nor set
themselves up as the critical conscience
of family culture and as active agents
in the building of an authentic family
humanism.
Among the more troubling signs of this
phenomenon, the synod fathers stressed
the following, in particular: the spread
of divorce and of recourse to a new
union, even on the part of the faithful;
the acceptance of purely civil marriage
in contradiction to the vocation of
the baptized to "be married in
the Lord"; the celebration of the
marriage sacrament without living faith,
but for other motives; the rejection
of the moral norms that guide and promote
the human and Christian exercise of
sexuality in marriage.
8. The whole church is obliged
to a deep reflection and commitment,
so that the new culture now emerging
may be evangelized in depth, true values
acknowledged, the rights of men and
women defended and justice promoted
in the very structures of society. In
this way the "new humanism"
will not distract people from their
relationship with God, but will lead
them to it more fully.
Science and its technical applications
offer new and immense possibilities
in the construction of such a humanism.
Still, as a consequence of political
choices that decide the direction of
research and its applications, science
is often used against its original purpose,
which is the advancement of the human
person.
It becomes necessary, therefore, on
the part of all to recover an awareness
of the primacy of moral values, which
are the values of the human person as
such. The great task that has to be
faced today for the renewal of society
is that of recapturing the ultimate
meaning of life and its fundamental
values. Only an awareness of the primacy
of these values enables man to use the
immense possibilities given him by science.in
such a way as to bring about the true
advancement of the human person in his
or her whole truth, in his or her freedom
and dignity. Science is called to ally
itself with wisdom.
The following words of the Second Vatican
Council can therefore be applied to
the problems of the family: "Our
era needs such wisdom more than bygone
ages if the discoveries made by man
are to be further humanized. For the
future of the world stands in peril
unless wiser people are forthcoming."[17]
The education of the moral conscience,
which makes every human being capable
of judging and of discerning the proper
ways to achieve self-realization according
to his or her original truth, thus becomes
a pressing requirement that cannot be
renounced.
Modern culture must be led to a more
profoundly restored covenant with divine
wisdom. Every man is given a share of
such wisdom through the creating action
of God. And it is only in faithfulness
to this covenant that the families of
today will be in a position to influence
positively the building of a more just
and fraternal world.
9. To the injustice originating
from sin--which has profoundly penetrated
the structures of today's world--and
often hindering the family's full realization
of itself and of its fundamental rights,
we must all set ourselves in opposition
through a conversion of mind and heart,
following Christ crucified by denying
our own selfishness: Such a conversion
cannot fail to have a beneficial and
renewing influence even on the structures
of society.
What is needed is a continuous, permanent
conversion which, while requiring an
interior detachment from every evil
and an adherence to good in its fullness,
is brought about concretely in steps
which lead us ever forward. Thus a dynamic
process develops, one which advances
gradually with the progressive integration
of the gifts of God and the demands
of his definitive and absolute love
in the entire personal and social life
of man. Therefore an educational growth
process is necessary in order that individual
believers, families and peoples, even
civilization itself, by beginning from
what they have already received of the
mystery of Christ, may patiently be
led forward, arriving at a richer understanding
and a fuller integration of this mystery
in their lives.
10. In conformity with her constant
tradition, the church receives from
the various cultures everything that
is able to express better the unsearchable
riches of Christ.[18] Only with the
help of all the cultures will it be
possible for these riches to be manifested
ever more clearly and for the church
to progress toward a daily, more complete
and profound awareness of the truth,
which has already been given to her
in its entirety by the Lord.
Holding fast to the two principles
of the compatibility with the Gospel
of the various cultures to be taken
up and of communion with the universal
church, there must be further study,
particularly by the episcopal conferences
and the appropriate departments of the
Roman Curia, and greater pastoral diligence
so that this "inculturation"
of the Christian faith may come about
ever more extensively in the context
of marriage and the family as well as
in other fields.
It is by means of "inculturation"
that one proceeds toward the full restoration
of the covenant with the wisdom of God,
which is Christ himself. The whole church
will be enriched also by the cultures
which, though lacking technology, abound
in human wisdom and are enlivened by
profound moral values.
So that the goal of this journey might
be clear and consequently the way plainly
indicated, the synod was right to begin
by considering in depth the original
design of God for marriage and the family:
It "went back to the beginning,"
in deference to the teaching of Christ.[19]
11. God created man in his own
image and likeness:[20] calling him
to existence through love, he called
him at the same time for love.
God is love[21] and in himself he lives
a mystery of personal loving communion.
Creating the human race in his own image
and continually keeping it in being.
God inscribed in the humanity of man
and woman the vocation, and thus the
capacity and responsibility, of love
and communion[22]. Love is therefore
the fundamental and innate vocation
of every human being.
As an incarnate spirit, that is, a
soul which expresses itself in a body
and a body informed by an immortal spirit,
man is called to love in his unified
totality. Love includes the human body,
and the body is made a sharer in spiritual
love.
Christian revelation recognizes two
specific ways of realizing the vocation
of the human person, in its entirety,
to love: marriage and virginity or celibacy.
Either one is in its own proper form
an actuation of the most profound truth
of man, of his being "created in
the image of God."
Consequently sexuality, by means of
which man and woman give themselves
to one another through the acts which
are proper and exclusive to spouses,
is by no means something purely biological,
but concerns the innermost being of
the human person as such. It is realized
in a truly human way only if it is an
integral part of the love by which a
man and a woman commit themselves totally
to one another until death. The total
physical self-giving would be a lie
if it were not the sign and fruit of
a total personal self-giving, in which
the whole person, including the temporal
dimension, is present: If the person
were to withhold something or reserve
the possibility of deciding otherwise
in the future, by this very fact he
or she would not be giving totally.
This totality which is required by
conjugal love also corresponds to the
demands of responsible fertility. This
fertility is directed to the generation
of a human being, and so by its nature
it surpasses the purely biological order
and involves a whole series of personal
values. For the harmonious growth of
these values a persevering and unified
contribution by both parents is necessary.
The only "place" in which
this self-giving in its whole truth
is made possible is marriage, the covenant
of conjugal love freely and consciously
chosen, whereby man and woman accept
the intimate community of life and love
willed by God himself,[23] which only
in this light manifests its true meaning.
The institution of marriage is not an
undue interference by society or authority,
nor the extrinsic imposition of a form.
Rather, it is an interior requirement
of the covenant of conjugal love which
is publicly affirmed as unique and exclusive
in order to live in complete fidelity
to the plan of God, the creator. A person's
freedom, far from being restricted by
this fidelity, is secured against every
form of subjectivism or relativism and
is made a sharer in creative wisdom.
12. The communion of love between
God and people, a fundamental part of
the revelation and faith experience
of Israel, finds a meaningful expression
in the marriage covenant which is established
between a man and a woman.
For this reason the central word of
revelation, "God loves his people,"
is likewise proclaimed through the living
and concrete word whereby a man and
a woman express their conjugal love.
Their bond of love becomes the image
and the symbol of the covenant which
unites god and his people.[24] And the
same sin which can harm the conjugal
covenant becomes an image of the infidelity
of the people to their God: Idolatry
is prostitution,[25] infidelity is adultery,
disobedience to the law is abandonment
of the spousal love of the Lord. But
the infidelity of Israel does not destroy
the eternal fidelity of the Lord, and
therefore the ever faithful love of
God is put forward as the model of the
relations of faithful love which should
exist between spouses.[26]
13. The communion between God
and his people finds its definitive
fulfillment in Jesus Christ, the bridegroom
who loves and gives himself as the savior
of humanity, uniting it to himself as
his body.
He reveals the original truth of marriage,
the truth of the "beginning,"[27]
and, freeing man from his hardness of
heart, he makes man capable of realizing
this truth in its entirety.
This revelation reaches its definitive
fullness in the gift of love which the
word of God makes to humanity in assuming
a human nature, and in the sacrifice
which Jesus Christ makes of himself
on the cross for his bride, the church.
In this sacrifice there is entirely
revealed that plan which God has imprinted
on the humanity of man and woman since
their creation,[28] the marriage of
baptized persons thus becomes a real
symbol of that new and eternal covenant
sanctioned in the blood of Christ. The
Spirit which the Lord pours forth gives
a new heart, and renders man and woman
capable of loving one another as Christ
has loved us. Conjugal love reaches
that fullness to which it is interiorly
ordained, conjugal charity, which is
the proper and specific way in which
the spouses participate in and are called
to live the very charity of Christ,
who gave himself on the cross.
In a deservedly famous page, Tertullian
has well expressed the greatness of
this conjugal life in Christ and its
beauty: "How can I ever express
the happiness of the marriage that is
joined together by the church, strengthened
by an offering, sealed by a blessing,
announced by angels and ratified by
the Father?!!! How wonderful the bond
between two believers, with a single
hope, a single desire, a single observance,
a single service! They are both brethren
and both fellow servants; there is no
separation between them in spirit or
flesh. In fact they are truly two in
one flesh, and where the flesh is one,
one is the spirit."[29]
Receiving and meditating faithfully
on the word of God, the church has solemnly
taught and continued to teach that the
marriage of the baptized is one of the
seven sacraments of the new covenant.[30]
Indeed by means of baptism, man and
woman are definitively placed within
the new and eternal covenant, in the
spousal covenant of Christ with the
church. And it is because of this indestructible
insertion that the intimate community
of conjugal life and love, founded by
the creator,[31] is elevated and assumed
into the spousal charity of Christ,
sustained and enriched by his redeeming
power.
By virtue of the sacramentality of
their marriage, spouses are bound to
one another in the most profoundly indissoluble
manner. Their belonging to each other
is the real representation, by means
of the sacramental sign, of the very
relationship of Christ with the church.
Spouses are therefore the permanent
reminder to the church of what happened
on the cross; they are for one another
and for the children witnesses to the
salvation in which the sacrament makes
them sharers. Of this salvation event
marriage, like every sacrament, is a
memorial, actuation and prophecy: "As
a memorial, the sacrament gives them
the grace and duty of commemorating
the great works of God and of bearing
witness to them before their children.
As actuation, it gives them the grace
and duty of putting into practice in
the present, toward each other and their
children, the demands of a love which
forgives and redeems. As prophecy, it
gives them the grace and duty of living
and bearing witness to the hope of the
future encounter with Christ."[32]
Like each of the seven sacraments,
so also marriage is a real symbol of
the event of salvation, but in its own
way.
"The spouses participate in it
as spouses, together, as a couple, so
that the first and immediate effect
of marriage (res et sacramentum) is
not supernatural grace itself, but the
Christian conjugal bond, a typically
Christian communion of two persons because
it represents the mystery of Christ's
incarnation and the mystery of his covenant.
The content of participation in Christ's
life is also specific: Conjugal love
involves a totality, in which all the
elements of the person enter--appeal
of the body and instinct, power of feeling
and affectivity, aspiration of the spirit
and of will. It aims at a deeply personal
unity, the unity that, beyond union
in one flesh, leads to forming one heart
and soul; it demands indissolubility
and faithfulness in definitive mutual
giving; and it is open to fertility
(cf. Humanae Vitae, 9). In a word, it
is a question of the normal characteristics
of all natural conjugal love, but with
a new significance which not only purifies
and strengthens them, but raises them
to the extent of making them the expression
of specifically Christian values."[33]
14. According to the plan of
God, marriage is the foundation of the
wider community of the family, since
the very institution of marriage and
conjugal love is ordained to the procreation
and education of children, in whom it
finds its crowning.[34]
In its most profound reality, love
is essentially a gift; and conjugal
love, while leading the spouses to the
reciprocal "knowledge" which
makes them "one flesh,"[35]
does not end with the couple, because
it makes them capable of the greatest
possible gift, the gift by which they
become cooperators with God for giving
life to a new human person. Thus the
couple, while giving themselves to one
another, give not just themselves but
also the reality of children, who are
a living reflection of their love, a
permanent sign of conjugal unity and
a living and inseparable synthesis of
their being a father and a mother.
When they become parents, spouses receive
from God the gift of a new responsibility.
Their parental love is called to become
for the children the visible sign of
the very love of God, "from whom
every family in heaven and on earth
is named."[36]
It must not be forgotten however that,
even when procreation is not possible,
conjugal life does not for this reason
lose its value. Physical sterility in
fact, can be for spouses the occasion
for other important services to the
life of the human person, for example,
adoption, various forms of educational
work, and assistance to other families
and to poor or handicapped children.
15. In matrimony and in the
family a complex of interpersonal relationships
is set up--married life, fatherhood
and motherhood, filiation and fraternity--through
which each human person is introduced
into the "human family" and
into the "family of God,"
which is the church.
Christian marriage and the Christian
family build up the church: for in the
family the human person is not only
brought into being and progressively
introduced by means of education into
the human community, but by means of
the rebirth of baptism and education
in the faith the child is also introduced
into God's family, which is the church.
The human family, disunited by sin,
is reconstituted in its unity by the
redemptive power of the death and resurrection
of Christ.[37] Christian marriage, by
participating in the salvific efficacy
of this event, constitutes the natural
setting in which the human person is
introduced into the great family of
the church.
The commandment to grow and multiply,
given to man and woman in the beginning,
in this way reaches its whole truth
and full realization.
The church thus finds in the family,
born from the sacrament, the cradle
and the setting in which she can enter
the human generations and where these
in their turn can enter the church.
16. Virginity or celibacy for
the sake of the kingdom of God not only
does not contradict the dignity of marriage
but presupposes it and confirms it.
Marriage and virginity or celibacy are
two ways of expressing and living the
one mystery of the covenant of God with
his people.
When marriage is not esteemed, neither
can consecrated virginity or celibacy
exist; when human sexuality is not regarded
as a great value given by the creator,
the renunciation of it for the sake
of the kingdom of heaven loses its meaning.
Rightly indeed does St. John Chrysostom
say: "Whoever denigrates marriage
also diminishes the glory of virginity.
Whoever praises it makes virginity more
admirable and resplendent. What appears
good only in comparison with evil would
not be particularly good. It is something
better than what is admitted to be good
that is the most excellent good."[38]
In virginity or celibacy, the human
being is awaiting, also in a bodily
way, the eschatological marriage of
Christ with the church, giving himself
or herself completely to the church
in the hope that Christ may give himself
to the church in the full truth of eternal
life. The celibate person thus anticipates
in his or her flesh the new world of
the future resurrection.[39]
By virtue of this witness, virginity
or celibacy keeps alive in the church
a consciousness of the mystery of marriage
and defends it from any reduction and
impoverishment.
Virginity or celibacy, by liberating
the human heart in a unique way,[40]
"so as to make it burn with greater
love for God and all humanity,"[41]
bears witness that the kingdom of God
and his justice is that pearl of great
price which is preferred to every other
value no matter how great, and hence
must be sought as the only definitive
value. It is for this reason that the
church throughout her history has always
defended the superiority of this charism
to that of marriage, by reason of the
wholly singular link which it has with
the kingdom of God.[42]
In spite of having renounced physical
fecundity, the celibate person becomes
spiritually fruitful, the father and
mother of many, cooperating in the realization
of the family according to God's plan.
Christian couples therefore have the
right to expect from celibate persons
a good example and a witness of fidelity
to their vocation until death. Just
as fidelity at times becomes difficult
for married people and requires sacrifice,
mortification and self-denial, the same
can happen to celibate persons, and
their fidelity, even in the trials that
may occur, should strengthen the fidelity
of married couples.[43]
These reflections on virginity or celibacy
can enlighten and help those who, for
reasons independent of their own will,
have been unable to marry and have then
accepted their situation in a spirit
of service.
17. The family finds in the
plan of God the creator and redeemer
not only its identity, what it is, but
also its mission, what it can and should
do. The role that God calls the family
to perform in history derives from what
the family is; its role represents the
dynamic and existential development
of what it is. Each family finds within
itself a summons that cannot be ignored
and that specifies both its dignity
and its responsibility: Family, become
what you are.
Accordingly, the family must go back
to the "beginning" of God's
creative act if it is to attain self-knowledge
and self-realization in accordance with
the inner truth not only of what it
is, but also of what it does in history.
And since in God's plan it has been
established as an "intimate community
of life and love,"[44] the family
has the mission to become more and more
what it is, that is to say, a community
of life and love in an effort that will
find fulfillment, as will everything
created and redeemed, in the kingdom
of God. Looking at it in such a way
as to reach its very roots, we must
say that the essence and role of the
family are in the final analysis specified
by love. Hence the family has the mission
to guard, reveal and communicate love,
and this is a living reflection of and
a real sharing in God's love for humanity
and the love of Christ the Lord for
the church, his bride.
Every particular task of the family
is an expression and concrete actuation
of that fundamental mission. We must
therefore go deeper into the unique
riches of the family's mission and probe
its contents, which are both manifold
and unified.
Thus, with love as its point of departure
and making constant reference to it,
the recent synod emphasized four general
tasks for the family:
I. Forming a community of persons;
II. Serving life;
III. Participating in the development
of society;
IV. Sharing in the life and mission
of the church.
I. FORMING A COMMUNITY OF PERSONS
18. The family, which is founded
and given life by love, is a community
of persons: of husband and wife, of
parents and children, of relatives.
Its first task is to live with fidelity
the reality of communion in a constant
effort to develop an authentic community
of persons.
The inner principle of that task, its
permanent power and its final goal,
is love: Without love the family is
not a community of persons and, in the
same way, without love the family cannot
live, grow and perfect itself as a community
of persons. What I wrote in the encyclical
Redemptor Hominis applies primarily
and especially within the family as
such: "Man cannot live without
love. He remains a being that is incomprehensible
for himself, his life is senseless,
if love is not revealed to him, if he
does not encounter love, if he does
not experience it and make it his own,
if he does not participate intimately
in it."[45]
The love between husband and wife and,
in a derivatory and broader way, the
love between members of the same family--between
parents and children, brothers and sisters
and relatives and members of the household--is
given life and sustenance by an unceasing
inner dynamism leading the family to
ever deeper and more intense communion,
which is the foundation and soul of
the community of marriage and the family.
19. The first communion is the
one which is established and which develops
between husband and wife: By virtue
of the covenant of married life, the
man and woman "are no longer two
but one flesh" 46 and they are
called to grow continually in their
communion through day-today fidelity
to their marriage promise of total mutual
self-giving.
This conjugal communion sinks its roots
in the natural complementarity that
exists between man and woman and is
nurtured through the personal willingness
of the spouses to share their entire
life project, what they have and what
they are: For this reason such communion
is the fruit and the sign of a profoundly
human need. But in the Lord Christ God
takes up this human need, confirms it,
purifies it and elevates it, leading
it to perfection through the sacrament
of matrimony: the Holy Spirit who is
poured out in the sacramental celebration
offers Christian couples the gift of
a new communion of love that is the
living and real image of that unique
unity which makes of the church the
indivisible mystical body of the Lord
Jesus.
The gift of the spirit is a commandment
of life for Christian spouses and at
the same time a stimulating impulse
so that every day they may progress
toward an ever richer union with each
other on all levels--of the body, of
the character, of the heart, of the
intelligence and will, of the soul[47]
--revealing in this way to the church
and to the world the new communion of
love, given by the grace of Christ.
Such a communion is radically contradicted
by polygamy: This, in fact, directly
negates the plan of God which was revealed
from the beginning, because it is contrary
to the equal personal dignity of men
and women, who in matrimony give themselves
with a love that is total and therefore
unique and exclusive. As the Second
Vatican Council writes: "Firmly
established by the Lord, the unity of
marriage will radiate from the equal
personal dignity of husband and wife,
a dignity acknowledged by mutual and
total love."[48]
20. Conjugal communion is characterized
not only by its unity, but also by its
indissolubility: "As a mutual gift
of two persons, this intimate union,
as well as the good of children, imposes
total fidelity on the spouses and argues
for an unbreakable oneness between them."[49]
It is a fundamental duty of the church
to reaffirm strongly, as the synod fathers
did, the doctrine of the indissolubility
of marriage. To all those who in our
times consider it too difficult or indeed
impossible to be bound to one person
for the whole of life, and to those
caught up in a culture that rejects
the indissolubility of marriage and
openly mocks the commitment of spouses
to fidelity, it is necessary to reconfirm
the good news of the definitive nature
of that conjugal love that has in Christ
its foundation and strength.[50]
Being rooted in the personal and total
self-giving of the couple and being
required by the good of the children,
the indissolubility of marriage finds
its ultimate truth in the plan that
God has manifested in his revelation:
He wills and he communicates the indissolubility
of marriage as a fruit, a sign and a
requirement of the absolutely faithful
love that God has for man and that the
Lord Jesus has for the church.
Christ renews the first plan that the
creator inscribed in the hearts of man
and woman, and in the celebration of
the sacrament of matrimony offers "a
new heart": thus the couples are
not only able to overcome "hardness
of heart,"[51] but also, and above
all, they are able to share the full
and definitive love of Christ, the new
and eternal covenant made flesh. Just
as the Lord Jesus is the "faithful
witness,"[52] the "yes"
of the promises of God[53] and thus
the supreme realization of the unconditional
faithfulness with which God loves his
people, so Christian couples are called
to participate truly in the irrevocable
indissolubility that binds Christ to
the church, his bride, loved by him
to the end.[54]
The gift of the sacrament is at the
same time a vocation and commandment
for the Christian spouses, that they
may remain faithful to each other forever,
beyond every trial and difficulty, in
generous obedience to the holy will
of the Lord: "What therefore God
has joined together, let not man put
asunder."[55]
To bear witness to the inestimable
value of the indissolubility and fidelity
of marriage is one of the most precious
and most urgent tasks of Christian couples
in our time. So, with all my brothers
who participated in the Synod of Bishops,
I praise and encourage those numerous
couples who, though encountering no
small difficulty, preserve and develop
the value of indissolubility: Thus in
a humble and courageous manner they
perform the role committed to them of
being in the world a "sign"--a
small and precious sign, sometimes also
subjected to temptation, but always
renewed--of the unfailing fidelity with
which God and Jesus Christ love each
and every human being. But it is also
proper to recognize the value of the
witness of those spouses who, even when
abandoned by their partner, with the
strength of faith and of Christian hope
have not entered a new union: These
spouses too give an authentic witness
to fidelity, of which the world today
has a great need. For this reason they
must be encouraged and helped by the
pastors and the faithful of the church.
21. Conjugal communion constitutes
the foundation on which is built the
broader communion of the family, of
parents and children, of brothers and
sisters with each other, of relatives
and other members of the household.
This communion is rooted in the natural
bonds of flesh and blood and grows to
its specifically human perfection with
the establishment and maturing of the
still deeper and richer bonds of the
spirit: The love that animates the interpersonal
relationships of the different members
of the family constitutes the interior
strength that shapes and animates the
family communion and community.
The Christian family is also called
to experience a new and original communion
which confirms and perfects natural
and human communion. In fact the grace
of Jesus Christ, "the firstborn
among many brethren,"[56] is by
its nature and interior dynamism "a
grace of brotherhood," as St. Thomas
Aquinas calls it.[57] The Holy Spirit,
who is poured forth in the celebration
of the sacraments, is the living source
and inexhaustible sustenance of the
supernatural communion that gathers
believers and links them with Christ
and with each other in the unity of
the church of God. The Christian family
constitutes a specific revelation and
realization of ecclesial communion,
and for this reason too it can and should
be called "the domestic church."[58]
All members of the family, each according
to his or her own gift, have the grace
and responsibility of building day by
day the communion of persons, making
the family "a school of deeper
humanity":[59] This happens where
there is care and love for the little
ones, the sick, the aged; where there
is mutual service every day; when there
is a sharing of goods, of joys and of
sorrows.
A fundamental opportunity for building
such a communion is constituted by the
educational exchange between parents
and children,[60] in which each gives
and receives. By means of love, respect
and obedience toward their parents,
children offer their specific and irreplaceable
contribution to the construction of
an authentically human and Christian
family.[61] They will be aided in this
if parents exercise their unrenounceable
authority as a true and proper "ministry,"
that is, as a service to the human and
Christian well-being of their children
and in particular as a service aimed
at helping them acquire a truly responsible
freedom, and if parents maintain a living
awareness of the "gift" they
continually receive from their children.
Family communion can only be preserved
and perfected through a great spirit
of sacrifice. It requires, in fact,
a ready and generous openness of each
and all to understanding, to forbearance,
to pardon, to reconciliation. There
is no family that does not know how
selfishness, discord, tension and conflict
violently attack and at times mortally
wound its own communion: Hence there
arise the many and varied forms of division
in family life. But, at the same time,
every family is called by the God of
peace to have the joyous and renewing
experience of "reconciliation,"
that is, communion re-established, unity
restored. In particular, participation
in the sacrament of reconciliation and
in the banquet of the one body of Christ
offers to the Christian family the grace
and the responsibility of overcoming
every division and of moving toward
the fullness of communion willed by
God, responding in this way to the ardent
desire of the Lord: "that they
may be one."[62]
22. In that it is, and ought
always to become, a communion and community
of persons, the family finds in love
the source and the constant impetus
for welcoming, respecting and promoting
each one of its members in his or her
lofty dignity as a person, that is,
as a living image of God. As the synod
fathers rightly stated, the moral criterion
for the authenticity of conjugal and
family relationships consists in fostering
the dignity and vocation of the individual
persons, who achieve their fullness
by sincere self-giving.[63]
In this perspective the synod devoted
special attention to women, to their
rights and role within the family and
society. In the same perspective are
also to be considered men as husbands
and fathers, and likewise children and
the elderly.
Above all it is important to underline
the equal dignity and responsibility
of women with men. This equality is
realized in a unique manner in that
reciprocal self-giving by each one to
the other and by both to the children
which is proper to marriage and the
family. What human reason intuitively
perceives and acknowledges is fully
revealed by the word of God: The history
of salvation, in fact, is a continuous
and luminous testimony to the dignity
of women.
In creating the human race "male
and female,"[64] God gives man
and woman an equal personal dignity,
endowing them with the inalienable rights
and responsibilities proper to the human
person. God then manifests the dignity
of women in the highest form possible,
by assuming human flesh from the Virgin
Mary, whom the church honors as the
mother of God, calling her the new Eve
and presenting her as the model of redeemed
woman. The sensitive respect of Jesus
toward the women that he called to his
following and his friendship, his appearing
on Easter morning to a woman before
the other disciples, the mission entrusted
to women to carry the good news of the
resurrection to the apostles--these
are all signs that confirm the special
esteem of the Lord Jesus for women.
The apostle Paul will say: "In
Christ Jesus you are all children of
God through faith . . . There is neither
slave nor free, there is neither male
nor female; for you are all one in Christ
Jesus."[65]
23. Without intending to deal
with all the various aspects of the
vast and complex theme of the relationships
between women and society and limiting
these remarks to a few essential points,
one cannot but observe that in the specific
area of family life a widespread social
and cultural tradition has considered
women's role to be exclusively that
of wife and mother, without adequate
access to public functions, which have
generally been reserved for men.
There is no doubt that the equal dignity
and responsibility of men and women
fully justifies women's access to public
functions. On the other hand the true
advancement of women requires that clear
recognition be given to the value of
their maternal and family role, by comparison
with all other public roles and all
other professions. Furthermore, these
roles and professions should be harmoniously
combined if we wish the evolution of
society and culture to be truly and
fully human.
This will come about more easily if,
in accordance with the wishes expressed
by the synod, a renewed "theology
of work" can shed light upon and
study in depth the meaning of work in
the Christian life and determine the
fundamental bond between work and the
family, and therefore the original and
irreplaceable meaning of work in the
home be recognized and respected by
all in its irreplaceable value.[66]
This is of particular importance in
education: For possible discrimination
between the different types of work
and professions is eliminated at its
very root once it is clear that all
people in every area are working with
equal rights and equal responsibilities.
The image of God in man and in woman
will thus be seen with added luster.
While it must be recognized that women
have the same right as men to perform
various public functions, society must
be structured in such a way that wives
and mothers are not in practice compelled
to work outside the home, and that their
families can live and prosper in a dignified
way even when they themselves devote
their full time to their own family.
Furthermore, the mentality which honors
women more for their work outside the
home than for their work within the
family must be overcome. This requires
that men should truly esteem and love
women with total respect for their personal
dignity, and that society should create
and develop conditions favoring work
in the home.
With due respect to the different vocations
of men and women, the church must in
her own life promote as far as possible
their equality of rights and dignity:
and this for the good of all, the family,
the church and society.
But clearly all of this does not mean
for women a renunciation of their femininity
or an imitation of the male role, but
the fullness of true feminine humanity
which should be expressed in their activity,
whether in the family or outside of
it, without disregarding the differences
of customs and cultures in this sphere.
24. Unfortunately the Christian
message about the dignity of women is
contradicted by that persistent mentality
which considers the human being not
as a person but as a thing, as an object
of trade, at the service of selfish
interest and mere pleasure: The first
victims of this mentality are women.
This mentality produces very bitter
fruits, such as contempt for men and
for women, slavery, oppression of the
weak, pornography, prostitution--especially
in an organized form--and all those
various forms of discrimination that
exist in the fields of education, employment,
wages, etc.
Besides, many forms of degrading discrimination
still persist today in a great part
of our society that affect and seriously
harm particular categories of women,
as for example childless wives, widows,
separated or divorced women, and unmarried
mothers.
The synod fathers deplored these and
other forms of discrimination as strongly
as possible. I therefore ask that vigorous
and incisive pastoral action be taken
by all to overcome them definitively
so that the image of God that shines
in all human beings without exception
may be fully respected.
25. Within the conjugal and
family communion-community, the man
is called upon to live his gift and
role as husband and father.
In his wife he sees the fulfillment
of God's intention: "It is not
good that the man should be alone; I
will make him a helper fit for him,"[67]
and he makes his own the cry of Adam,
the first husband: "This at last
is bone of my bones and flesh of my
flesh."[68]
Authentic conjugal love presupposes
and requires that a man have a profound
respect for the equal dignity of his
wife: "You are not her master,"
writes St. Ambrose, "but her husband;
she was not given to you to be your
slave, but your wife.... Reciprocate
her attentiveness to you and be grateful
to her for her love."[69] With
his wife a man should live "a very
special form of personal friendship."[70]
As for the Christian, he is called upon
to develop a new attitude of love, manifesting
toward his wife a charity that is both
gentle and strong like that which Christ
has for the church.[71]
Love for his wife as mother of their
children and love for the children themselves
are for the man the natural way of understanding
and fulfilling his own fatherhood. Above
all where social and cultural conditions
so easily encourage a father to be less
concerned with his family or at any
rate less involved in the work of education,
efforts must be made to restore socially
the conviction that the place and task
of the father in and for the family
is of unique and irreplaceable importance.[72]
As experience teaches, the absence of
a father causes psychological and moral
imbalance and notable difficulties in
family relationships, as does, in contrary
circumstances, the oppressive presence
of a father, especially where there
still prevails the phenomenon of "machismo,"
or a wrong superiority of male prerogatives
which humiliates women and inhibits
the development of healthy family relationships.
In revealing and in reliving on earth
the very fatherhood of God,[73] a man
is called upon to ensure the harmonious
and united development of all the members
of the family: He will perform this
task by exercising generous responsibility
for the life conceived under the heart
of the mother, by a more solicitous
commitment to education, a task he shares
with his wife,[74] by work which is
never a cause of division in the family
but promotes its unity and stability,
and by means of the witness he gives
of an adult Christian life which effectively
introduces the children into the living
experience of Christ and the church.
26. In the family, which is
a community of persons, special attention
must be devoted to the children by developing
a profound esteem for their personal
dignity and a great respect and generous
concern for their rights. This is true
for every child, but it becomes all
the more urgent the smaller the child
is and the more it is in need of everything,
when it is sick, suffering or handicapped.
By fostering and exercising a tender
and strong concern for every child that
comes into this world, the church fulfills
a fundamental mission: for she is called
upon to reveal and put forward anew
in history the example and the commandment
of Christ the Lord, who placed the child
at the heart of the kingdom of God:
"Let the children come to me, and
do not hinder them, for to such belongs
the kingdom of heaven."[75]
I repeat once again what I said to
the General Assembly of the United Nations
Oct. 2, 1979: "I wish to express
the joy that we all find in children,
the springtime of life, the anticipation
of the future history of each of our
present earthly homelands. No country
on earth, no political system can think
of its own future otherwise than through
the image of these new generations that
will receive from their parents the
manifold heritage of values, duties
and aspirations of the nation to which
they belong and of the whole human family.
Concern for the child, even before birth,
from the first moment of conception
and then throughout the years of infancy
and youth, is the primary and fundamental
test of the relationship of one human
being to another. And so, what better
wish can I express for every nation
and for the whole of mankind, and for
all the children of the world than a
better future in which respect for human
rights will become a complete reality
throughout the third millennium, which
is drawing near."[76]
Acceptance, love, esteem, many-sided
and united material, emotional, educational
and spiritual concern for every child
that comes into this world should always
constitute a distinctive, essential
characteristic of all Christians, in
particular of the Christian family:
Thus children, while they are able to
grow "in wisdom and in stature,
and in favor with God and man,"[77]
offer their own precious contribution
to building up the family community
and even to the sanctification of their
parents.[78]
27. There are cultures which
manifest a unique veneration and great
love for the elderly: Far from being
outcasts from the family or merely tolerated
as a useless burden, they continue to
be present and to take an active and
responsible part in family life, though
having to respect the autonomy of the
new family, above all they carry out
the important mission of being a witness
to the past and a source of wisdom for
the young and for the future.
Other cultures, however, especially
in the wake of disordered industrial
and urban development, have both in
the past and in the present set the
elderly aside in unacceptable ways.
This causes acute suffering to them
and spiritually impoverishes many families.
The pastoral activity of the church
must help everyone to discover and to
make good use of the role of the elderly
within the civil and ecclesial community,
in particular within the family. In
fact, "the life of the aging helps
to clarify a scale of human values;
it shows the continuity of generations
and marvelously demonstrates the interdependence
of God's people. The elderly often have
the charism to bridge generation gaps
before they are made: How many children
have found understanding and love in
the eyes and words and caresses of the
aging! And how many old people have
willingly subscribed to the inspired
word that the 'crown of the aged is
their children's children' (Prv. 17:6)!"[79]
II. SERVING LIFE
28. With the creation of man
and woman in his own image and likeness,
God crowns and brings to perfection
the work of his hands: He calls them
to a special sharing in his love and
in his power as creator and Father through
their free and responsible cooperation
in transmitting the gift of human life:
"God blessed them, and God said
to them, 'be fruitful and multiply,
and fill the earth and subdue it.'"[80]
Thus the fundamental task of the family
is to serve life, to actualize in history
the original blessing of the creator--that
of transmitting by procreation the divine
image from person to person.[81]
Fecundity is the fruit and the sign
of conjugal love, the living testimony
of the full reciprocal self-giving of
the spouses: "While not making
the other purposes of matrimony of less
account, the true practice of conjugal
love, and the whole meaning of the family
life which results from it, have this
aim: that the couple be ready with stout
hearts to cooperate with the love of
the creator and the savior, who through
them will enlarge and enrich his own
family day by day."[82]
However, the fruitfulness of conjugal
love is not restricted solely to the
procreation of children, even understood
in its specifically human dimension:
It is enlarged and enriched by all those
fruits of moral, spiritual and supernatural
life which the father and mother are
called to hand on to their children,
and through the children to the church
and to the world.
29. Precisely because the love
of husband and wife is a unique participation
in the mystery of life and of the love
of God himself, the church knows that
she has received the special mission
of guarding and protecting the lofty
dignity of marriage and the most serious
responsibility of the transmission of
human life.
Thus, in continuity with the living
tradition of the ecclesial community
throughout history, the recent Second
Vatican Council and the magisterium
of my predecessor Paul VI, expressed
above all in the encyclical Humanae
Vitae, have handed on to our times a
truly prophetic proclamation, which
reaffirms and reproposes with clarity
the church's teaching and norm, always
old yet always new, regarding marriage
and regarding the transmission of human
life.
For this reason the synod fathers made
the following declaration at their last
assembly:
"This sacred synod, gathered together
with the successor of Peter in the unity
of faith, firmly holds what has been
set forth in the Second Vatican Council
(cf. Gaudium et Spes, 50) and afterward
in the encyclical Humanae Vitae, particularly
that love between husband and wife must
be fully human, exclusive and open to
new life (Humanae Vitae,ll:cf.9,12)."[83]
30. The teaching of the church
in our day is placed in a social and
cultural context which renders it more
difficult to understand and yet more
urgent and irreplaceable for promoting
the true good of men and women.
Scientific and technological progress,
which contemporary man is continually
expanding in his dominion over nature,
not only offers the hope of creating
a new and better humanity, but also
causes ever greater anxiety regarding
the future. Some ask themselves if it
is a good thing to be alive or if it
would be better never to have been born;
they doubt therefore if it is right
to bring others into life when perhaps
they will curse their existence in a
cruel world with unforeseeable terrors.
Others consider themselves to be the
only ones for whom the advantages of
technology are intended and they exclude
others by imposing on them contraceptives
or even worse means. Still others imprisoned
in a consumer mentality and whose sole
concern is to bring about a continual
growth of material goods, finish by
ceasing to understand, and thus by refusing,
the spiritual riches of a new human
life. The ultimate reason for these
mentalities is the absence in people's
hearts of God, whose love alone is stronger
than all the world's fears and can conquer
them.
Thus an anti-life mentality is born,
as can be seen in many current issues:
One thinks, for example of a certain
panic deriving from the studies of ecologists
and futurologists on population growth,
which sometimes exaggerate the danger
of demographic increase to the quality
of life.
But the church firmly believes that
human life, even if weak and suffering,
is always a splendid gift of God's goodness.
Against the pessimism and selfishness
which cast a shadow over the world,
the church stands for life: In each
human life she sees the splendor of
that "yes," that "amen,"
who is Christ himself.[84] To the "no"
which assails and afflicts the world,
she replies with this living "yes,"
thus defending the human person and
the world from all who plot against
and harm life.
The church is called upon to manifest
anew to everyone, with clear and stronger
conviction, her will to promote human
life by every means and to defend it
against all attacks in whatever condition
or state of development it is found.
Thus the church condemns as a grave
offense against human dignity and justice
all those activities of governments
or other public authorities which attempt
to limit in any way the freedom of couples
in deciding about children. Consequently
any violence applied by such authorities
in favor of contraception or, still
worse, of sterilization and procured
abortion must be altogether condemned
and forcefully rejected. Likewise to
be denounced as gravely unjust are cases
where in international relations economic
help given for the advancement of peoples
is made conditional on programs of contraception,
sterilization and procured abortion.[85]
31. The church is certainly
aware of the many complex problems which
couples in many countries face today
in their task of transmitting life in
responsible way. She also recognizes
the serious problem of population growth
in the form it has taken in many parts
of the world and its moral implications.
However, she holds that consideration
in depth of all the aspects of these
problems offers a new and stronger confirmation
of the importance of the authentic teaching
on birth regulation reproposed in the
Second Vatican Council and in the encyclical
Humanae Vitae.
For this reason, together with the
synod fathers I feel it is my duty to
extend a pressing invitation to theologians,
asking them to unite their efforts in
order to collaborate with the hierarchical
magisterium and to commit themselves
to the task of illustrating ever more
clearly the biblical foundations, the
ethical grounds and the personalistic
reasons behind this doctrine. Thus it
will be possible, in the context of
an organic exposition, to render the
teaching of the church on this fundamental
question truly accessible to all people
of good will, fostering a daily more
enlightened and profound understanding
of it. In this way God's plan will be
ever more completely fulfilled for the
salvation of humanity and for the glory
of the Creator.
A united effort by theologians in this
regard, inspired by a convinced adherence
to the magisterium, which is the one
authentic guide for the people of God,
is particularly urgent for reasons that
include the close link between Catholic
teaching on this matter and the view
of the human person that the church
proposes: Doubt or error in the field
of marriage or the family involves obscuring
to a serious extent the integral truth
about the human person in a cultural
situation that is already so often confused
and contradictory. In fulfillment of
their specific role theologians are
called upon to provide enlightenment
and a deeper understanding, and their
contribution is of incomparable value
and represents a unique and highly meritorious
service to the family and humanity.
32. In the context of a culture
which seriously distorts or entirely
misinterprets the true meaning of human
sexuality because it separates it from
its essential reference to the person,
the church more urgently feels how irreplaceable
is her mission of presenting sexuality
as a value and task of the whole person,
created male and female in the image
of God.
In this perspective the Second Vatican
Council clearly affirmed that "when
there is a question of harmonizing conjugal
love with the responsible transmission
of life, the moral aspect of any procedure
does not depend solely on sincere intentions
or on an evaluation of motives. It must
be determined by objective standards.
These, based on the nature of the human
person and his or her acts, preserve
the full sense of mutual self-giving
and human procreation in the context
of true love. Such a goal cannot be
achieved unless the virtue of conjugal
chastity is sincerely practiced."[86]
It is precisely by moving from "an
integral vision of man and of his vocation,
not only his natural and earthly, but
also his supernatural and eternal vocation,"[87]
that Paul VI affirmed that the teaching
of the church "is founded upon
the inseparable connection willed by
God and unable to be broken by man on
his own initiative between the two meanings
of the conjugal act: the unitive meaning
and the procreative meaning."[88]
And he concluded by re-emphasizing that
there must be excluded as intrinsically
immoral "every action which, either
in anticipation of the conjugal act,
or in its accomplishment, or in the
development of its natural consequences,
proposes, whether as an end or as a
means, to render procreation impossible."[89]
When couples, by means of recourse
to contraception, separate these two
meanings that God the creator has inscribed
in the being of man and woman and in
the dynamism of their sexual communion,
they act as "arbiters" of
the divine plan and they "manipulate"
and degrade human sexuality and with
it themselves and their married partner
by altering its value of "total"
self-giving. Thus the innate language
that expresses the total reciprocal
self-giving of husband and wife is overlaid,
through contraception, by an objectively
contradictory language, namely, that
of not giving oneself totally to the
other. This leads not only to a positive
refusal to be open to life, but also
to a falsification of the inner truth
of conjugal love, which is called upon
to give itself in personal totality.
When, instead, by means of recourse
to periods of infertility, the couple
respect the inseparable connection between
the unitive and procreative meanings
of human sexuality, they are acting
as "ministers" of God's plan
and they "benefit from" their
sexuality according to the original
dynamism of "total" self-giving,
without manipulation or alteration.[90]
In the light of the experience of many
couples and of the data provided by
the different human sciences, theological
reflection is able to perceive and is
called to study further the difference,
both anthropological and moral, between
contraception and recourse to the rhythm
of the cycle: It is a difference which
is much wider and deeper than is usually
thought, one which involves in the final
analysis two irreconcilable concepts
of the human person and of human sexuality.
The choice of the natural rhythms involves
accepting the cycle of the person, that
is, the woman, and thereby accepting
dialogue, reciprocal respect, shared
responsibility and self-control.To accept
the cycle and to enter into dialogue
means to recognize both the spiritual
and corporal character of conjugal communion
and to live personal love with its requirement
of fidelity. In this context the couple
comes to experience how conjugal communion
is enriched with those values of tenderness
and affection which constitute the inner
soul of human sexuality in its physical
dimension also. In this way sexuality
is respected and promoted in its truly
and fully human dimension and is never
"used" as an "object"
that, by breaking the personal unity
of soul and body, strikes at God's creation
itself at the level of the deepest interaction
of nature and person.
33. In the field of conjugal
morality the church is teacher and mother
and acts as such.
As teacher, she never tires of proclaiming
the moral norm that must guide the responsible
transmission of life. The church is
in no way the author or the arbiter
of this norm. In obedience to the truth
which is Christ, whose image is reflected
in the nature and dignity of the human
person, the church interprets the moral
norm and proposes it to all people of
good will without concealing its demands
of radicalness and perfection.
As mother, the church is close to the
many married couples who find themselves
in difficulty over this important point
of the moral life: She knows well their
situation, which is often very arduous
and at times truly tormented by difficulties
of every kind, not only individual difficulties
but social ones as well; she knows that
many couples encounter difficulties
not only in the concrete fulfillment
of the moral norm but even in understanding
its inherent values.
But it is one and the same church that
is both teacher and mother. And so the
church never ceases to exhort and encourage
all to resolve whatever conjugal difficulties
may arise without ever falsifying or
compromising the truth: She is convinced
that there can be no true contradiction
between the divine law on transmitting
life and that on fostering authentic
married love.[91] Accordingly, the concrete
pedagogy of the church must always remain
linked with her doctrine and never be
separated from it. With the same conviction
as my predecessor, I therefore repeat:
"To diminish in no way the saving
teaching of Christ constitutes an eminent
form of charity for souls."[92]
On the other hand, authentic ecclesial
pedagogy displays its realism and wisdom
only by making a tenacious and courageous
effort to create and uphold all the
human conditions--psychological, moral
and spiritual--indispensable for understanding
and living the moral value and norm.
There is no doubt that these conditions
must include persistence and patience,
humility and strength of mind, filial
trust in God and in his grace, and frequent
recourse to prayer and to the sacraments
of the eucharist and of reconciliation.[93]
Thus strengthened, Christian husbands
and wives will be able to keep alive
their awareness of the unique influence
that the grace of the sacrament of marriage
has on every aspect of married life
including, therefore, their sexuality:
The gift of the Spirit, accepted and
responded to by husband and wife, helps
them to live their human sexuality in
accordance with God's plan and as a
sign of the unitive and fruitful love
of Christ for his church.
But the necessary conditions also include
knowledge of the bodily aspect and the
body's rhythms of fertility. Accordingly,
every effort must be made to render
such knowledge accessible to all married
people and also to young adults before
marriage through clear, timely and serious
instruction and education given by married
couples, doctors and experts. Knowledge
must then lead to education in self-control:
Hence the absolute necessity for the
virtue of chastity and for permanent
education in it. In the Christian view,
chastity by no means signifies rejection
of human sexuality or lack of esteem
for it: Rather it signifies spiritual
energy capable of defending love from
the perils of selfishness and aggressiveness,
and able to advance it toward its full
realization.
With deeply wise and loving intuition,
Paul VI was only voicing the experience
of many married couples when he wrote
in his encyclical: "To dominate
instinct by means of one's reason and
free will undoubtedly requires ascetical
practices, so that the affective manifestations
of conjugal life may observe the correct
order, in particular with regard to
the observance of periodic continence.
Yet this discipline which is proper
to the purity of married couples, far
from harming conjugal love, rather confers
on it a higher human value. It demands
continual effort, yet thanks to its
beneficent influence husband and wife
fully develop their personalities, being
enriched with spiritual values. Such
discipline bestows upon family life
fruits of serenity and peace, and facilitates
the solution of other problems; it favors
attention for one's partner, helps both
parties to drive out selfishness, the
enemy of true love, and deepens their
sense of responsibility. By its means,
parents acquire the capacity of having
a deeper and more efficacious influence
on the education of their offspring."[94]
34. It is always very important
to have a right notion of the moral
order, its values and its norms; and
the importance is all the greater when
the difficulties in the way or respecting
them become more numerous and serious.
Since the moral order reveals and sets
forth the plan of God the creator, for
this very reason it cannot be something
that harms man, something impersonal.
On the contrary, by responding to the
deepest demands of the human being created
by God, it places itself at the service
of that person's full humanity with
the delicate and binding love whereby
God himself inspires, sustains and guides
every creature toward its happiness.
But man, who has been called to live
God's wise and loving design in a responsible
manner, is an historical being who day
by day builds himself up through his
many free decisions; and so he knows,
loves and accomplishes moral good by
stages of growth.
Married people too are called upon
to progress unceasingly in their moral
life with the support of a sincere and
active desire to gain ever better knowledge
of the values enshrined in and fostered
by the law of God. They must also be
supported by an upright and generous
willingness to embody these values in
their concrete decisions. They cannot,
however, look on the law as merely an
ideal to be achieved in the future:
They must consider it as a command of
Christ the Lord to overcome difficulties
with constancy. "And so what is
known as 'the law of gradualness' or
step-by-step advance cannot be identified
with 'gradualness of the law,' as if
there were different degrees or forms
of precept in God's law for different
individuals and situations. In God's
plan, all husbands and wives are called
in marriage to holiness, and this lofty
vocation is fulfilled to the extent
that the human person is able to respond
to God's command with serene confidence
in God's grace and in his or her own
will."[95] On the same lines, it
is part of the church's pedagogy that
husbands and wives should first of all
recognize clearly the teaching of Humanae
Vitae as indicating the norm for the
exercise of their sexuality, and that
they should endeavor to establish the
conditions necessary for observing that
norm. As the synod noted, this pedagogy
embraces the whole of married life.
Accordingly, the function of transmitting
life must be integrated into the overall
mission of Christian life as a whole
which, without the cross, cannot reach
the resurrection. In such a context
it is understandable that sacrifice
cannot be removed from family life,
but must in fact be wholeheartedly accepted
if the love between husband and wife
is to be deepened and become a source
of intimate joy.
This shared progress demands reflection,
instruction and suitable education on
the part of the priests, religious and
lay people engaged in family pastoral
work: they will all be able to assist
married people in their human and spiritual
progress, a progress that demands awareness
of sin, a sincere commitment to observe
the moral law and the ministry of reconciliation.
It must also be kept in mind that conjugal
intimacy involves the wills of two persons,
who are thereby called to harmonize
their mentality and behavior, requiring
much patience, understanding and time.
Uniquely important in this field is
unity of moral and pastoral judgment
by priests--a unity that must be carefully
sought and ensured in order that the
faithful may not have to suffer anxiety
of conscience.[96]
It will be easier for married people
to make progress if, with respect for
the church's teaching and with trust
in the grace of Christ, and with the
help and support of the pastors of souls
and the entire ecclesial community,
they are able to discover and experience
the liberating and inspiring value of
the authentic love that is offered by
the Gospel and set before us by the
Lord's commandment.
35. With regard to the question
of lawful birth regulation, the ecclesial
community at the present time must take
on the task of instilling conviction
and offering practical help to those
who wish to live out their parenthood
in a truly responsible way.
In this matter, while the church notes
with satisfaction the results achieved
by scientific research aimed at a more
precise knowledge of the rhythms of
women's fertility, and while it encourages
a more decisive and wide-ranging extension
of that research, it cannot fail to
call with renewed vigor on the responsibility
of all--doctors, experts, marriage counselors,
teachers and married couples--who can
actually help married people to live
their love with respect for the structure
and finalities of the conjugal act which
expresses that love. This implies a
broader, more decisive and more systematic
effort to make the natural methods of
regulating fertility known, respected
and applied.[97]
A very valuable witness can and should
be given by those husbands and wives
who, through the joint exercise of periodic
continence, have reached a more mature
personal responsibility with regard
to love and life. As Paul VI wrote:
"To them the Lord entrusts the
task of making visible to people the
holiness and sweetness of the law which
unites the mutual love of husband and
wife with their cooperation with the
love of God the author of human life."[98]
36. The right and duty of parents
regarding education
The task of giving education is rooted
in the primary vocation of married couples
to participate in God's creative activity:
By begetting in love and for love a
new person who has within himself or
herself the vocation for growth and
development, parents by that very fact
take the task of helping that person
effectively to live a fully human life.
As the Second Vatican Council recalled,
"Since parents have conferred life
on their children, they have a most
solemn obligation to educate their offspring.
Hence, parents must be acknowledged
as the first and foremost educators
of their children. Their role as educators
is so decisive that scarcely anything
can compensate for their failure in
it. For it devolves on parents to create
a family atmosphere so animated with
love and reverence for God and others
that a well-rounded personal and social
development will be fostered among the
children.
Hence, the family is the first school
of those social virtues which every
society needs."[99]
The right and duty of parents to give
education is essential, since it is
connected with the transmission of human
life; it is original and primary with
regard to the educational role of others
on account of the uniqueness of the
loving relationship between parents
and children; and it is irreplaceable
and inalienable and therefore incapable
of being entirely delegated to others
or usurped by others.
In addition to those characteristics,
it cannot be forgotten that the most
basic element, so basic that it qualifies
the educational role of parents, is
parental love, which finds fulfillment
in the task of education as it completes
and perfects its service of life. As
well as being a source, the parents'
love is also the animating principle
and therefore the norm inspiring and
guiding all concrete educational activity,
enriching it with the values of kindness,
constancy, goodness, service, disinterestedness
and self-sacrifice that are the most
precious fruit of love.
37. Even amid the difficulties
of the work of education, difficulties
which are often greater today, parents
must trustingly and courageously train
their children in the essential values
of human life. Children must grow up
with a correct attitude of freedom with
regard to material goods, by adopting
a simple and austere lifestyle and being
fully convinced that "man is more
precious for what he is than for what
he has. "[100]
In a society shaken and split by tensions
and conflicts caused by the violent
clash of various kinds of individualism
and selfishness, children must be enriched
not only with a sense of true justice,
which alone leads to respect for the
personal dignity of each individual,
but also and more powerfully by a sense
of true love, understood as sincere
solicitude and disinterested service
with regard to others, especially the
poorest and those in most need. The
family is the first and fundamental
school of social living: As a community
of love, it finds in self-giving the
law that guides it and makes it grow.
The self-giving that inspires the love
of husband and wife for each other is
the model and norm for the selfgiving
that must be practiced in the relationships
between brothers and sisters and the
different generations living together
in the family. And the communion and
sharing that are part of everyday life
in the home at times of joy and at times
of difficulty are the most concrete
and effective pedagogy for the active,
responsible and fruitful inclusion of
the children in the wider horizon of
society.
Education in love as self-giving is
also the indispensable premise for parents
called to give their children a clear
and delicate sex education. Faced with
a culture that largely reduces human
sexuality to the level of something
commonplace, since it interprets and
lives it in a reductive and impoverished
way by linking it solely with the body
and with selfish pleasure, the educational
service of parents must aim firmly at
a training in the area of sex that is
truly and fully personal: for sexuality
is an enrichment of the whole person--body,
emotions and soul--and it manifests
its inmost meaning in leading the person
to the gift of self in love.
Sex education, which is a basic right
and duty of parents, must always be
carried out under their attentive guidance
whether at home or in educational centers
chosen and controlled by them. In this
regard, the church reaffirms the law
of subsidiarity, which the school is
bound to observe when it cooperates
in sex education, by entering into the
same spirit that animates the parents.
In this context education for chastity
is absolutely essential, for it is a
virtue that develops a person's authentic
maturity and makes him or her capable
of respecting and fostering the "nuptial
meaning" of the body. Indeed Christian
parents, discerning the signs of God's
call, will devote special attention
and care to education in virginity or
celibacy as the supreme form of that
self-giving that constitutes the very
meaning of human sexuality.
In view of the close links between
the sexual dimension of the person and
his or her ethical values, education
must bring the children to a knowledge
of and respect for the moral norms as
the necessary and highly valuable guarantee
for responsible personal growth in human
sexuality.
For this reason the church is firmly
opposed to an often widespread form
of imparting sex information dissociated
from moral principles. That would merely
be an introduction to the experience
of pleasure and a stimulus leading to
the loss of serenity--while still in
the years of innocence--by opening the
way to vice.
38. For Christian parents the
mission to educate, a mission rooted
as we have said in their participation
in God's creating activity, has a new
specific source in the sacrament of
marriage, which consecrates them for
the strictly Christian education of
their children: that is to say, it calls
upon them to share in the very authority
and love of God the Father and Christ
the shepherd, and in the motherly love
of the church, and it enriches them
with wisdom, counsel, fortitude and
all the other gifts of the Holy Spirit
in order to help the children in their
growth as human beings and as Christians.
The sacrament of marriage gives to
the educational role the dignity and
vocation of being really and truly a
"ministry" of the church at
the service of the building up of her
members. So great and splendid is the
educational ministry of Christian parents
that St. Thomas has no hesitation in
comparing it with the ministry of priests:
"Some only propagate and guard
spiritual life by a spiritual ministry:
This is the role of the sacrament of
orders, others do this for both corporal
and spiritual life, and this is brought
about by the sacrament of marriage,
by which a man and a woman join in order
to beget offspring and bring them up
to worship God."[101]
A vivid and attentive awareness of
the mission that they have received
with the sacrament of marriage will
help Christian parents to place themselves
at the service of their children's education
with great serenity and trustfulness,
and also with a sense of responsibility
before God, who calls them and gives
them the mission of building up the
church in their children. Thus in the
case of baptized people, the family,
called together by word and sacrament
as the church of the home, is both teacher
and mother, the same as the worldwide
church.
39. The mission to educate demands
that Christian parents should present
to their children all the topics that
are necessary for the gradual maturing
of their personality from a Christian
and ecclesial point of view. They will
therefore follow the educational lines
mentioned above, taking care to show
their children the depths of significance
to which the faith and love of Jesus
Christ can lead. Furthermore, their
awareness that the Lord is entrusting
to them the growth of a child of God,
a brother or sister of Christ, a temple
of the Holy Spirit, a member of the
church, will support Christian parents
in their task of strengthening the gift
of divine grace in their children's
souls.
The Second Vatican Council describes
the content of Christian education as
follows: "Such an education does
not merely strive to foster maturity.
. . in the human person. Rather, its
principal aims are these: that as baptized
persons are gradually introduced into
a knowledge of the mystery of salvation,
they may daily grow more conscious of
the gift of faith which they have received;
that they may learn to adore God the
Father in spirit and in truth (cf. Jn.
4:23), especially through liturgical
worship; that they may be trained to
conduct their personal life in true
righteousness and holiness, according
to their new nature (Eph. 4:22-24),
and thus grow to maturity, to the stature
of the fullness of Christ (cf. Eph.
4:13), and devote themselves to the
upbuilding of the mystical body. Moreover,
aware of their calling, they should
grow accustomed to giving witness to
the hope that is in them (cf. I Pt.
3:15), and to promoting the Christian
transformation of the world.[102]
The synod too, taking up and developing
the indications of the council, presented
the educational mission of the Christian
family as a true ministry through which
the Gospel is transmitted and radiated,
so that family life itself becomes an
itinerary of faith and in some way a
Christian initiation and a school of
following Christ. Within a family that
is aware of this gift, as Paul VI wrote,
"all the members evangelize and
are evangelized."[103]
By virtue of their ministry of educating,
parents are through the witness of their
lives the first heralds of the Gospel
for their children. Furthermore, by
praying with their children, by reading
the word of God with them and by introducing
them deeply through Christian initiation
into the body of Christ--both the eucharistic
and the ecclesial body--they become
fully parents, in that they are begetters
not only of bodily life but also of
the life that through the Spirit's renewal
flows from the cross and resurrection
of Christ.
In order that Christian parents may
worthily carry out their ministry of
education, the synod fathers expressed
the hope that a suitable catechism for
families would be prepared, one that
would be clear, brief and easily assimilated
by all. The episcopal conferences were
warmly invited to contribute to producing
this catechism.
40. The family is the primary
but not the only and exclusive educating
community. Man's community aspect itself--both
civil and ecclesial--demands and leads
to a broader and more articulated activity
resulting from well-ordered collaboration
between the various agents of education.
All these agents are necessary, even
though each can and should play its
part in accordance with the special
competence and contribution proper to
itself.[104]
The educational role of the Christian
family therefore has a very important
place in organic pastoral work. This
involves a new form of cooperation between
parents and Christian communities and
between the various educational groups
and pastors. In this sense, the renewal
of the Catholic school must give special
attention both to the parents of the
pupils and to the formation of a perfect
educating community.
The right of parents to choose an education
in conformity with their religious faith
must be absolutely guaranteed.
The state and the church have the obligation
to give families all possible aid to
enable them to perform their educational
role properly. Therefore both the church
and the state must create and foster
the institutions and activities that
families justly demand, and the aid
must be in proportion to the families'
needs. However, those in society who
are in charge of schools must never
forget that the parents have been appointed
by God himself as the first and principal
educators of their children and that
their right is completely inalienable.
But corresponding to their right, parents
have a serious duty to commit themselves
totally to a cordial and active relationship
with the teachers and school authorities.
If ideologies opposed to the Christian
faith are taught in the schools, the
family must join with other families,
if possible through family associations,
and with all its strength and with wisdom
help the young not to depart from the
faith. In this case the family needs
special assistance from pastors of souls,
who must never forget that parents have
the inviolable right to entrust their
children to the ecclesial community.
41. Fruitful married love expresses
itself in serving life in many ways.
Of these ways, begetting and educating
children are the most immediate, specific
and irreplaceable. In fact, every act
of true love toward a human being bears
witness to and perfects the spiritual
fecundity of the family, since it is
an act of obedience to the deep inner
dynamism of love as self-giving to others.
For everyone this perspective is full
of value and commitment, and it can
be an inspiration in particular for
couples who experience physical sterility.
Christian families, recognizing with
faith all human beings as children of
the same heavenly Father, will respond
generously to the children of other
families, giving them support and love
not as outsiders but as members of the
one family of God's children. Christian
parents will thus be able to spread
their love beyond the bonds of flesh
and blood, nourishing the links that
are rooted in the spirit and that develop
through concrete service to the children
of other families, who are often without
even the barest necessities.
Christian families will be able to
show greater readiness to adopt and
foster children who have lost their
parents or have been abandoned by them.
Rediscovering the warmth of affection
of a family, these children will be
able to experience God's loving and
provident fatherhood witnessed to by
Christian parents, and they will thus
be able to grow up with serenity and
confidence in life. At the same time
the whole family will be enriched with
the spiritual values of a wider fraternity.
Family fecundity must have an unceasing
"creativity," a marvelous
fruit of the Spirit of God, who opens
the eyes of the heart to discover the
new needs and sufferings of our society
and gives courage for accepting them
and responding to them. A vast field
of activity lies open to families: Today
even more preoccupying than child abandonment
is the phenomenon of social and cultural
exclusion, which seriously affects the
elderly, the sick, the disabled, drug
addicts, ex-prisoners, etc.
This broadens enormously the horizons
of the parenthood of Christian families:
These and many other urgent needs of
our time are a challenge to their spiritually
fruitful love. With families and through
them, the Lord Jesus continues to "have
compassion" on the multitudes.
III. PARTICIPATING IN THE DEVELOPMENT
OF SOCIETY
42. "Since the Creator
of all things has established the conjugal
partnership as the beginning and basis
of human society,"the family is
"the first and vital cell of society."[105]
The family has vital and organic links
with society since it is its foundation
and nourishes it continually through
its role of service to life: It is from
the family that citizens come to birth
and it is within the family that they
find the first school of the social
virtues that are the animating principle
of the existence and development of
society itself.
Thus, far from being closed in on itself,
the family is by nature and vocation
open to other families and to society
and undertakes its social role.
43. The very experience of communion
and sharing that should characterize
the family's daily life represents its
first and fundamental contribution to
society.
The relationships between the members
of the family community are inspired
and guided by the law of "free
giving." By respecting and fostering
personal dignity in each and every one
as the only basis for value, this free
giving takes the form of heartfelt acceptance,
encounter and dialogue, disinterested
availability, generous service and deep
solidarity.
Thus the fostering of authentic and
mature communion between persons within
the family is the first and irreplaceable
school of social life, an example and
stimulus for the broader community of
relationships marked by respect, justice,
dialogue and love.
The family is thus, as the synod fathers
recalled, the place of origin and the
most effective means for humanizing
and personalizing society: It makes
an original contribution in depth in
building up the world, by making possible
a life that is, properly speaking, human,
in particular by guarding and transmitting
virtues and "values." As the
Second Vatican Council states, in the
family "the various generations
come together and help one another to
grow wiser and to harmonize personal
rights with the other requirements of
social living."[106]
Consequently, faced with a society
that is running the risk of becoming
more and more depersonalized and standardized
and therefore inhuman and dehumanizing,
with the negative results of many forms
of escapism--such as alcoholism, drugs
and even terrorism--the family possesses
and continues still to release formidable
energies capable of taking man out of
his anonymity, keeping him conscious
of his personal dignity, enriching him
with deep humanity and actively placing
him, in his uniqueness and unrepeatability,
within the fabric of society.
44. The social role of the family
certainly cannot stop short at procreation
and education even if this constitutes
its primary and irreplaceable form of
expression.
Families therefore, either singly or
in association, can and should devote
themselves to manifold social service
activities, especially in favor of the
poor or at any rate for the benefit
of all people and situations that cannot
be reached by the public authorities'
welfare organization.
The social contribution of the family
has an original character of its own,
one that should be given greater recognition
and more decisive encouragement, especially
as the children grow up, and actually
involving all its members as much as
possible.[107]
In particular, note must be taken of
the ever greater importance in our society
of hospitality in all its forms, from
opening the door of one's home, and
still more of one's heart, to the pleas
of one's brothers and sisters, to concrete
efforts to ensure that every family
has its own home as the natural environment
that preserves it and makes it grow.
In a special way the Christian family
is called upon to listen to the apostle's
recommendation. "Practice hospitality,"[108]
and therefore, imitating Christ's example
and sharing in his love, welcome the
brother or sister in need: "Whoever
gives to one of these little ones even
a cup of cold water because he is a
disciple, truly, I say to you, he shall
not lose his reward."[109]
The social role of families is called
upon to find expression also in the
form of political intervention: Families
should be the first to take steps to
see that the laws and institutions of
the state not only do not offend, but
support and positively defend the rights
and duties of the family. Along these
lines families should grow in awareness
of being "protagonists" of
what is known as "family politics"
and assume responsibility for transforming
society; otherwise families will be
the first victims of the evils that
they have done no more than note with
indifference. The Second Vatican Council's
appeal to go beyond an individualistic
ethic therefore also holds good for
the family as such.[110]
45. Just as the intimate connection
between the family and society demands
that the family be open to and participate
in society and its development, so also
it requires that society should never
fail in its fundamental task of respecting
and fostering the family.
The family and society have complementary
functions in defending and fostering
the good of each and every human being.
But society--more specifically the state--must
recognize that "the family is a
society in its own original right,"[111]
and so society is under a grave obligation
in its relations with the family to
adhere to the principle of subsidiarity.
Society should not take from families
the functions that they can just as
well perform on their own or in free
associations; instead it must positively
favor and encourage as far as possible
responsible initiative by families.
In the conviction that the good of the
family is an indispensable and essential
value of the civil community, the public
authorities must do everything possible
to ensure that families have all those
aids--economic, social, educational,
political and cultural assistance--that
they need in order to face all their
responsibilities in a human way.
46. The ideal of mutual support
and development between the family and
society is often very seriously in conflict
with the reality of their separation
and even opposition.
In fact, as was repeatedly denounced
by the synod, the situation experienced
by many families in various countries
is highly problematical if not entirely
negative: Institutions and laws unjustly
ignore the inviolable rights of the
family and of the human person; and
society, far from putting itself at
the service of the family, attacks it
violently in its values and fundamental
requirements. Thus the family, which
in God's plan is the basic cell of society
and a subject of rights and duties before
the state or any other community, finds
itself the victim of society, of the
delays and slowness with which it acts,
and even of its blatant injustice.
For this reason the church openly and
strongly defends the rights of the family
against the intolerable usurpations
of society and the state. In particular
the synod fathers mentioned the following
rights of the family: --The right to
exist and progress as a family, that
is to say, the right of every human
being, even if he or she is poor, to
found a family and to have adequate
means to support it;
--The right to exercise its responsibility
regarding the transmission of life and
to educate children;
--The right to the intimacy of conjugal
and family life;
--The right to the stability of the
bond and of the institution of marriage;
--The right to believe in and profess
one's faith and to propagate it;
--The right to bring up children in
accordance with the family's own traditions
and religious and cultural values, with
the necessary instruments, means and
institutions;
--The right, especially of the poor
and the sick, to obtain physical, social,
political and economic security;
--The right to housing suitable for
living family life in a proper way;
--The right to expression and to representation,
either directly or through associations,
before the economic, social and cultural
public authorities and lower authorities;
--The right to form associations with
other families and institutions in order
to fulfill the family's role suitably
and expeditiously;
--The right to protect minors by adequate
institutions and legislation from harmful
drugs, pornography, alcoholism, etc.;
--The right to wholesome recreation
of a kind that also fosters family values;
--The right of the elderly to a worthy
life and a worthy death;
--The right to emigrate as a family
in search of a better life.[112]
Acceding to the synod's explicit request,
the Holy See will give prompt attention
to studying these suggestions in depth
and to the preparation of a charter
of rights of the family to be presented
to the quarters and authorities concerned.
47. The social role that belongs
to every family pertains by a new and
original right to the Christian family,
which is based on the sacrament of marriage.
By taking up the human reality of the
love between husband and wife in all
its implications, the sacrament gives
to Christian couples and parents a power
and a commitment to live their vocation
as lay people and therefore to "seek
the kingdom of God by engaging in temporal
affairs and by ordering them according
to the plan of God."[113]
The social and political role is included
in the kingly mission of service in
which Christian couples share by virtue
of the sacrament of marriage, and they
receive both a command which they cannot
ignore and a grace which sustains and
stimulates them.
The Christian family is thus called
upon to offer everyone a witness of
generous and disinterested dedication
to social matters through a "preferential
option" for the poor and disadvantaged.
Therefore, advancing in its following
of the Lord by special love for all
the poor, it must have special concern
for the hungry, the poor, the old, the
sick, drug victims and those who have
no family.
48. In view of the worldwide
dimension of various social questions
nowadays, the family has seen its role
with regard to the development of society
extended in a completely new way: It
now also involves cooperating for a
new international order, since it is
only in worldwide solidarity that the
enormous and dramatic issues of world
justice, the freedom of peoples and
the peace of humanity can be dealt with
and solved.
The spiritual communion between Christian
families, rooted in a common faith and
hope and given life by love, constitutes
an inner energy that generates, spreads
and develops justice, reconciliation,
fraternity and peace among human beings.
Insofar as it is a "smallscale
church," the Christian family is
called upon, like the "large-scale
church," to be a sign of unity
for the world and in this way to exercise
its prophetic role by bearing witness
to the kingdom and peace of Christ,
toward which the whole world is journeying.
Christian families can do this through
their educational activity--that is
to say, by presenting to their children
a model of life based on the values
of truth, freedom, justice and love--both
through active and responsible involvement
in the authentically human growth of
society and its institutions, and supporting
in various ways the associations specifically
devoted to international issues.
IV. SHARING IN THE LIFE AND MISSION
OF THE CHURCH
49. Among the fundamental tasks
of the Christian family is its ecclesial
task: The family is placed at the service
of the building up of the kingdom of
God in history by participating in the
life and mission of the church.
In order to understand better the foundations,
the contents and the characteristics
of this participation, we must examine
the many profound bonds linking the
church and the Christian family and
establishing the family as a "church
in miniature" (ecclesia domestica),[114]
in such a way that in its own way the
family is a living image and historical
representation of the mystery of the
church.
It is, above all, the church as mother
that gives birth to, educates and builds
up the Christian family by putting into
effect in its regard the saving mission
which she has received from her Lord.
By proclaiming the word of God the church
reveals to the Christian family its
true identity, what it is and should
be according to the Lord's plan; by
celebrating the sacraments the church
enriches and strengthens the Christian
family with the grace of Christ for
its sanctification to the glory of the
Father; by the continuous proclamation
of the new commandment of love the church
encourages and guides the Christian
family to the service of love so that
it may imitate and relive the same self-giving
and sacrificial love that the Lord Jesus
has for the entire human race.
In turn, the Christian family is grafted
into the mystery of the church to such
a degree as to become a sharer, in its
own way, in the saving mission proper
to the church: By virtue of the sacrament
Christian married couples and parents
"in their state and way of life
have their own special gift among the
people of God."[115] For this reason
they not only receive the love of Christ
and become a saved community, but they
are also called upon to communicate
Christ's love to their brethren thus
becoming a saving community. In this
way, while the Christian family is a
fruit and sign of the supernatural fecundity
of the church, it stands also as a symbol,
witness and participant of the church's
motherhood.[116]
50. The Christian family is
called upon to take part actively and
responsibly in the mission of the church
in a way that is original and specific
by placing itself in what it is and
what it does as an "intimate community
of life and love" at the service
of the church and of society.
Since the Christian family is a community
in which the relationships are renewed
by Christ through faith and the sacraments,
the family's sharing in the church's
mission should follow a community pattern:
The spouses together as a couple, the
parents and children as a family, must
live their service to the church and
to the world. They must be "of
one heart and soul"[117] in faith,
through the shared apostolic zeal that
animates them and through their shared
commitment to works of service in the
ecclesial and civil communities.
The Christian family also builds up
the kingdom of God in history through
the everyday realities that concern
and distinguish its state of life. It
is thus in the love between husband
and wife and between the members of
the family--a love lived out in all
its extraordinary richness of values
and demands: totality, oneness, fidelity
and fruitfulness"[118]--that the
Christian family's participation in
the prophetic, priestly and kingly mission
of Jesus Christ and of his church finds
expression and realization. Therefore,
love and life constitute the nucleus
of the saving mission of the Christian
family in the church and for the church.
The Second Vatican Council recalls
this fact when it writes: "Families
will share their spiritual riches generously
with other families too. Thus the Christian
family, which springs from marriage
as a reflection of the loving covenant
uniting Christ with the church, and
as a participation in that covenant
will manifest to all people the savior's
living presence in the world, and the
genuine nature of the church. This the
family will do by the mutual love of
the spouses, by their generous fruitfulness,
their solidarity and faithfulness, and
by the loving way in which all the members
of the family work together."[119]
Having laid the foundation of the participation
of the christian family in the church's
mission, it is now time to illustrate
its substance in reference to Jesus
Christ as prophet, priest and king--three
aspects of a single reality--by presenting
the Christian family as 1) a believing
and evangelizing community, 2) a community
in dialogue with God, and 3) a community
at the service of man.
A. The Christian family as a believing
and evangelizing community
51. As a sharer in the life
and mission of the church, which listens
to the word of God with reverence and
proclaims it confidently,[120] the Christian
family fulfills its prophetic role by
welcoming and announcing the word of
God: It thus becomes more and more each
day a believing and evangelizing community.
Christian spouses and parents are required
to offer "the obedience of faith."[121]
They are called upon to welcome the
word of the Lord, which reveals to them
the marvelous news--the good news--of
their conjugal and family life sanctified
and made a source of sanctity by Christ
himself. Only in faith can they discover
and admire with joyful gratitude the
dignity to which God has deigned to
raise marriage and the family, making
them a sign and meeting place of the
loving covenant between God and man,
between Jesus Christ and his bride,
the church.
The very preparation for Christian
marriage is itself a journey of faith.
It is a special opportunity for the
engaged to rediscover and deepen the
faith received in baptism and nourished
by their Christian upbringing. In this
way they come to recognize and freely
accept their vocation to follow Christ
and to serve the kingdom of God in the
married state.
The celebration of the sacrament of
marriage is the basic moment of the
faith of the couple. This sacrament,
in essence, is the proclamation in the
church of the good news concerning married
love. It is the word of God that "reveals"
and "fulfills" the wise and
loving plan of God for the married couple,
giving them a mysterious and real share
in the very love with which God himself
loves humanity. Since the sacramental
celebration of marriage is itself a
proclamation of the word of God, it
must also be a "profession of faith"
within and with the church, as a community
of believers, on the part of all those
who in different ways participate in
its celebration.
This profession of faith demands that
it be prolonged in the life of the married
couple and of the family. God, who called
the couple to marriage, continues to
call them in marriage.[122] In and through
the events, problems, difficulties and
circumstances of everyday life, God
comes to them, revealing and presenting
the concrete "demands" of
their sharing in the love of Christ
for his church in the particular family,
social and ecclesial situation in which
they find themselves.
The discovery of and obedience to the
plan of God on the part of the conjugal
and family community must take place
in "togetherness," through
the human experience of love between
husband and wife, between parents and
children, lived in the spirit of Christ.
Thus the little domestic church, like
the greater church, needs to be constantly
and intensely evangelized: hence its
duty regarding permanent education in
the faith.
52. To the extent in which the
Christian family accepts the Gospel
and matures in faith, it becomes an
evangelizing community. Let us listen
again to Paul VI: "The family,
like the church, ought to be a place
where the Gospel is transmitted and
from which the Gospel radiates. In a
family which is conscious of this mission,
all the members evangelize and are evangelized.
The parents not only communicate the
Gospel to their children, but from their
children they can themselves receive
the same Gospel as deeply lived by them.
And such a family becomes the evangelizer
of many other families and of the neighborhood
of which it forms part. "[123]
As the synod repeated, taking up the
appeal which I launched at Puebla, the
future of evangelization depends in
great part on the church of the home.[124]
This apostolic mission of the family
is rooted in baptism and receives from
the grace of the sacrament of marriage
new strength to transmit the faith,
to sanctify and transform our present
society according to God's plan.
Particularly today the Christian family
has a special vocation to witness to
the paschal covenant of Christ by constantly
radiating the joy of love and the certainty
of the hope for which it must give account:
"The Christian family loudly proclaims
both the present virtues of the kingdom
of God and the hope of a blessed life
to come."[125]
The absolute need for family catechesis
emerges with particular force in certain
situations that the church unfortunately
experiences in some places: "In
places where anti-religious legislation
endeavors even to prevent education
in the faith, and in places where widespread
unbelief or invasive secularism makes
real religious growth practically impossible,
'the church of the home' remains the
one place where children and young people
can receive an authentic catechesis."[126]
53. The ministry of evangelization
carried out by Christian parents is
original and irreplaceable. It assumes
the characteristics typical of family
life itself, which should be interwoven
with love, simplicity, practicality
and daily witness.[127]
The family must educate the children
for life in such a way that each one
may fully perform his or her role according
to the vocation received from God. Indeed
the family that is open to transcendent
values, that serves its brothers and
sisters with joy, that fulfills its
duties with generous fidelity and is
aware of its daily sharing in the mystery
of the glorious cross of Christ, becomes
the primary and most excellent seedbed
of vocations to a life of consecration
to the kingdom of God.
The parents' ministry of evangelization
and catechesis ought to play a part
in their children's lives also during
adolescence and youth, when the children,
as often happens, challenge or even
reject the Christian faith received
in earlier years. Just as in the church
the work of evangelization can never
be separated from the sufferings of
the apostle, so in the Christian family
parents must face with courage and great
interior serenity the difficulties that
their ministry of evangelization sometimes
encounters in their own children.
It should not be forgotten that the
service rendered by Christian spouses
and parents to the Gospel is essentially
an ecclesial service. It has its place
within the context of the whole church
as an evangelized and evangelizing community.
Insofar as the ministry of evangelization
and catechesis of the church of the
home is rooted in and derives from the
one mission of the church and is ordained
to the upbuilding of the one body of
Christ,[128] it must remain in intimate
communion and collaborate responsibly
with all the other evangelizing and
catechetical activities present and
at work in the ecclesial community at
the diocesan and parochial levels.
54. Evangelization, urged on
within by irrepressible missionary zeal,
is characterized by a universality without
boundaries. It is the response to Christ's
explicit and unequivocal command: "Go
into all the world and preach the Gospel
to the whole creation."[129]
The Christian family's faith and evangelizing
mission also possesses this Catholic
missionary inspiration. The sacrament
of marriage takes up and reproposes
the task of defending and spreading
the faith, a task that has its roots
in baptism and confirmation,[130] and
makes Christian married couples and
parents witnesses of Christ "to
the end of the earth,"[131] missionaries,
in the true and proper sense, of love
and life.
A form of missionary activity can be
exercised even within the family. This
happens when some member of the family
does not have the faith or does not
practice it with consistency. In such
a case the other members must give him
or her a living witness of their own
faith in order to encourage and support
him or her along the path toward full
acceptance of Christ the savior.[132]
Animated in its own inner life by missionary
zeal, the church of the home is also
called to be a luminous sign of the
presence of Christ and of his love for
those who are "far away,"
for families who do not yet believe
and for those Christian families who
no longer live in accordance with the
faith that they once received. The Christian
family is called to enlighten "by
its example and its witness those who
seek the truth. "[133]
Just as at the dawn of Christianity
Aquila and Priscilla were presented
as a missionary couple,[134] so today
the church shows forth her perennial
newness and fruitfulness by the presence
of Christian couples and families who
dedicate at least a part of their lives
to working in missionary territories,
proclaiming the Gospel and doing service
to their fellow man in the love of Jesus
Christ.
Christian families offer a special
contribution to the missionary cause
of the church by fostering missionary
vocations among their sons and daughters[135]
and, more generally, "by training
their children from childhood to recognize
God's love for all people."[136]
B. The Christian family as a community
in dialogue with God
55. The proclamation of the
Gospel and its acceptance in faith reach
their fullness in the celebration of
the sacraments. The church which is
a believing and evangelizing community
is also a priestly people invested with
the dignity and sharing in the power
of Christ the high priest of the new
and eternal covenant.[137]
The Christian family too is part of
this priestly people which is the church.
By means of the sacrament of marriage,
in which it is rooted and from which
it draws its nourishment, the Christian
family is continuously vivified by the
Lord Jesus and called and engaged by
him in a dialogue with God through the
sacraments, through the offering of
one's life and through prayer.
This is the priestly role which the
Christian family can and ought to exercise
in intimate communion with the whole
church through the daily realities of
married and family life. In this way
the Christian family is called to be
sanctified and to sanctify the ecclesial
community and the world.
56. The sacrament of marriage
is the specific source and original
means of sanctification for Christian
married couples and families. It takes
up again and makes specific the sanctifying
grace of baptism. By virtue of the mystery
of the death and resurrection of Christ,
of which the spouses are made part in
a new way by marriage, conjugal love
is purified and made holy: "This
love the Lord has judged worthy of special
gifts, healing, perfecting and exalting
gifts of grace and of charity."[138]
The gift of Jesus Christ is not exhausted
in the actual celebration of the sacrament
of marriage, but rather accompanies
the married couple throughout their
lives. This fact is explicitly recalled
by the Second Vatican Council when it
says that Jesus Christ "abides
with them so that just as he loved the
church and handed himself over on her
behalf, the spouses may love each other
with perpetual fidelity through mutual
self-bestowal...For this reason, Christian
spouses have a special sacrament by
which they are fortified and receive
a kind of consecration in the duties
and dignity of their state. By virtue
of this sacrament, as spouses fulfill
their conjugal and family obligations
they are penetrated with the spirit
of Christ, who fills their whole lives
with faith, hope and charity. Thus they
increasingly advance toward their own
perfection as well as toward their mutual
sanctification, and hence contribute
jointly to the glory of God."[139]
Christian spouses and parents are included
in the universal call to sanctity. For
them this call is specified by the sacrament
they have celebrated and is carried
out concretely in the realities proper
to their conjugal and family life.[140]
This gives rise to the grace and requirement
of an authentic and profound conjugal
and family spirituality that draws its
inspiration from the themes of creation,
covenant, cross, resurrection and sign,
which were stressed more than once by
the synod.
Christian marriage, like the other
sacraments, "whose purpose is to
sanctify people, to build up the body
of Christ, and finally, to give worship
to God,"[141] is in itself a liturgical
action glorifying God in Jesus Christ
and in the church. By celebrating it,
Christian spouses profess their gratitude
to God for the sublime gift bestowed
on them of being able to live in their
married and family lives the very love
of God for people and that of the Lord
Jesus for the church, his bride.
Just as husbands and wives receive
from the sacrament the gift and responsibility
of translating into daily living the
sanctification bestowed on them, so
the same sacrament confers on them the
grace and moral obligation of transforming
their whole lives into a "spiritual
sacrifice."[142] What the council
says of the laity applies also to Christian
spouses and parents, especially with
regard to the earthly and temporal realities
that characterize their lives: "As
worshippers leading holy lives in every
place, the laity consecrate the world
itself to God."[143]
57. The Christian family's sanctifying
role is grounded in baptism and has
its highest expression in the eucharist,
to which Christian marriage is intimately
connected. The Second Vatican Council
drew attention to the unique relationship
between the eucharist and marriage by
requesting that "marriage normally
be celebrated within the Mass."[144]
To understand better and live more intensely
the graces and responsibilities of Christian
marriage and family life, it is altogether
necessary to rediscover and strengthen
this relationship.
The eucharist is the very source of
Christian marriage. The eucharistic
sacrifice in fact represents Christ's
covenant of love with the church, sealed
with his blood on the cross.[145] In
this sacrifice of the new and eternal
covenant, Christian spouses encounter
the source from which their own marriage
covenant flows, is interiorly structured
and continuously renewed. As a representation
of Christ's sacrifice of love for the
church, the eucharist is a fountain
of charity. In the eucharistic gift
of charity the Christian family finds
the foundation and soul of its "communion"
and its "mission": By partaking
in the eucharistic bread, the different
members of the Christian family become
one body, which reveals and shares in
the wider unity of the church. Their
sharing in the body of Christ that is
"given up" and in his blood
that is "shed" becomes a never-ending
source of missionary and apostolic dynamism
for the Christian family.
58. An essential and permanent
part of the Christian family's sanctifying
role consists in accepting the call
to conversion that the Gospel addresses
to all Christians, who do not always
remain faithful to the "newness"
of the baptism that constitutes them
"saints." The Christian family
too is sometimes unfaithful to the law
of baptismal grace and holiness proclaimed
anew in the sacrament of marriage.
Repentance and mutual pardon within
the bosom of the Christian family, so
much a part of daily life, receive their
specific sacramental expression in Christian
penance. In the encyclical Humanae Vitae,
Paul VI wrote of married couples: "And
if sin should still keep its hold over
them, let them not be discouraged, but
rather have recourse with humble perseverance
to the mercy of God, which is abundantly
poured forth in the sacrament of penance."[146]
The celebration of this sacrament acquires
special significance for family life.
While they discover in faith that sin
contradicts not only the covenant with
God, but also the covenant between husband
and wife and the communion of the family,
the married couple and the other members
of the family are led to an encounter
with God, who is "rich in mercy,"[147]
who bestows on them his love which is
more powerful than sin,[148] and who
reconstructs and brings to perfection
the marriage covenant and the family
communion.
59. The church prays for the
Christian family and educates the family
to live in generous accord with the
priestly gift and role received from
Christ the high priest. In effect, the
baptismal priesthood of the faithful
exercised in the sacrament of marriage
constitutes the basis of a priestly
vocation and mission for the spouses
and family by which their daily lives
are transformed into "spiritual
sacrifices acceptable to God through
Jesus Christ."[149] This transformation
is achieved not only by celebrating
the eucharist and the other sacraments
and through offering themselves to the
glory of God, but also through a life
of prayer, through prayerful dialogue
with the Father, through Jesus Christ,
in the Holy Spirit.
Family prayer has its own characteristic
qualities. It is prayer offered in common,
husband and wife together, parents and
children together. Communion in prayer
is both a consequence of and a requirement
for the communion bestowed by the sacraments
of baptism and matrimony. The words
with which the Lord Jesus promises his
presence can be applied to the members
of the Christian family in a special
way: "Again I say to you, if two
of you agree on earth about anything
they ask it will be done for them by
my Father in heaven. For where two or
three are gathered in my name, there
am I in the midst of them."[150]
Family prayer has for its very own
object family life itself, which in
all its varying circumstances is seen
as a call from God and lived as a filial
response to his call. Joys and sorrows,
hopes and disappointments, births and
birthday celebrations, wedding anniversaries
of the parents, departures, separations
and homecomings, important and far-reaching
decisions, the death of those who are
dear, etc.--all of these mark God's
loving intervention in the family's
history. They should be seen as suitable
moments for thanksgiving, for petition,
for trusting abandonment of the family
into the hands of their common Father
in heaven. The dignity and responsibility
of the Christian family as the domestic
church can be achieved only with God's
unceasing aid, which will surely be
granted if it is humbly and trustingly
petitioned in prayer.
60. By reason of their dignity
and mission, Christian parents have
the specific responsibility of educating
their children in prayer, introducing
them to gradual discovery of the mystery
of God and to personal dialogue with
him: "It is particularly in the
Christian family, enriched by the grace
and the office of the sacrament of matrimony,
that from the earliest years children
should be taught, according to the faith
received in baptism, to have a knowledge
of God, to worship him and to love their
neighbor."[151]
The concrete example and living witness
of parents is fundamental and irreplaceable
in educating their children to pray.
Only by praying together with their
children can a father and mother--exercising
their royal priesthood--penetrate the
innermost depths of their children's
hearts and leave an impression that
the future events in their lives will
not be able to efface.
Let us again listen to the appeal made
by Paul VI to parents: "Mothers,
do you teach your children the Christian
prayers? Do you prepare them, in conjunction
with the priests, for the sacraments
that they receive when they are young:
confession, communion and confirmation?
Do you encourage them when they are
sick to think of Christ suffering, to
invoke the aid of the Blessed Virgin
and the saints? Do you say the family
rosary together? And you, fathers, do
you pray with your children, with the
whole domestic community, at least sometimes?
Your example of honesty in thought and
action, joined to some common prayer,
is a lesson for life, an act of worship
of singular value. In this way you bring
peace to your homes: Par huic domui.
Remember, it is thus that you build
up the church."[152]
61. There exists a deep and
vital bond between the prayer of the
church and the prayer of the individual
faithful as has been clearly reaffirmed
by the Second Vatican Council.[153]
An important purpose of the prayer of
the domestic church is to serve as the
natural introduction for the children
to the liturgical prayer of the whole
church, both in the sense of preparing
for it and of extending it into personal,
family and social life. Hence the need
for gradual participation by all the
members of the Christian family in the
celebration of the eucharist, especially
on Sundays and feast days, and of the
other sacraments, particularly the sacraments
of Christian initiation of the children.
The directives of the council opened
up a new possibility for the Christian
family when it listed the family among
those groups to whom it recommends the
recitation of the Divine Office in common.[154]
Likewise, the Christian family will
strive to celebrate at home and in a
way suited to the members the times
and feasts of the liturgical year.
As preparation for the worship celebrated
in church and as its prolongation in
the home, the Christian family makes
use of private prayer, which presents
a great variety of forms. While this
variety testifies to the extraordinary
richness with which the spirit vivifies
Christian prayer, it serves also to
meet the various needs and life situations
of those who turn to the Lord in prayer.
Apart from morning and evening prayers,
certain forms of prayer are to be expressly
encouraged, following the indications
of the synod fathers, such as reading
and meditating on the word of God, preparation
for the reception of the sacraments,
devotion and consecration to the Sacred
Heart of Jesus, the various forms of
veneration of the Blessed Virgin Mary,
grace before and after meals and observance
of popular devotions.
While respecting the freedom of the
children of God, the church has always
proposed certain practices of piety
to the faithful with particular solicitude
and insistence. Among these should be
mentioned the recitation of the rosary:
"We now desire, as a continuation
of the thought of our predecessors,
to recommend strongly the recitation
of the family rosary . . . There is
no doubt that . . . the rosary should
be considered as one of the best and
most efficacious prayers in common that
the Christian family is invited to recite.
We like to think and sincerely hope
that when the family gathering becomes
a time of prayer the rosary is a frequent
and favored manner of praying."[155]
In this way authentic devotion to Mary,
which finds expression in sincere love
and generous imitation of the Blessed
Virgin's interior spiritual attitude,
constitutes a special instrument for
nourishing loving communion in the family
and for developing conjugal and family
spirituality. For she who is the mother
of Christ and of the church is in a
special way the mother of Christian
families, of domestic churches.
62. It should never be forgotten
that prayer constitutes an essential
part of Christian life, understood in
its fullness and centrality. Indeed,
prayer is an important part of our very
humanity: It is "the first expression
of man's inner truth, the first condition
for authentic freedom of spirit."[156]
Far from being a form of escapism from
everyday commitments, prayer constitutes
the strongest incentive for the Christian
family to assume and comply fully with
all its responsibilities as the primary
and fundamental cell of human society.
Thus the Christian family's actual participation
in the church's life and mission is
in direct proportion to the fidelity
and intensity of the prayer with which
it is united with the fruitful vine
that is Christ the Lord.[157]
The fruitfulness of the Christian family
in its specific service to human advancement,
which of itself cannot but lead to the
transformation of the world, derives
from its living union with Christ, nourished
by the liturgy, by self-oblation and
by prayer.[158]
C. The Christian family as a community
at the service of man
63. The church, a prophetic,
priestly and kingly people, is endowed
with the mission of bringing all human
beings to accept the word of God in
faith, to celebrate and profess it in
the sacraments and in prayer, and to
give expression to it in the concrete
realities of life in accordance with
the gift and new commandment of love.
The law of Christian life is to be
found not in a written code, but in
the personal action of the Holy Spirit
who inspires and guides the Christian.
It is the "law of the Spirit of
life in Christ Jesus":[159] "God's
love has been poured into our hearts
through the Holy Spirit who has been
given to us."[160]
This is true also for the Christian
couple and family. Their guide and rule
of life is the Spirit of Jesus poured
into their hearts in the celebration
of the sacrament of matrimony. In continuity
with baptism in water and the Spirit,
marriage sets forth anew the evangelical
law of love, and with the gift of the
Spirit engraves it more profoundly on
the hearts of Christian husbands and
wives. Their love, purified and saved,
is a fruit of the Spirit acting in the
hearts of believers and constituting,
at the same time, the fundamental commandment
of their moral life to be lived in responsible
freedom.
Thus the Christian family is inspired
and guided by the new law of the Spirit
and, in intimate communion with the
church, the kingly people, it is called
to exercise its "service"
of love toward God and toward its fellow
human beings.
Just as Christ exercises his royal
power by serving us,[161] so also the
Christian finds the authentic meaning
of his participation in the kingship
of his Lord in sharing his spirit and
practice of service to man. "Christ
has communicated this power to his disciples
that they might be established in royal
freedom and that by self-denial and
a holy life they might conquer the reign
of sin in themselves (cf. Rom. 6:12).
Further, he has shared this power so
that by serving him in their fellow
human beings they might through humility
and patience lead their brothers and
sisters to that King whom to serve is
to reign. For the Lord wishes to spread
his kingdom by means of the laity also,
a kingdom of truth and life, a kingdom
of holiness and grace, a kingdom of
justice, love and peace. In this kingdom,
creation itself will be delivered out
of its slavery to corruption and into
the freedom of the glory of the children
of God (cf. Rom. 8:21)"[162]
64. Inspired and sustained by
the new commandment of love, the Christian
family welcomes, respects and serves
every human being, considering each
one in his or her dignity as a person
and as a child of God.
It should be so especially between
husband and wife and within the family,
through a daily effort to promote a
truly personal community, initiated
and fostered by an inner communion of
love. This way of life should then be
extended to the wider circle of the
ecclesial community of which the Christian
family is a part.
Thanks to love within the family, the
church can and ought to take on a more
homelike or family dimension, developing
a more human and fraternal style of
relationships.
Love, too, goes beyond our brothers
and sisters of the same faith since
"everybody is my brother or sister."
In each individual, especially in the
poor, the weak and those who suffer
or are unjustly treated, love knows
how to discover the face of Christ,
and discover a fellow human being to
be loved and served.
In order that the family may serve
man in a truly evangelical way, the
instructions of the Second Vatican Council
must be carefully put into practice:
"That the exercise of such charity
may rise above any deficiencies in fact
and even in appearance, certain fundamentals
must be observed. Thus attention is
to be paid to the image of God in which
our neighbor has been created, and also
to Christ the Lord to whom is really
offered whatever is given to a needy
person."[163]
While building up the church in love,
the Christian family places itself at
the service of the human person and
the world, really bringing about the
"human advancement" whose
substance was given in summary form
in the synod's message to families:
"Another task for the family is
to form persons in love and also to
practice love in all its relationships,
so that it does not live closed in on
itself, but remains open to the community,
moved by a sense of justice and concern
for others, as well as by a consciousness
of its responsibility toward the whole
of society."[164]
65. Like every other living
reality, the family too is called upon
to develop and grow. After the preparation
of engagement and the sacramental celebration
of marriage, the couple begin their
daily journey toward the progressive
actuation of the values and duties of
marriage itself.
In the light of faith and by virtue
of hope, the Christian family, too,
shares in communion with the church
and in the experience of the earthly
pilgrimage toward the full revelation
and manifestation of the kingdom of
God.
Therefore, it must be emphasized once
more that the pastoral intervention
of the church in support of the family
is a matter of urgency. Every effort
should be made to strengthen and develop
pastoral care for the family, which
should be treated as a real matter of
priority, in the certainty that future
evangelization depends largely on the
domestic church.[165]
The church's pastoral concern will
not be limited only to the Christian
families closest at hand; it will extend
its horizons in harmony with the heart
of Christ and will show itself to be
even more lively for families in general
and for those families in particular
which are in difficult or irregular
situations. For all of them the church
will have a word of truth, goodness,
understanding, hope and deep sympathy
with their sometimes tragic difficulties.
To all of them she will offer her disinterested
help so that they can come closer to
that model of a family which the creator
intended from "the beginning"
and which Christ has renewed with his
redeeming grace.
The church's pastoral action must be
progressive also in the sense that it
must follow the family, accompanying
it step by step in the different stages
of its formation and development.
66. More than ever necessary
in our times is preparation of young
people for marriage and family life.
In some countries it is still the families
themselves that, according to ancient
customs, ensure the passing on to young
people of the values concerning married
and family life, and they do this through
a gradual process of education or initiation.
But the changes that have taken place
within almost all modern societies demand
that not only the family but also society
and the church should be involved in
the effort of properly preparing young
people for their future responsibilities.
Many negative phenomena which are today
noted with regret in family life derive
from the fact that in the new situations
young people not only lose sight of
the correct hierarchy of values but,
since they no longer have certain criteria
of behavior, they do not know how to
face and deal with the new difficulties.
But experience teaches that young people
who have been well prepared for family
life generally succeed better than others.
This is even more applicable to Christian
marriage, which influences the holiness
of large numbers of men and women. The
church must therefore promote better
and more intensive programs of marriage
preparation in order to eliminate as
far as possible the difficulties that
many married couples find themselves
in, and even more in order to favor
positively the establishing and maturing
of successful marriages.
Marriage preparation has to be seen
and put into practice as a gradual and
continuous process. It includes three
main stages: remote, proximate and immediate
preparation.
Remote preparation begins in early
childhood in that wise family training
which leads children to discover themselves
as beings endowed with a rich and complex
psychology and with a particular personality
with its own strengths and weaknesses.
It is the period when esteem for all
authentic human values is instilled,
both in interpersonal and in social
relationships, with all that this signifies
for the formation of character, for
the control and right use of one's inclinations,
for the manner of regarding and meeting
people of the opposite sex, and so on.
Also necessary, especially for Christians,
is solid spiritual and catechetical
formation that will show that marriage
is a true vocation and mission, without
excluding the possibility of the total
gift of self to God in the vocation
to the priestly or religious life.
Upon this basis there will subsequently
and gradually be built up the proximate
preparation, which--from the suitable
age and with adequate catechesis, as
in a catechumenal process--involves
a more specific preparation for the
sacraments, as it were, a rediscovery
of them. This renewed catechesis of
young people and others preparing for
Christian marriage is absolutely necessary
in order that the sacrament may be celebrated
and lived with the right moral and spiritual
dispositions. The religious formation
of young people should be integrated,
at the right moment and in accordance
with the various concrete requirements,
with a preparation for life as a couple.
This preparation will present marriage
as an interpersonal relationship of
a man and a woman that has to be continually
developed, and it will encourage those
concerned to study the nature of conjugal
sexuality and responsible parenthood,
with the essential medical and biological
knowledge connected with it. It will
also acquaint those concerned with correct
methods for the education of children
and will assist them in gaining the
basic requisites for well-ordered family
life, such as stable work, sufficient
financial resources, sensible administration,
notions of housekeeping.
Finally, one must not overlook preparation
for the family apostolate, for fraternal
solidarity and collaboration with other
families, for active membership in groups,
associations, movements and undertakings
set up for the human and Christian benefit
of the family.
The immediate preparation for the celebration
of the sacrament of matrimony should
take place in the months and weeks immediately
preceding the wedding so as to give
a new meaning, content and form to the
so-called premarital inquiry required
by canon law. This preparation is not
only necessary in every case, but is
also more urgently needed for engaged
couples that still manifest shortcomings
or difficulties in Christian doctrine
and practice.
Among the elements to be instilled
in this journey of faith, which is similar
to the catechumenate, there must also
be a deeper knowledge of the mystery
of Christ and the church, of the meaning
of grace and of the responsibility of
Christian marriage, as well as preparation
for taking an active and conscious part
in the rites of the marriage liturgy.
The Christian family and the whole
of the ecclesial community should feel
involved in the different phases of
the preparation for marriage which have
been described only in their broad outlines.
It is to be hoped that the episcopal
conferences, just as they are concerned
with appropriate initiatives to help
engaged couples to be more aware of
the seriousness of their choice and
also to help pastors of souls to make
sure of the couples' proper dispositions,
so they will also take steps to see
that there is issued a directory for
the pastoral care of the family. In
this they should lay down in the first
place, the minimum content, duration
and method of the "preparation
courses," balancing the different
aspects--doctrinal, pedagogical, legal
and medical--concerning marriage and
structuring them in such a way that
those preparing for marriage will not
only receive an intellectual training,
but will also feel a desire to enter
actively into the ecclesial community.
Although one must not underestimate
the necessity and obligation of the
immediate preparation for marriage--which
would happen if dispensations from it
were easily given--nevertheless such
preparation must always be set forth
and put into practice in such a way
that omitting it is not an impediment
to the celebration of marriage.
67. Christian marriage normally
requires a liturgical celebration expressing
in social and community form the essentially
ecclesial and sacramental nature of
the conjugal covenant between baptized
persons.
Inasmuch as it is a sacramental action
of sanctification, the celebration of
marriage--inserted into the liturgy,
which is the summit of the church's
action and the source of her sanctifying
power[166]--must be per se valid, worthy
and fruitful. This opens a wide field
for pastoral solicitude, in order that
the needs deriving from the nature of
the conjugal covenant, elevated into
a sacrament, may be fully met and also
in order that the church's discipline
regarding free consent, impediments,
the canonical form and the actual rite
of the celebration may be faithfully
observed. The celebration should be
simple and dignified, according to the
norms of the competent authorities of
the church. It is also for them--in
accordance with concrete circumstances
of time and place and in conformity
with the norms issued by the Apostolic
See[167]--to include in the liturgical
celebration such elements proper to
each culture which serve to express
more clearly the profound human and
religious significance of the marriage
contract, provided that such elements
contain nothing that is not in harmony
with Christian faith and morality.
Inasmuch as it is a sign, the liturgical
celebration should be conducted in such
a way as to constitute, also in its
external reality, a proclamation of
the word of God and a profession of
faith on the part of the community of
believers, Pastoral commitment will
be expressed here through the intelligent
and careful preparation of the liturgy
of the word and through the education
to faith of those participating in the
celebration and in the first place the
couple being married.
Inasmuch as it is a sacramental action
of the church, the liturgical celebration
of marriage should involve the Christian
community, with the full, active and
responsible participation of all those
present, according to the place and
task of each individual: the bride and
bridegroom, the priest, the witnesses,
the relatives, the friends, the other
members of the faithful, all of them
members of an assembly that manifests
and lives the mystery of Christ and
His church. For the celebration of Christian
marriage in the sphere of ancestral
cultures or traditions, the principles
laid down above should be followed.
68. Precisely because in the
celebration of the sacrament very special
attention must be devoted to the moral
and spiritual dispositions of those
being married, in particular to their
faith, we must here deal with a not
infrequent difficulty in which the pastors
of the church can find themselves in
the context of our secularized society.
In fact, the faith of the person asking
the church for marriage can exist in
different degrees, and it is the primary
duty of pastors to bring about a rediscovery
of this faith and to nourish it and
bring it to maturity. But pastors must
also understand the reasons that lead
the church also to admit to the celebration
of marriage those who are imperfectly
disposed.
The sacrament of matrimony has this
specific element that distinguishes
it from all the other sacraments: It
is the sacrament of something that was
part of the very economy of creation;
it is the very conjugal covenant instituted
by the Creator "in the beginning."
Therefore the decision of a man and
a woman to marry in accordance with
this divine plan, that is to say, the
decision to commit by their irrevocable
conjugal consent their whole lives in
indissoluble love and unconditional
fidelity, really involves, even if not
in a fully conscious way, an attitude
of profound obedience to the will of
God, an attitude which cannot exist
without God's grace. They have thus
already begun what is in a true and
proper sense a journey toward salvation,
a journey which the celebration of the
sacrament and the immediate preparation
for it can complement and bring to completion,
given the uprightness of their intention.
On the other hand it is true that in
some places engaged couples ask to be
married in church for motives which
are social rather than genuinely religious.
This is not surprising. Marriage, in
fact, is not an event that concerns
only the persons actually getting married.
By its very nature it is also a social
matter, committing the couple being
married in the eyes of society. And
its celebration has always been an occasion
of rejoicing that brings together families
and friends. It therefore goes without
saying that social as well as personal
motives enter into the request to be
married in church.
Nevertheless, it must not be forgotten
that these engaged couples by virtue
of their baptism are already really
sharers in Christ's marriage covenant
with the church, and that, by their
right intention, they have accepted
God's plan regarding marriage and therefore,
at least implicitly, consent to what
the church intends to do when she celebrates
marriage. Thus the fact that motives
of a social nature also enter into the
request is not enough to justify refusal
on the part of pastors. Moreover, as
the Second Vatican Council teaches,
the sacraments by words and ritual elements
nourish and strengthen faith:[168] that
faith toward which the married couple
are already journeying by reason of
the uprightness of their intention,
which Christ's grace certainly does
not fail to favor and support.
As for wishing to lay down further
criteria for admission to the ecclesial
celebration of marriage, criteria that
would concern the level of faith of
those to be married, this would above
all involve grave risks. In the first
place, the risk of making unfounded
and discriminatory judgments; second,
the risk of causing doubts about the
validity of marriages already celebrated,
with grave harm to Christian communities
and new and unjustified anxieties to
the consciences of married couples;
one would also fall into the danger
of calling into question the sacramental
nature of many marriages of brethren
separated from full communion with the
Catholic Church, thus contradicting
ecclesial tradition.
However, when in spite of all efforts
engaged couples show that they reject
explicitly and formally what the church
intends to do when the marriage of baptized
persons is celebrated, the pastor of
souls cannot admit them to the celebration
of marriage. In spite of his reluctance
to do so, he has the duty to take note
of the situation and to make it clear
to those concerned that in these circumstances
it is not the church that is placing
an obstacle in the way of the celebration
that they are asking for, but themselves.
Once more there appears in all its
urgency the need for evangelization
and catechesis before and after marriage,
effected by the whole Christian community,
so that every man and woman that gets
married celebrates the sacrament of
matrimony not only validly but also
fruitfully.
69. The pastoral care of the
regularly established family signifies,
in practice, the commitment of all the
members of the local ecclesial community
to helping the couple to discover and
live their new vocation and mission.
In order that the family may be ever
more a true community of love, it is
necessary that all its members should
be helped and trained in their responsibilities
as they face the new problems that arise,
in mutual service and in active sharing
in family life.
This holds true especially for young
families, which, finding themselves
in a context of new values and responsibilities,
are more vulnerable, especially in the
first years of marriage, to possible
difficulties such as those created by
adaptation to life together or by the
birth of children. Young married couples
should learn to accept willingly and
make good use of the discreet, tactful
and generous help offered by other couples
that already have more experience of
married and family life. Thus within
the ecclesial community--the great family
made up of Christian familiesthere will
take place a mutual exchange of presence
and help among all the families, each
one putting at the service of the others
its own experience of life, as well
as the gifts of faith and grace. Animated
by a true apostolic spirit, this assistance
from family to family will constitute
one of the simplest, most effective
and most accessible means for transmitting
from one to another those Christian
values which are both the starting point
and goal of all pastoral care. Thus
young families will not limit themselves
merely to receiving, but in their turn,
having been helped in this way, will
become a source of enrichment for other
longer established families through
their witness of life and practical
contribution.
In her pastoral care of young families
the church must also pay special attention
to helping them to live married love
responsibly in relationship with its
demands of communion and service to
life. She must likewise help them to
harmonize the intimacy of home life
with the generous shared work of building
up the church and society. When children
are born and the married couple becomes
a family in the full and specific sense,
the church will still remain close to
the parents in order that they may accept
their children and love them as a gift
received from the Lord of life and joyfully
accept the task of serving them in their
human and Christian growth.
Pastoral activity is always the dynamic
expression of the reality of the church,
committed to her mission of salvation.
Family pastoral care too--which is a
particular and specific form of pastoral
activity--has as its operative principle
and responsible agent the church herself,
through her structures and workers.
70. The ecclesial community
and in particular the parish
The church, which is at the same time
a saved and a saving community, has
to be considered here under two aspects:
as universal and particular. The second
aspect is expressed and actuated in
the diocesan community, which is pastorally
divided up into lesser communities of
which the parish is of special importance.
Communion with the universal church
does not hinder, but rather guarantees
and promotes the substance and originality
of the various particular churches.
These latter remain the more immediate
and more effective subjects of operation
for putting the pastoral care of the
family into practice. In this sense
every local church and, in more particular
terms, every parochial community must
become more vividly aware of the grace
and responsibility that it receives
from the Lord in order that it may promote
the pastoral care of the family. No
plan of organized pastoral work at any
level must ever fail to take into consideration
the pastoral area of the family.
Also to be seen in the light of this
responsibility is the importance of
the proper preparation of all those
who will be more specifically engaged
in this kind of apostolate. Priests
and men and women religious from the
time of their formation should be oriented
and trained progressively and thoroughly
for the various tasks. Among the various
initiatives I am pleased to emphasize
the recent establishment in Rome, at
the Pontifical Lateran University, of
a higher institute for the study of
the problems of the family. Institutes
of this kind have also been set up in
some dioceses. Bishops should see to
it that as many priests as possible
attend specialized courses there before
taking on parish responsibilities. Elsewhere,
formation courses are periodically held
at higher institutes of theological
and pastoral studies. Such initiatives
should be encouraged, sustained, increased
in number, and of course are also open
to lay people who intend to use their
professional skills (medical, legal,
psychological, social or educational)
to help the family.
71. But it is especially necessary
to recognize the unique place that in
this field belongs to the mission of
married couples and Christian families
by virtue of the grace received in the
sacrament. This mission must be placed
at the service of the building up of
the church, the establishing of the
kingdom of God in history. This is demanded
as an act of docile obedience to Christ
the Lord. For it is he who, by virtue
of the fact that marriage of baptized
persons has been raised to a sacrament,
confers upon Christian married couples
a special mission as apostles, sending
them as workers into his vineyard and
in a very special way into this field
of the family.
In this activity married couples act
in communion and collaboration with
the other members of the church, who
also work for the family, contributing
their own gifts and ministries. This
apostolate will be exercised in the
first place within the families of those
concerned, through the witness of a
life lived in conformity with the divine
law in all its aspects, through the
Christian formation of the children,
through helping them to mature in faith,
through education to chastity, through
preparation for life, through vigilance
in protecting them from the ideological
and moral dangers with which they are
often threatened, through their gradual
and responsible inclusion in the ecclesial
community and the civil community, through
help and advice in choosing a vocation,
through mutual help among family members
for human and Christian growth together,
and so on. The apostolate of the family
will also become wider through works
of spiritual and material charity toward
other families, especially those most
in need of help and support, toward
the poor, the sick, the old, the handicapped,
orphans, widows, spouses that have been
abandoned, unmarried mothers and mothers-to-be
in difficult situations who are tempted
to have recourse to abortion, and so
on.
72. Still within the church,
which is the subject responsible for
the pastoral care of the family, mention
should be made of the various groupings
of members of the faithful in which
the mystery of Christ's church is in
some measure manifested and lived. One
should therefore recognize and make
good use of--each one in relationship
to its own characteristics, purposes,
effectiveness and methods--the different
ecclesial communities, the various groups
and the numerous movements engaged in
various ways, for different reasons
and at different levels, in the pastoral
care of the family.
For this reason the synod expressly
recognized the useful contribution made
by such associations of spirituality,
formation and apostolate. It will be
their task to foster among the faithful
a lively sense of solidarity, to favor
a manner of living inspired by the Gospel
and by the faith of the church, to form
consciences according to Christian values
and not according to the standards of
public opinion; to stimulate people
to perform works of charity for one
another and for others with a spirit
of openness which will make Christian
families into a true source of light
and a wholesome leaven for other families.
It is similarly desirable that, with
a lively sense of the common good, Christian
families should become actively engaged
at every level in other non-ecclesial
associations as well. Some of these
associations work for the preservation,
transmission and protection of the wholesome
ethical and cultural values of each
people, the development of the human
person, the medical, juridical and social
protection of mothers and young children,
the just advancement of women and the
struggle against all that is detrimental
to their dignity, the increase of mutual
solidarity, knowledge of the problems
connected with the responsible regulation
of fertility in accordance with natural
methods that are in conformity with
human dignity and the teaching of the
church.
Other associations work for the building
of a more just and human world; for
the promotion of just laws favoring
the right social order with full respect
for the dignity and every legitimate
freedom of the individual and the family
on both the national and the international
level; for collaboration with the school
and with the other institutions that
complete the education of children,
and so forth.
As well as the family, which is the
object but above all the subject of
pastoral care of the family, one must
also mention the other main agents in
this particular sector.
73. The person principally responsible
in the diocese for the pastoral care
of the family is the bishop. As father
and pastor, he must exercise particular
solicitude in this clearly priority
sector of pastoral care. He must devote
to it personal interest, care, time,
personnel and resources, but above all
personal support for the families and
for all those who, in the various diocesan
structures, assist him in the pastoral
care of the family.
It will be his particular care to make
the diocese ever more truly a "diocesan
family," a model and source of
hope for the many families that belong
to it. The setting up of the Pontifical
Council for the family is to be seen
in this light to be a sign of the importance
that I attribute to pastoral care for
the family in the world, and at the
same time to be an effective instrument
for aiding and promoting it at every
level.
The bishops avail themselves especially
of the priests, whose task--as the synod
expressly emphasized--constitutes an
essential part of the church's ministry
regarding marriage and the family. The
same is true of deacons to whose care
this sector of pastoral work may be
entrusted.
Their responsibility extends not only
to moral and liturgical matters, but
to personal and social matters as well.
They must support the family in its
difficulties and sufferings, caring
for its members and helping them to
see their lives in the light of the
Gospel. It is not superfluous to note
that from this mission, if it is exercised
with due discernment and with a truly
apostolic spirit, the minister of the
church draws fresh encouragement and
spiritual energy for his own vocation,
too, and for the exercise of his ministry.
Priests and deacons, when they have
received timely and serious preparation
for this apostolate, must unceasingly
act toward families as fathers, brothers,
pastors and teachers, assisting them
with the means of grace and enlightening
them with the light of truth. Their
teaching and advice must therefore always
be in full harmony with the authentic
magisterium of the church, in such a
way as to help the people of God to
gain a correct sense of the faith to
be subsequently applied to practical
life. Such fidelity to the magisterium
will also enable priests to make every
effort to be united in their judgments
in order to avoid troubling the consciences
of the faithful.
In the church, the pastors and the
laity share in the prophetic mission
of Christ: The laity do so by witnessing
to the faith by their words and by their
Christian lives; the pastors do so by
distinguishing in that witness what
is the expression of genuine faith from
what is less in harmony with the light
of faith; the family, as a Christian
community, does so through its special
sharing and witness of faith.
Thus there begins a dialogue also between
pastors and families. Theologians and
experts in family matters can be of
great help in this dialogue. By explaining
exactly the content of the church's
magisterium and the content of the experience
of family life. In this way the teaching
of the magisterium becomes better understood
and the way is opened to its progressive
development.
But it is useful to recall that the
proximate and obligatory norm in the
teaching of the faith--also concerning
family matters--belongs to the hierarchical
magisterium. Clearly defined relationships
between theologians, experts in family
matters and the magisterium are of no
little assistance for the correct understanding
of the faith and for promoting--within
the boundaries of the faith--legitimate
pluralism.
74. The contribution that can
be made to the apostolate of the family
by men and women religious and consecrated
persons in general finds its primary,
fundamental and original expression
precisely in their consecration to God.
By reason of this consecration, "for
all Christ's faithful religious recall
that wonderful marriage made by God,
which will be fully manifested in the
future age, and in which the church
has Christ for her only spouse,"[169]
and they are witnesses to that universal
charity which, through chastity embraced
for the kingdom of heaven, makes them
every more available to dedicate themselves
generously to the service of God and
to the works of the apostolate.
Hence the possibility for men and women
religious and members of secular institutes
and other institutes of perfection,
either individually or in groups, to
develop their service to families, with
particular solicitude for children,
especially if they are abandoned, unwanted,
orphaned, poor or handicapped. They
can also visit families and look after
the sick; they can foster relationships
of respect and charity toward one-parent
families or families that are in difficulties
or are separated; they can offer their
own work of teaching and counseling
in the preparation of young people for
marriage and in helping couples toward
truly responsible parenthood; they can
open their own houses for simple and
cordial hospitality so that families
can find there the sense of God's presence
and gain a taste for prayer and recollection
and see the practical examples of lives
lived in charity and fraternal joy as
members of the larger family of God.
I would like to add a most pressing
exhortation to the heads of institutes
of consecrated life to consider--always
with substantial respect for the proper
and original charism of each one--the
apostolate of the family as one of the
priority tasks rendered even more urgent
by the present state of the world.
75. Considerable help can be
given to families by lay specialists
(doctors, lawyers, psychologists, social
workers, consultants, etc.) who either
as individuals or as members of various
associations and undertakings offer
their contribution of enlightenment,
advice, orientation and support. To
these people one can well apply the
exhortations that I had the occasion
to address to the Confederation of Family
Advisory Bureaus of Christian Inspiration:
"Yours is a commitment that well
deserves the title of mission, so noble
are the aims that it pursues, and so
determining, for the good of society
and the Christian community itself,
are the results that derive from it
. . All that you succeed in doing to
support the family is destined to have
an effectiveness that goes beyond its
own sphere and reaches other people
too, and has an effect on society. The
future of the world and of the church
passes through the family."[170]
76. This very important category
in modern life deserves a word of its
own. It is well known that the means
of social communication "affect,
and often profoundly, the minds of those
who use them, under the affective and
intellectual aspect and also under the
moral and religious aspect," especially
in the case of young people.[171] They
can thus exercise a beneficial influence
on the life and habits of the family
and on the education of children, but
at the same time they also conceal "snares
and dangers that cannot be ignored."[172]
They could also become a vehicle--sometimes
cleverly and systematically manipulated,
as unfortunately happens in various
countries of the world--for divisive
ideologies and distorted ways of looking
at life, the family, religion and morality,
attitudes that lack respect for man's
true dignity and destiny.
This danger is all the more real inasmuch
as "the modern lifestyle--especially
in the more industrialized nations--all
too often causes families to abandon
their responsibility to educate their
children. Evasion of this duty is made
easy for them by the presence of television
and certain publications in the home,
and in this way they keep their children's
time and energies occupied."[173]
Hence "the duty...to protect the
young from the forms of aggression they
are subjected to by the mass media,"
and to ensure that the use of the media
in the family is carefully regulated.
Families should also take care to seek
for their children other forms of entertainment
that are more wholesome, useful and
physically, morally and spiritually
formative, "to develop and use
to advantage the free time of the young
and direct their energies."[174]
Furthermore, because the means of social
communication, like the school and the
environment, often have a notable influence
on the formation of children, parents
as recipients must actively ensure the
moderate, critical, watchful and prudent
use of the media by discovering what
effect they have on their children and
by controlling the use of media in such
a way as to "train the conscience
of their children to express calm and
objective judgments, which will then
guide them in the choice or rejection
of programs available."[175]
With equal commitment parents will
endeavor to influence the selection
and the preparation of the programs
themselves by keeping in contact--through
suitable initiatives--with those in
charge of the various phases of production
and transmission. In this way they will
ensure that the fundamental human values
that form part of the true good of society
are not ignored or deliberately attacked.
Rather they will ensure the broadcasting
of programs that present in the right
light family problems and their proper
solution. In this regard my venerated
predecessor Paul VI wrote:
"Producers must know and respect
the needs of the family, and this sometimes
presupposes in them true courage, and
always a high sense of responsibility.
In fact they are expected to avoid anything
that could harm the family in its existence,
its stability, its balance and its happiness.
Every attack on the fundamental value
of the family--meaning eroticism or
violence, the defense of divorce or
of anti-social attitudes among young
people--is an attack on the true good
of man."[176]
I myself, on a similar occasion, pointed
out that families "to a considerable
extent need to be able to count on the
good will, integrity and sense of responsibility
of the media professionals--publishers,
writers, producers, directors, playwrights,
newsmen, commentators and actors."[177]
It is therefore also the duty of the
church to continue to devote every care
to these categories, at the same time
encouraging and supporting Catholics
who feel the call and have the necessary
talents to take up this sensitive type
of work.
77. An even more generous, intelligent
and prudent pastoral commitment, modeled
on the Good Shepherd, is called for
in the case of families which, often
independently of their own wishes and
through pressures of various other kinds,
find themselves faced by situations
which are objectively difficult.
In this regard it is necessary to call
special attention to certain particular
groups which are more in need not only
of assistance but also of more incisive
action upon public opinion and especially
upon cultural, economic and juridical
structures, in order that the profound
causes of their needs may be eliminated
as far as possible.
Such, for example, are the families
of migrant workers; the families of
those obliged to be away for long periods,
such as members of the armed forces,
sailors and all kinds of itinerant people;
the families of those in prison, of
refugees and exiles; the families in
big cities living, practically speaking,
as outcasts; families with no home;
incomplete or single-parent families;
families with children that are handicapped
or addicted to drugs; the families of
alcoholics; families that have been
uprooted from their cultural and social
environment or are in danger of losing
it; families discriminated against for
political or other reasons; families
that are ideologically divided; families
that are unable to make ready contact
with the parish; families experiencing
violence or unjust treatment because
of their faith; teen-age married couples;
the elderly, who are often obliged to
live alone with inadequate means of
subsistence.
The families of migrants, especially
in the case of manual workers and farm
workers, should be able to find a homeland
everywhere in the church. This is a
task stemming from the nature of the
church, as being the sign of unity in
diversity. As far as possible these
people should be looked after by priests
of their own rite, culture and language.
It is also the church's task to appeal
to the public conscience and to all
those in authority in social, economic
and political life, in order that workers
may find employment in their own regions
and homelands, that they may receive
just wages, that their families may
be reunited as soon as possible, be
respected in their cultural identity
and treated on an equal footing with
others, and that their children may
be given the chance to learn a trade
and exercise it, as also the chance
to own the land needed for working and
living.
A difficult problem is that of the
family which is ideologically divided.
In these cases particular pastoral care
is needed. In the first place it is
necessary to maintain tactful personal
contact with such families. The believing
members must be strengthened in their
faith and supported in their Christian
lives. Although the party faithful to
Catholicism cannot give way, dialogue
with the other party must always be
kept alive. Love and respect must be
freely shown in the firm hope that unity
will be maintained. Much also depends
on the relationship between parents
and children. Moreover, ideologies which
are alien to the faith can stimulate
the believing members of the family
to grow in faith and in the witness
of love.
Other difficult circumstances in which
the family needs the help of the ecclesial
community and its pastors are: the children's
adolescence, which can be disturbed,
rebellious and sometimes stormy; the
children's marriage, which takes them
away from their family; lack of understanding
or lack of love on the part of those
held most dear; abandonment by one of
the spouses or his or her death, which
brings the painful experience of widowhood,
or the death of a family member, which
breaks up and deeply transforms the
original family nucleus.
Similarly, the church cannot ignore
the time of old age with all its positive
and negative aspects. In old age married
love, which has been increasingly purified
and ennobled by long and unbroken fidelity,
can be deepened. There is the opportunity
of offering to others in a new form
the kindness and the wisdom gathered
over the years and what energies remain.
But there is also the burden of loneliness,
more often psychological and emotional
rather than physical, which results
from abandonment or neglect on the part
of children and relations. There is
also suffering caused by ill-health,
by the gradual loss of strength, by
the humiliation of having to depend
on others, by the sorrow of feeling
that one is perhaps a burden to one's
loved ones, and by the approach of the
end of life. These are the circumstances
in which, as the synod fathers suggested,
it is easier to help people understand
and live the lofty aspects of the spirituality
of marriage and the family, aspects
which take their inspiration from the
value of Christ's cross and resurrection,
the source of sanctification and profound
happiness in daily life, in the light
of the great eschatological realities
of eternal life.
In all these different situations let
prayer, the source of light and strength
and the nourishment of Christian hope,
never be neglected.
78. The growing number of mixed
marriages between Catholics and other
baptized persons also calls for special
pastoral attention in the light of the
directives and norms contained in the
most recent documents of the Holy See
and in those drawn up by the episcopal
conferences, in order to permit their
practical application to the various
situations.
Couples living in a mixed marriage
have special needs, which can be put
under three main headings.
In the first place, attention must
be paid to the obligations that faith
imposes on the Catholic party with regard
to the free exercise of the faith and
the consequent obligation to ensure,
as far as is possible, the baptism and
upbringing of the children in the Catholic
faith.[178]
There must be borne in mind the particular
difficulties inherent in the relationships
between husband and wife with regard
to respect for religious freedom: This
freedom could be violated either by
undue pressure to make the partner change
his or her beliefs or by placing obstacles
in the way of the free manifestation
of these beliefs by religious practice.
With regard to the liturgical and canonical
form of marriage, ordinaries can make
wide use of their faculties to meet
various necessities.
In dealing with these special needs,
the following points should be kept
in mind: --In the appropriate preparation
for this type of marriage every reasonable
effort must be made to ensure a proper
understanding of Catholic teaching on
the qualities and obligations of marriage
and also to ensure that the pressures
and obstacles mentioned above will not
occur.
It is of the greatest importance that
through the support of the community
the Catholic party should be strengthened
in faith and positively helped to mature
in understanding and practicing that
faith so as to become a credible witness
within the family through his or her
own life and through the quality of
love shown to the other spouse and the
children.
Marriages between Catholics and other
baptized persons have their particular
nature, but they contain numerous elements
that could well be made good use of
and developed, both for their intrinsic
value and for the contribution that
they can make to the ecumenical movement.
This is particularly true when both
parties are faithful to their religious
duties. Their common baptism and the
dynamism of grace provide the spouses
in these marriages with the basis and
motivation for expressing their unity
in the sphere of moral and spiritual
values.
For this purpose and also in order
to highlight the ecumenical importance
of mixed marriages which are fully lived
in the faith of the two Christian spouses
an effort should be made to establish
cordial cooperation between the Catholic
and the non-Catholic ministers from
the time that preparations begin for
the marriage and the wedding ceremony
even though this does not always prove
easy.
With regard to the sharing of the non-Catholic
party in eucharistic communion, the
norms issued by the Secretariat for
Promoting Christian Unity should be
followed.[179]
Today in many parts of the world marriages
between Catholics and non-baptized persons
are growing in numbers. In many such
marriages the non-baptized partner professes
another religion and his beliefs are
to be treated with respect in accordance
with the principles set out in the Second
Vatican Council's declaration Nostra
Aetate on relations with non-Christian
religions. But in many other such marriages,
particularly in secularized societies,
the non-baptized person professes no
religion at all. In these marriages
there is a need for episcopal conferences
and for individual bishops to ensure
that there are proper pastoral safeguards
for the faith of the Catholic partner
and for the free exercise of his faith,
above all in regard to his duty to do
all in his power to ensure the Catholic
baptism and education of the children
of the marriage. Likewise the Catholic
must be assisted in every possible way
to offer within his family a genuine
witness to the Catholic faith and to
Catholic life.
79. In its solicitude to protect
the family in all its dimensions, not
only the religious one, the Synod of
Bishops did not fail to take into careful
consideration certain situations which
are irregular in a religious sense and
often in the civil sense too. Such situations,
as a result of today's rapid cultural
changes, are unfortunately becoming
widespread also among Catholics with
no little damage to the very institution
of the family and to society, of which
the family constitutes the basic cell.
80. A first example of an irregular
situation is provided by what are called
"trial marriages," which many
people today would like to justify by
attributing a certain value to them.
But human reason leads one to see that
they are unacceptable, by showing the
unconvincing nature of carrying out
an "experiment" with human
beings, whose dignity demands that they
should be always and solely the term
of a self-giving love without limitations
of time or of any other circumstance.
The church, for her part, cannot admit
such a kind of union for further and
original reasons which derive from faith.
For, in the first place, the gift of
the body in the sexual relationship
is a real symbol of the giving of the
whole person: Such a giving, moreover,
in the present state of things cannot
take place with full truth without the
concourse of the love of charity, given
by Christ. In the second place, marriage
between two baptized persons is a real
symbol of the union of Christ and the
church, which is not a temporary or
"trial" union, but one which
is eternally faithful. Therefore between
two baptized persons there can exist
only an indissoluble marriage.
Such a situation cannot usually be
overcome unless the human person from
childhood, with the help of Christ's
grace and without fear, has been trained
to dominate concupiscence from the beginning
and to establish relationships of genuine
love with other people. This cannot
be secured without a true education
in genuine love and in the right use
of sexuality, such as to introduce the
human person in every aspect, and therefore
the bodily aspect too, into the fullness
of the mystery of Christ.
It will be very useful to investigate
the causes of this phenomenon, including
its psychological and sociological aspect,
in order to find the proper remedy.
81. This means unions without
any publicly recognized institutional
bond, either civil or religious. This
phenomenon, which is becoming ever more
frequent, cannot fail to concern pastors
of souls, also because it may be based
on widely varying factors, the consequences
of which may perhaps be containable
by suitable action.
Some people consider themselves almost
forced into a free union by difficult
economic, cultural or religious situations,
on the grounds that if they would be
exposed to some form of harm, would
lose economic advantages, would be discriminated
against, etc. In other cases, however,
one encounters people who scorn, rebel
against or reject society, the institution
of the family and the social and political
order, or who are solely seeking pleasure.
Then there are those who are driven
to such situations by extreme ignorance
or poverty, sometimes by a conditioning
due to situations of real injustice
or by a certain psychological immaturity
that makes them uncertain or afraid
to enter into a stable and definitive
union. In some countries traditional
customs presume that the true and proper
marriage will take place only after
a period of cohabitation and the birth
of the first child.
Each of these elements presents the
church with arduous pastoral problems,
by reason of the serious consequences
deriving from them, both religious and
moral (the loss of the religious sense
of marriage seen in the light of the
covenant of God with his people; deprivation
of the grace of the sacrament; grave
scandal) and also social consequences
(the destruction of the concept of the
family; the weakening of the sense of
fidelity, also toward society; possible
psychological damage to the children;
the strengthening of selfishness).
The pastors and the ecclesial community
should take care to become acquainted
with such situations and their actual
causes, case by case. They should make
tactful and respectful contact with
the couples concerned and enlighten
them patiently, correct them charitably
and show them the witness of Christian
family life in such a way as to smooth
the path for them to regularize their
situation. But above all there must
be a campaign of prevention, by fostering
the sense of fidelity in the whole moral
and religious training of the young,
instructing them concerning the conditions
and structures that favor such fidelity,
without which there is no true freedom;
they must be helped to reach spiritual
maturity and enabled to understand the
rich human and supernatural reality
of marriage as a sacrament.
82. There are increasing cases
of Catholics who for ideological or
practical reasons prefer to contract
a merely civil marriage and who reject
or at least defer religious marriage.
Their situation cannot, of course, be
likened to that of people simply living
together without any bond at all, because
in the present case there is at least
a certain commitment to a properly defined
and probably stable state of life even
though the possibility of a future divorce
is often present in the minds of those
entering a civil marriage. By seeking
public recognition of their bond on
the part of the state, such couples
show that they are ready to accept not
only its advantages but also its obligations.
Nevertheless, not even this situation
is acceptable to the church.
The aim of pastoral action will be
to make these people understand the
need for consistency between their choice
of life and the faith that they profess,
and to try to do everything possible
to induce them to regularize their situation
in the light of Christian principles.
While treating them with great charity
and bringing them into the life of the
respective communities, the pastors
of the church will regrettably not be
able to admit them to the sacraments.
83. Various reasons can unfortunately
lead to the often irreparable breakdown
of valid marriages. These include mutual
lack of understanding and the inability
to enter into interpersonal relationships.
Obviously, separation must be considered
as a last resort, after all other reasonable
attempts at reconciliation have proved
vain.
Loneliness and other difficulties are
often the lot of separated spouses especially
when they are the innocent parties.
The ecclesial community must support
such people more than ever. It must
give them much respect, solidarity,
understanding and practical help, so
that they can preserve their fidelity
even in their difficult situation; and
it must help them to cultivate the need
to forgive which is inherent in Christian
love and to be ready perhaps to return
to their former married life.
The situation is similar for people
who have undergone divorce, but, being
well aware that the valid marriage bond
is indissoluble, refrain from becoming
involved in a new union and devote themselves
solely to carrying out their family
duties and the responsibilities of Christian
life. In such cases their example of
fidelity and Christian consistency takes
on particular value as a witness before
the world and the church. Here it is
even more necessary for the church to
offer continual love and assistance
without there being any obstacle to
admission to the sacraments.
84. Daily experience unfortunately
shows that people who have obtained
a divorce usually intend to enter into
a new union, obviously not with a Catholic
religious ceremony. Since this is an
evil that like the others is affecting
more and more Catholics as well, the
problem must be faced with resolution
and without delay. The synod fathers
studied it expressly. The church, which
was set up to lead to salvation all
people and especially the baptized,
cannot abandon to their own devices
those who have been previously bound
by sacramental marriage and who have
attempted a second marriage. The church
will therefore make untiring efforts
to put at their disposal her means of
salvation.
Pastors must know that for the sake
of truth they are obliged to exercise
careful discernment of situations. There
is, in fact, a difference between those
who have sincerely tried to save their
first marriage and have been unjustly
abandoned and those who, through their
own grave fault, have destroyed a canonically
valid marriage.
Finally, there are those who have entered
into a second union for the sake of
the children's upbringing and who are
sometimes subjectively certain in conscience
that their previous and irreparably
destroyed marriage had never been valid.
Together with the synod, I earnestly
call upon pastors and the whole community
of the faithful to help the divorced
and with solicitous care to make sure
that they do not consider themselves
as separated from the church, for as
baptized persons they can and indeed
must share in her life. They should
be encouraged to listen to the word
of God, to attend the sacrifice of the
Mass, to persevere in prayer, to contribute
to works of charity and to community
efforts in favor of justice, to bring
up their children in the Christian faith,
to cultivate the spirit and practice
of penance and thus implore, day by
day, God's grace. Let the church pray
for them, encourage them and show herself
a merciful mother and thus sustain them
in faith and hope.
However, the church reaffirms her practice,
which is based upon sacred scripture,
of not admitting to eucharistic communion
divorced persons who have remarried.
They are unable to be admitted thereto
from the fact that their state and condition
of life objectively contradict that
union of love between Christ and the
church which is signified and effected
by the eucharist. Besides this there
is another special pastoral reason:
If these people were admitted to the
eucharist the faithful would be led
into error and confusion regarding the
church's teaching about the indissolubility
of marriage.
Reconciliation in the sacrament of
penance, which would open the way to
the eucharist, can only be granted to
those who, repenting of having broken
the sign of the convenant and of fidelity
to Christ, are sincerely ready to undertake
a way of life that is no longer in contradiction
to the indissolubility of marriage.
This means, in practice, that when,
for serious reasons such as, for example,
the children's upbringing, a man and
a woman cannot satisfy the obligation
to separate, they "take on themselves
the duty to live in complete continence,
that is, by abstinence from the acts
proper to married couples."[180]
Similarly, the respect due to the sacrament
of matrimony, to the couples themselves
and their families, and also to the
community of the faithful forbids any
pastor for whatever reason or pretext,
even of a pastoral nature, to perform
ceremonies of any kind for divorced
people who remarry. Such ceremonies
would give the impression of the celebration
of a new, sacramentally valid marriage
and would thus lead people into error
concerning the indissolubility of a
validly contracted marriage.
By acting in this way the church professes
her own fidelity to Christ and to his
truth. At the same time she shows motherly
concern for these children of hers,
especially those who, through no fault
of their own, have been abandoned by
their legitimate partner.
With firm confidence she believes that
those who have rejected the Lord's command
and are still living in this state will
be able to obtain from God the grace
of conversion and salvation, provided
that they have persevered in prayer,
penance and charity.
85. I wish to add a further
word for a category of people whom,
as a result of the actual circumstances
in which they are living, and this often
not through their own deliberate wish,
I consider particularly close to the
heart of Christ and deserving of the
affection and active solicitude of the
church and of pastors.
There exist in the world countless
people who unfortunately cannot in any
sense claim membership in what could
be called, in the proper sense, a family.
Large sections of humanity live in conditions
of extreme poverty in which promiscuity,
lack of housing, the irregular nature
and instability of relationships and
the extreme lack of education make it
impossible in practice to speak of a
true family. There are others who for
various reasons have been left alone
in the world. And yet for all of these
people there exists a "good news
of the family."
On behalf of those living in extreme
poverty I have already spoken of the
urgent need to work courageously in
order to find solutions also at the
political level, which will make it
possible to help them and to overcome
this inhuman condition of degradation.
It is a special task that faces the
whole of society, but in a special way
the authorities, by reason of their
position and the responsibilities flowing
therefrom, and also families, which
must show great understanding and willingness
to help.
For those who have no natural family
the doors of the great family which
is the church--the church which finds
concrete expression in the diocesan
and the parish family, in ecclesial
basic communities and in movements of
the apostolate--must be opened even
wider. No one is without a family in
this world: The church is a home and
family for everyone, especially those
who "labor and are heavy laden."[181]
86. At the end of this apostolic
exhortation my thoughts turn with earnest
solicitude: To you, married couples,
to you, fathers and mothers of families;
To you, young men and women, the future
and the hope of the church and the world,
destined to be the dynamic central nucleus
of the family in the approaching third
millennium; To you, venerable and dear
brothers in the episcopate and in the
priesthood, beloved sons and daughters
in the religious life, souls consecrated
to the Lord, who bear witness before
married couples to the ultimate reality
of the love of God;
To you, upright men and women, who
for any reason whatever give thought
to the fate of the family.
The future of humanity passes by way
of the family.
It is therefore indispensable and urgent
that every person of good will should
endeavor to save and foster the values
and requirements of the family.
I feel that I must ask for a particular
effort in this field from the sons and
daughters of the church. Faith gives
them full knowledge of God's wonderful
plan: They therefore have an extra reason
for caring for the reality that is the
family in this time of trial and of
grace.
They must show the family special love.
This is an injunction that calls for
concrete action.
Loving the family means being able
to appreciate its values and capabilities,
fostering them always. Loving the family
means identifying the dangers and the
evils that menace it in order to overcome
them. Loving the family means endeavoring
to create for it an environment favorable
for its development. The modern Christian
family is often tempted to be discouraged
and is distressed at the growth of its
difficulties; it is an eminent form
of love to give it back its reasons
for confidence in itself, in the riches
that it possesses by nature and grace,
and in the mission that God has entrusted
to it. "Yes, indeed, the families
of today must be called back to their
original position. They must follow
Christ."[182]
Christians also have the mission of
proclaiming with joy and conviction
the good news about the family, for
the family absolutely needs to hear
ever anew and to understand ever more
deeply the authentic words that reveal
its identity, its inner resources and
the importance of its mission in the
city of God and in that of man.
The church knows the path by which
the family can reach the heart of the
deepest truth about itself. The church
has learned this path at the school
of Christ and the school of history
interpreted in the light of the Spirit.
She does not impose it, but she feels
an urgent need to propose it to everyone
without fear and indeed with great confidence
and hope, although she knows that the
good news includes the subject of the
cross. But it is through the cross that
the family can attain the fullness of
its being and the perfection of its
love.
Finally, I wish to call on all Christians
to collaborate cordially and courageously
with all people of good will who are
serving the family in accordance with
their responsibilities. The individuals
and groups, movements and associations
in the church which devote themselves
to the family's welfare, acting in the
Church's name and under her inspiration,
often find themselves side by side with
other individuals and institutions working
for the same ideal. With faithfulness
to the values of the Gospel and of the
human person and with respect for lawful
pluralism in initiatives, this collaboration
can favor a more rapid and integral
advancement of the family.
And now, at the end of my pastoral
message, which is intended to draw everyone's
attention to the demanding yet fascinating
roles of the Christian family, I wish
to invoke the protection of the Holy
Family of Nazareth.
Through God's mysterious design, it
was in that family that the Son of God
spent long years of a hidden life. It
is therefore the prototype and example
for all Christian families. It was unique
in the world. Its life was passed in
anonymity and silence in a little town
in Palestine. It underwent trials of
poverty, persecution and exile. It glorified
God in an incomparably exalted and pure
way. And it will not fail to help Christian
families--indeed all the families in
the world--to be faithful to their day-to-day
duties, to bear the cares and tribulations
of life, to be open and generous to
the needs of others and to fulfill with
joy the plan of God in their regard.
St. Joseph was "a just man,"
a tireless worker, the upright guardian
of those entrusted to his care. May
he always guard, protect and enlighten
families.
May the Virgin Mary, who is the mother
of the church, also be the mother of
"the church of the home. "
Thanks to her motherly aid, may each
Christian family really become a "little
church" in which the mystery of
the church of Christ is mirrored and
given new life. May she, the handmaid
of the Lord, be an example of humble
and generous acceptance of the will
of God. May she, the sorrowful mother
at the foot of the cross, comfort the
sufferings and dry the tears of those
in distress because of the difficulties
of their families.
May Christ the Lord, the universal
king, the king of families, be present
in every Christian home as he was at
Cana, bestowing light, joy, serenity
and strength. On the solemn day dedicated
to his kingship I beg of him that every
family may generously make its own contribution
to the coming of his kingdom in the
world--"a kingdom of truth and
life, a kingdom of holiness and grace,
a kingdom of justice, love and peace,"[183]
toward which history is journeying.
I entrust each family to him, to Mary
and to Joseph. To their hands and their
hearts I offer this exhortation: May
it be they who present it to you, venerable
brothers and beloved sons and daughters,
and may it be they who open your hearts
to the light that the Gospel sheds on
every family.
I assure you all of my constant prayers
and I cordially impart the apostolic
blessing to each and every one of you,
in the name of the Father, and of the
Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Given in Rome, at St. Peter's, Nov.
22, 1981, the solemnity of our Lord
Jesus Christ, universal king, the fourth
of the pontificate.
NOTES
1. Cf. Second Vatican Council,
Gaudium et Spes, 52.
2. Cf. John Paul II, Homily
for the Opening of the Sixth Synod of
Bishops (Sept. 26, 1980), 2: AAS 72
(1980), 1008.
3. Cf. Gn. 1-2.
4. Cf. Eph. 5.
5. Cf. Second Vatican Council,
GS, 47; Pope John Paul II, Letter Appropinquat
Iam (Aug. 15, 1980), 1: AAS 72 (1980),
791.
6. Cf. Mt. 19:4.
7. Cf. Second Vatican Council,
GS, 47.
8. Cf. John Paul II, Address
to Council of the General Secretariat
of the Synod of Bishops (Feb. 23, 1980):
Insegnamenti di Giovanni Paolo II,)
III, I (1980), 472-476.
9. Cf. Second Vatican Council,
GS, 4.
10. Cf. Second Vatican Council,
Lumen Gentium, 12.
11. Cf. I Jn. 2:20.
12. Second Vatican Council,
LG, 35.
13. Cf. Second Vatican Council,
LG, 12; Congregation for the Doctrine
of the Faith, Declaration Mysterium
Ecclesiae, 2: AAS 65 (1973), 398-400.
14. Cf. Second Vatican Council,
LG, 12; Dei Verbum, 10.
15. Cf. John Paul II, Homily
for the Opening of the Sixth Synod of
Bishops, 3.
16. Cf. St. Augustine, De Civitate
Dei, XIV, 28; CSEL 40, II, 56-57.
17. GS, 15.
18. Cf. Eph. 3:8; Second Vatican
Council, GS, 44; Ad Gentes, 15,22.
19. Cf. Mt. 19:4-6.
20. Cf. Gn. 1:26-27.
21. 1 Jn. 4:8.
22. Cf. Second Vatican Council,
GS, 12.
23. Cf. Ibid., 48.
24. Cf. e.g., Hos. 2:21; Jer.
3:6-13; Is. 54.
25. Ez. 16:25.
26. Cf. Hos. 3.
27. Cf. Gn. 2:24; Mt. 19:5.
28. Cf. Eph. 5:32-33
29. Tertullian, Ad Uxorem, II,
VIII, 6-8: CCL, I, 393.
30. Cf. Council of Trent, Session
XXIV, Canon 1: I.D. Mansi, Sacrorum
Conciliorum Nova et Amplissima Collectio,33,149-150.
31. Cf. Second Vatican Council,
GS, 48.
32. John Paul II, Address to
the delegates of the Centre de Liaison
des Equipes de Recherche (Nov. 3, 1979),
3: Insegnamenti II, 2 (1979), 1038.
33. Ibid., 4; loc. cit., 1032.
34. Cf. Second Vatican Council, GS,
50.
34. Cf. Second Vatican Council,
GS, 50.
35. Cf. Gn. 2:24.
36. Eph. 3:15.
37. Cf. Second Vatican Council,
GS, 78.
38. St. John Chrysostom, Virginity,
X: PG 48:540.
39. Cf. Mt. 22:30.
40. Cf. 1 Cor. 7:32-35.
41. Second Vatican Council,
Perfectae Caritatis, 12.
42. Cf. Pius XII, Encyclical
Sacra Virginitas, II: AAS 46 (1954),
174ff.
43. Cf. John Paul II, Letter
Novo Incipiente (April 8, 1979), 9:
AAS 71 (1979), 410-411.
44. Second Vatican Council,
GS, 48.
45. Encyclical Redemptor Hominis,
10: AAS 71 (1979), 274.
46. Mt. 19:6; cf. Gn. 2:24.
47. Cf. John Paul II, Address
to Married People at Kinshasa (May 3,
1980) 4: AAS 72 (1980), 426-427.
48. GS, 49; cf. John Paul II,
Address at Kinshasa 4: loc. cit.
49. Second Vatican Council,
GS, 48.
50. Cf Eph 5:25.
51. Mt. 19:8.
52. Rv. 3:14.
53. Cf. 2Cor. 1:20.
54. Cf. Jn. 13:1.
55. Mt. 19:6.
56. Rom. 8:29.
57. St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa
Theologiae, II-II, q. 14, art. 2, ad
4.
58. Second Vatican Council,
LG, 11; cf. Apostolicam Actuositatem,
11.
59. Second Vatican Council,
GS, 52.
60. Cf. Eph. 6:1-4; Col. 3:20-21.
61. Cf. Second Vatican Council,
GS, 48.
62. Jn. 17:21.
63. Cf. Second Vatican Council,
GS, 24.
64. Gn. 1:27.
65. Gal. 3:26, 28
66. Cf. John Paul II, Encyclical
Laborem Exercens, 19: AAS 73 (1981),
625.
67. Gn. 2:18.
68. Gn. 2:23.
69. St. Ambrose, Exameron, V
7, 19: CSEL 32, I, 154.
70. Paul VI, Encyclical Humanae
Vitae, 9: AAS 60 (1968), 486.
71. Cf. Eph. 5:25.
72. Cf. John Paul II, Homily
to the Faithful of Terni (March 19,
1981), 3-5: AAS.
73. (1981), 268-271. 73. Cf.
Eph. 3:15.
74. Cf. Second Vatican Council,
GS, 52.
75. Lk. 18:16; cf. Mt. 19:14;
Mk. 18:16.
76. John Paul II, Address to
the General Assembly of the United Nations
(Oct. 2, 1979), 21: AAS 71(1979), 1159.
77. Lk. 2:52.
78. Cf. Second Vatican Council,
GS, 48.
79. John Paul II, Address to
the Participants in the International
Forum on Active Aging (Sept. 5, 1980),
5: Insegnamenti, III, 2 (1980), 539.
80. Gn. 1:28.
81. Cf. Gn. 5:1-3.
82. Second Vatican Council,
GS, 50.
83. Propositio 21. Section 11
of the encyclical Humanae Vitae ends
with the statement: "The church,
calling people back to the observance
of the norms of the natural law, as
interpreted by her constant doctrine,
teaches that each and every marriage
act must remain open to the transmission
of life (ut quilibet matrimonii usus
ad vitam humanam procreandam per se
destinatus permaneat)": AAS 60
(1968), 488.
84. Cf. 2 Cor. 1:19; Rv. 3:14.
85. Cf. The sixth Synod of Bishops'
Message to Christian Families in the
Modern World (Oct. 24, 1980), 5.
86. GS, 51.
87. Encyclical Humanae Vitae,
7: AAS 60 (1968), 485.
88. Ibid., 12: loc. cit., 488-489.
89. Ibid., 14: loc. cit., 490.
90. Ibid., 13: loc. cit.,m 489.
91. Cf. Second Vatican Council,
GS, 51.
92. Encyclical Humanae Vitae,
29: AAS 60 (1968), 501.
93. Cf. Ibid., 25: loc. cit.,
498-499.
94. Ibid., 21: loc. cit., 496.
95. John Paul II, Homily at
the Close of the Sixth Synod of Bishops
(Oct. 25, 1980), 8: AAS 72 (1980), 1083.
96. Cf. Paul VI, Encyclical
Humanae Vitae, 28: AAS 60 (1968), 501.
97. Cf. John Paul II, Address
to the Delegates of the Centre de Liaison
des Equipes de Recherche (Nov. 3, 1979),
9: Insegnamenti, II, 2 (1979), 1035;
and cf. Address to the Participants
in the First Congress for the Family
of Africa and Europe (Jan. 15, 1981):
L'Osservatore Romano, Jan. 16, 1981.
98. Encyclical Humanae Vitae,
25: AAS 60 (1968), 499.
99. Gravissimum Educationis,
3.
100. Second Vatican Council,
GS, 35.
101. St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa
Contra Gentiles, IV, 58.
102. GE, 2.
103. Apostolic exhortation Evangelii
Nuntiandi, 71: AAS 68 (1976), 60-61.
104. Cf. Second Vatican Council,
GE, 3.
105. Second Vatican Council,
AA, 11.
106. GS, 52.
107. Cf. Second Vatican Council,
AA, 11.
108. Rom. 12:13.
109. Mt. 10:42.
110. Cf. GS, 30.
111. Second Vatican Council,
Dignitatis Humanae, 5.
112. Cf propositio 42.
113. Second Vatican Council,
LG, 31.
114. Cf. Second Vatican Council,
LG, 11; AA, II; Pope John Paul II, Homily
for the Opening of the Sixth Synod of
Bishops (Sept. 26, 1980), 3:AAS 72 (1980)
1008.
115. Second Vatican Council,
LG, 11.
116. Cf. Ibid., 41.
117. Acts 4:32.
118. Cf. Paul VI, Humanae Vitae,
9.
119. GS, 48.
120. Cf. Second Vatican Council,
DV, 1.
121. Rom. 16:26.
122. Cf. Paul VI, Humanae Vitae,
25.
123. Evangelii Nuntiandi, 71.
124. Cf. Address to the Third
General Assembly of the Bishops of Latin
America (Jan. 28, 1979), IV A: AAS 71(1979),
204.
125. Second Vatican Council,
LG, 35.
126. John Paul II, Apostolic
Exhortation Catechesi Tradendae, 68:
AAS 71 (1979), 1334.
127. Cf. Ibid., 36: loc. cit.,
1308.
128. Cf. 1 Cor. 12:4-6; Eph.
4:12-13.
129. Mk. 16:15.
130. Cf. Second Vatican Council,
LG, 11.
131. Acts 1:8.
132. Cf.l Pt.3:1-2.
133. Second Vatican Council,
LG, 35; cf. AA, 11.
134. Cf. Acts 18; Rom. 16:3-4.
135. Cf. Second Vatican Council,
AG, 39.
136. Second Vatican Council,
AA, 30.
137. Cf. Second Vatican Council,
LG, 10.
138. Second Vatican Council,
GS, 49.
139. Ibid., 48.
140. Cf. Second Vatican Council,
LG, 41.
141. Second Vatican Council,
Sacrosanctum Concilium, 59.
142. Cf. 1 Pt. 2:5; Second Vatican
Council, LG, 34.
143. Second Vatican Council,
LG, 34.
144. SC, 78.
145. Cf. Jn. 19:34.
146. Section 25: AAS 60 (1968),
499.
147. Eph. 2:4.
148. Cf. John Paul II, Encyclical
Dives in Misericordia, 13: AAS 72 (1980)[1218]-1219.
149. 1 Pt. 2:5.
150. Mt. 18:19-20.
151. Second Vatican Council,
GE, 3; cf. Pope John Paul II, Catechesi
Tradendae, 36: AAS 71 (1979), 1308.
152. General Audience Address,Aug.
11, 1976:Insegnamenti di Paolo VI, XIV
(1976),640.
153. Cf. SC, 12.
154. Cf. Institutio Generalis
de Liturgia Horarum, 27.
155. Paul VI, Apostolic Exhortation
Marialis Cultus, 52, 54: AAS 66 (1974),
160-161.
156. John Paul II, Address at
the Mentorella Shrine (Oct. 29, 1978):
Insegnamenti, I (1978), 78-79.
157. Cf. Second Vatican Council,
AA, 4.
158. Cf. John Paul I, Address
to the Bishops of the 12th Pastoral
Region of the United States (Sept. 21,
1978): AAS, 70 (1978), 767.
159. Rom. 8:2.
160. Rom. 5:5.
161. Cf. Mk. 10:45.
162. Second Vatican Council,
LG, 36.
163. AA, 8.
164. Cf. Synod of Bishops' Message
to Christian Families (Oct. 24, 1980),12.
165. Cf. John Paul II, Address
to the Third General Assembly of the
Bishops of Latin America (Jan. 28, 1979),
IV A: AAS 71(1979), 204.
166. Cf. Second Vatican Council,
SC, 10.
167. Cf. Ordo Celebrandi Matrimonium,
17.
168. Cf. Second Vatican Council,
SC, 59.
169. Second Vatican Council,
PC, 12.
170. John Paul II, Address to
the Confederation of Family Advisory
Bureaus of Christian Inspiration (Nov.
29, 1980), 3-4: Insegnamenti III, 2
(1980), 1453-1454.
171. Paul VI, Message for the
Third Social Communications Day (April
7,1969): AAS 61 (1969), 455.
172. John Paul II, Message for
the 1980 World Social Communications
Day (May 1, 1980): Insegnamenti III,
1 (1980), 1042.
173. John Paul II, Message for
the 1981 World Social Communications
Day (May 10, 1981), 5: L'Osservatore
Romano, May 22, 1981.
174. Ibid.
175. Paul VI, Message for the
Third Social Communications Day: AAS
61 (1969), 456.
176. Ibid.
177. John Paul II, Message for
the 1980 World Social Communications
Day, loc. sit., 1044.
178. Cf. Paul VI, Motu Proprio
Matrimonia Mixta, 4-5: AAS 62 (1970),
257-259; John Paul II, Address to the
Participants in the Plenary Meeting
of the Secretariat for Promoting Christian
Unity (Nov. 13, 1981): L'Osservatore
Romano, Nov. 14,1981.
179. Instruction In Quibus Rerum
Circumstantiis (June 15, 1972): AAS
64 (1972), 518-525; Note of Oct. 17,
1973; AAS 65 (1973), 616-619.
180. John Paul II, Homily at
the Close of the Sixth Synod of Bishops,
7 (Oct. 25, 1980): AAS 72 (1980), 1082.
181. Mt. 11:28.
182. John Paul II, Letter Appropinquat
Iam (Aug. 15, 1980), 1: AAS 72 (1980),
791.
183. The Roman Missal, Preface
of Christ the King.
