Marriage is Threatened
The Family is Indispensable
Marriage is Indispensable
The Family Must Come First
The Family is in Crisis
The Family is Under Attack
“The future of humanity passes by way of the family.”
Pope St. John Paul II, 86
It is “the fundamental cell of society”.
Pope Francis, 66
The Family and Marriage Are Intimately Linked
“[M]arriage and the family constitute one of the most precious of human values”.
Pope St. John Paul II, 1
“The family is based upon a marriage”.
Pope St. John XXIII, 193
The True Definition of the “Family” and “Marriage”
The “Family” is a “communion of persons, a sign and image of the communion of the Father and the Son in the Holy Spirit.”
Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2205
“Marriage” is an “intimate partnership of…life and love…established by the Creator and qualified by His laws, and is rooted in the conjugal covenant of irrevocable personal consent.”
Gaudium et Spes, 48
The “Family” is a Beautiful Gift of God
Family “is the place in which life — the gift of God — can be properly welcomed and protected against the many attacks to which it is exposed, and can develop in accordance with what constitutes authentic human growth”. (Pope St. John Paul II, 39)
“Here we mean the family founded on marriage, in which the mutual gift of self by husband and wife creates an environment in which children can be born and develop their potentialities, become aware of their dignity and prepare to face their unique and individual destiny.” (Pope St. John Paul II, 39)
“We remain firmly convinced that the family is a gift of God, the place where he reveals the power of his saving grace.” (Synod Report to Pope Francis, 5)
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“The family is a kind of school of deeper humanity.” (Gaudium et Spes, 52)
“The family…is the natural society in which husband and wife are called to give themselves in love and in the gift of life.” (CCC, 2207)
“Marriage” is an Unconditional Gift of Self
“Marriage…transcends the feelings and momentary needs of the couple…it is not born ‘of loving sentiment, ephemeral by definition, but from the depth of the obligation assumed by the spouses who accept to enter a total communion of life’.“ (Pope Francis, 66)
The “family is based upon a marriage which is one and indissoluble and, with respect to Christians, raised to the dignity of a sacrament.” (Pope St. John XXIII, 193)
“[T]he unity of marriage will radiate from the equal personal dignity of wife and husband, a dignity acknowledged by mutual and total love.” (Gaudium et Spes, 49)
“The communion of life and love which is marriage thus emerges as an authentic good for society.” (Pope Benedict XVI)
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Marriage “is a marvelous gift, which contains the power of God’s own love: strong, enduring, faithful, ready to start over after every failure or moment of weakness.” (Pope Francis, 1)
“The reception and transmission of divine love are realized in the mutual commitment of the spouses”. (Pope Benedict XVI)
“Marriage based on exclusive and definitive love becomes the icon of the relationship between God and his people and vice versa.” (Pope Benedict XVI, 11)
Marriage “confers greater splendor and depth on the conjugal bond and more powerfully binds the spouses who…promise each other faithfulness until death in love that is open to life.” (Pope Benedict XVI)
“Promising love for ever is possible when we perceive a plan bigger than our own ideas and undertakings, a plan which sustains us and enables us to surrender our future entirely to the one we love.” (Pope Francis, 52)
The Family Is The Answer to Society’s Crisis
“[M]arriage and the family are rooted in the inmost nucleus of the truth about man and his destiny.”
Pope Benedict XVI
“[H]uman society at large springs from marriage”.
Pope Leo XIII, 17
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“[T]he family is based on marriage, that intimate union of life in complementarity between a man and a woman which is constituted in the freely contracted and publicly expressed indissoluble bond of matrimony and is open to the transmission of life”. (Preamble, B., Charter of the Rights of the Family)
“[T]he State must acknowledge, respect and support this venerable institution as the stable union between a man and a woman who willingly embrace a life-long commitment of love and fidelity”. (Pope Benedict XVI)
Why is the Family the Answer?
The Family’s Purpose in Society is Irreplaceable
“The family constitutes…a community of love and solidarity, which is uniquely suited to teach and transmit cultural, ethical, social, spiritual and religious values, essential for the development and well-being of its own members and of society.” (Preamble, E., Charter of the Rights of the Family)
The family is “where we learn to live with others despite our differences and to belong to one another“. (Pope Francis, 66)
“According to Rerum novarum and the whole social doctrine of the Church, the social nature of man…is realized in various intermediary groups, beginning with the family“. (Pope St. John Paul II, 13)
“As Pope Francis forcefully reminds us, the mission of the family always extends outside itself in service to our brothers and sisters.” (Synod Report to Pope Francis, 56)
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“[T]he fundamental task of the family is to serve life“. (Pope St. John Paul II, 28)
The Family Reflects the Most Profound Reality…
The Family is Rooted in the Nature of God
The family is the image of God who “in his deepest mystery is not all by himself, but a family, since he has in himself fatherhood, sonship and the essence of the family, which is love”. (Pope St. John Paul II)
“[T]he Family begins with the creation of humanity in the image of God who is love and calls man and woman to love according to his likeness”. (Synod Report to Pope Francis, 35)
“[T]he 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”. (Pope St. John Paul II, 17)
The family “is called to welcome, radiate and show the world the love and presence of Christ.” (Pope Benedict XVI)
“[T]he essence and role of the family are in the final analysis specified by love.” (Pope St. John Paul II, 17, quoting Pope St. Paul VI)
WARNING: The Family is Under Assault!
“The family is experiencing a profound cultural crisis”.
Pope Francis, 66
A Profound Crisis
“[T]he family, the basic human community, is painfully being weakened”.
Synod Report to Pope Francis, 10
“[T]he situation experienced by many families in various countries is highly problematical, if not entirely negative”. (Pope St. John Paul II, 46)
“Of the many subjects arousing universal concern today, it may be helpful to concentrate on these: marriage and the family”. (Gaudium et Spes, 46)
“[D]oubt or error in the field of marriage or the family involves obscuring to a serious extent the integral truth about the human person”. (Pope St. John Paul II, 31)
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Pope Francis views the family as so crucial that in his first year as Pope he initiated a global survey on the family and called for a Synod on the Pastoral Care of the Family, whose report is referenced here.
Families are Weak
Risking… “the future of society as a whole”.
Pope St. John Paul II, 6
“[I]ndividualism…favors a lifestyle which weakens the development and stability of personal relationships and distorts family bonds.” (Pope Francis, 67)
“The family in the modern world, as much as and perhaps more than any other institution, has been beset by…many profound and rapid changes“. (Pope St. John Paul II, 1)
“Man is not really himself…except within the framework of society and there the family plays the basic and most important role.” (Pope St. Paul VI, 36)
The State is Part of the Problem
“[I]nstitutions and laws unjustly ignore the inviolable rights of the family”.
Pope St. John Paul II, 46
The family “exists prior to the State or any other community, and possesses inherent rights which are inalienable“. (Preamble, D., Charter Of The Rights Of The Family)
“[S]ociety, 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”. (Pope St. John Paul II, 46)
The Family is Foundational
“The family is the original cell of social life”.
CCC, 2207
“The family…is the ‘patrimony of humanity’…it is the vital cell and pillar of society.” (Pope Benedict XVI)
“The first setting in which faith enlightens the human city is the family.” (Pope Francis, 46)
“The family is the first and fundamental school of social living”. (Pope St. John Paul II, 37)
“[T]he prosperity of the State and the temporal happiness of its citizens cannot remain safe and sound where the foundation on which they are established…the family, is obstructed“. (Pope Pius XI, 123)
The Family is Irreplaceable
“[T]he family constitute the foundations for freedom, security, and fraternity within society.”
CCC, 2207
“Whoever wants to build the civic and social edifice on strong and stable foundations must base it on a conception of marriage and the family”. (Pope Pius XII)
“[T]he role of the family in building a culture of life is decisive and irreplaceable.” (Pope St. John Paul II, 92)
“The well-being of the individual person and…society is intimately linked with the healthy condition of that community produced by marriage and family.” (Gaudium et Spes, 47)
“The family is…the place of origin and the most effective means for humanizing and personalizing society”. (Pope St. John Paul II, 43)
The Family is Indispensable
“[T]he family is placed at the center of the great struggle between good and evil, between life and death, between love and all that is opposed to love”.
Pope St. John Paul II, 23
“[T]he good of the person, of society and of the Church herself passes by way of the family“. (Preamble, L., Charter of the Rights of the Family)
“Family relations contribute decisively to the sound building of human society”. (Synod Report to Pope Francis, 50)
“Absorbed and deepened in the family, faith becomes a light capable of illumining all our relationships in society.” (Pope Francis, 54)
“The communion of life and love which is marriage…emerges as an authentic good for society.” (Pope Benedict XVI)
“It would be wrong to uphold one set of duties while trampling on the other. Herein lies a grave contradiction in our mentality and practice today: one which demeans the person, disrupts the environment and damages society.”
Pope Benedict XVI, 51
What Can I Do?
“It is necessary to go back to seeing the family as sacred – ‘the heart of the culture of life’”.
(Pope St. John Paul II, 39)
By Our Example
“Christians…should actively promote the values of marriage and the family, both by the examples of their own lives and by cooperation with other men of good will.” (Gaudium et Spes, 52)
It is “a social and even economic necessity…to hold up to future generations the beauty of marriage and the family, and the fact that these institutions correspond to the deepest needs and dignity of the person.” (Pope Benedict XVI, 44)
“It is urgent therefore to promote not only family policies, but also those social policies which have the family as their principle object”. (Pope St. John Paul II, 49)
“[O]ne often has to swim against the tide of the prevalent culture, and this demands patience, effort, sacrifice and the ceaseless quest for mutual understanding.” (Pope Benedict XVI)
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“In order to overcome today’s widespread individualistic mentality, what is required is a concrete commitment to solidarity and charity, beginning in the family”. (Pope St. John Paul II, 49)
“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.”
Pope St. John Paul II, 86
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FAQs
Q: What rights do families have?
A: Pope St. John Paul II, Familiaris Consortio, 46
- 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; family life;
- 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.
Q: What else must the state do in support of the family?
A: The political community has a duty to honor the family, to assist it, and to ensure especially:
- the freedom to establish a family, have children, and bring them up in keeping with the family’s own moral and religious convictions;
- the protection of the stability of the marriage bond and the institution of the family;
- the freedom to profess one’s faith, to hand it on, and raise one’s children in it, with the necessary means and institutions;
- the right to private property, to free enterprise, to obtain work and housing, and the right to emigrate;
- in keeping with the country’s institutions, the right to medical care, assistance for the aged, and family benefits;
- the protection of security and health, especially with respect to dangers like drugs, pornography, alcoholism, etc.;
- the freedom to form associations with other families and so to have representation before civil authority. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2211)
Q: What about gay “marriage”?
A: “[T]he Synod Fathers observed that, ‘as for proposals to place unions between homosexual persons on the same level as marriage, there are absolutely no grounds for considering homosexual unions to be in any way similar or even remotely analogous to God’s plan for marriage and family’.” (Pope Francis, 251)
Q: What should we ‘do’ when the state makes homosexual unions equivalent to marriage?
“It is unacceptable ‘that local Churches should be subjected to pressure in this matter and that international bodies should make financial aid to poor countries dependent on the introduction of laws to establish ‘marriage’ between persons of the same sex'”. (Pope Francis, 251)
Q: What is the basis for the Church’s objection to gay marriage?
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