FAMILIARI

S
CONSORTIO

(The Role of the Christian Family in the

Modern World)
MP-FOR FINALS
-document your activities with your family, community, especially your time spent
with them and gift giving.

 Simbang gabi, Christmas gathering, gift giving, community outreach etc.

- write your personal reflection

 APOSTOLIC EXHORTATION
FAMILIARIS CONSORTIO
OF POPE
JOHN PAUL II
TO THE EPISCOPATE
TO THE CLERGY AND TO THE FAITHFUL
OF THE WHOLE CATHOLIC CHURCH
ON THE ROLE
OF THE CHRISTIAN FAMILY IN THE
MODERN WORLD
Written in 1981 to address the
question of the human family and
marriage.
Serves as summary of the Church’s
teachings on the nature and the role of
the Christian family and the
Sacrament of marriage.
FAMILY
Founded and given life by love,
is a community of persons: of
husband and wife, of parents
and children, of relatives. It’s
first task is to live with fidelity
the reality of communion in a
constant effort to develop an
authentic community of
persons.
Share something about your family
"As the family
goes, so goes the
nation, so goes the
world in which we
live.“
JPII
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA-NC
…..what will happen to
the nation and the world
if we do not take care to
make it possible for
families to form and to
function as the
fundamental element in
the construction of a
just social order.
……that in 1980 the Catholic Church
convened a world Synod on the Family. From
this synod came two documents specifically
intended to give guidance and encouragement
to families and to all concerned with the
welfare of the family.
The first of these documents was the apostolic exhortation of Pope John Paul
II, Familiaris Consortio, published in November 1981;
the second was the Charter of the Rights of the Family, promulgated by the
Holy See in 1983.
A third development of this Synod of the world's bishops was the creation of
the Pontifical Council on the Family, an agency of the Holy See intended to
oversee and encourage efforts to strengthen families everywhere.
Most Catholic families are probably barely aware (if at all) that they exist; and it
is probably safe to say that only a tiny percentage of those of us to whom these
efforts to provide guidance, support and encouragement were directed have
actually read them.
In many ways both the family as an institution and individual
families have suffered more from the social tinkering
supposedly intended to help than from neglect. Even worse,
some of the most serious problems are caused by divisions
within the Church a situation that Pope John Paul II spoke of
this week (October 21) at the close of the Synod on the role of
bishops.
Highlights of
Familiaris
Consortio
FAMILIARIS CONSORTIO EXPLICITLY
IDENTIFIES THE FAMILY AS BOTH THE "FIRST
AND VITAL CELL OF SOCIETY" AND AS
THE CRADLE OF FAITH.
"The Church finds in the family, born from the sacrament [of
marriage], the cradle and the setting in which she can enter the
human generations, and where these in their turn can enter the
Church." [Familiaris Consortio, Daughters of St. Paul Edition, p
28]
The Pope calls the family "an
intimate community of life and
love" formed through the
sacramental relationship between
a man and woman in mutual self-
giving and receptivity.

It is the sacrament of marriage

that gives us both the grace and
the obligation to form the family
as a "community of life and love."
The Holy Father says that the family finds in
the plan of God both what it is (a "community
of life and love") and what it should do
(expend its effort to become this "community
of life and love.")
Its identity and its mission are inseparable, he
says.
Its power to achieve its mission is grounded in
and sustained by the sacrament of marriage
which makes possible an "indivisible unity"
between a man and a woman, and orients the
two individual persons towards the fruitful
realization of this unity in love through the
bearing and nurture of children.
In the words of the Pope,

"The family "has the mission to

guard, reveal and communicate
love. Every particular task of the
family is an expression and
concrete actuation of that
fundamental mission."
The document outlines "four general
tasks for the family:

1) forming a community of
persons;
2) serving life;
3) participating in the
development of society; and
4) sharing in the life and mission
of the Church. [pp 31, 32]
Through the efforts to
accomplish these tasks, the
family becomes what it is.
The role of the family in society is to
establish these "communities of love",
without which a just social order is
impossible. Its role in the Church is to
nurture faithfulness and loving unity with
each other and with God in each its
members. The two roles cannot be
separated from one another.
FAMILY AS NURTURING
GROUND OF FAITH
It is principally through the education of
children that the family equips its members to
withstand the continual onslaught against it by a
culture which distorts the meaning of what it is
to be human, of what it is to be a man or a
woman, of the very value of human life.
Abortion
and euthanasia,
divorce and abandonment,
child and spouse abuse,
pornography, alcohol and drug abuse,
violence of all kinds,
teen-age pregnancy,
rampant promiscuity,
sexual aberrations and diseases
all these social ills which
plague our society can be
traced to this profound
confusion about the
meaning of human life and
human sexuality, of what it
means to be human beings
in relation to each other
and in relation to God.
Traditional moral norms have
been undermined by the very
institutions which have
provided continuity and
protection in the past
including schools and
churches. Schools (including
religious schools), which in
earlier times helped parents
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY

to transmit not only

information on academic
subjects, but also social values
and moral and ethical
principles, now often work This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC

against parents instead of

supporting them.
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA
…….Parents increasingly lack confidence in themselves
to exercise their responsibility in the formation and
education of their own children. They have come to rely
heavily on "experts" psychologists, educational theorists
and other professionals who are constantly telling
mothers and fathers how they may damage their children
in various ways by transmitting onto their offspring their
own "rigid" beliefs and "outmoded" attitudes.
Undermined from all sides, confused
about what they should be doing and
weakened further by their own
indecision and the "natural" resistance
of their children, too many parents
have withdrawn from any sustained
attempt to take an active role in the
moral formation of their children.
Parents have been taught to avoid "interfering with the
natural development" of their children and of "imposing
guilt-inducing morality" on them.

For this reason the Pope emphasizes the "primary

responsibility" of parents in the education of their
children. He does not hesitate, either, to say that
exercising this responsibility will involve difficulties
and personal sacrifice.
But he also offers fathers and
mothers the support they need
for their difficult "primary" task
by assuring them that this is, in
fact, their vocation and their
mission. Their responsibility is
also their right.
"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." [p 59]
The Pope amplifies his point about the basic right and
responsibility of parents to educate their children by
emphasizing that parental love is the "basic element,"
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 fruits of love." [p 59]
Grounded and animated by love and given to
parents as a `ministry' or `vocation' by the
sacrament of marriage, then, the Holy Father
outlines the parents' task in education as involving
two principal areas: 1) educating in the essential
values of human life; 2) introducing children to
their "first experience of the Church."[p 60 ff]
These two areas, moral education and religious
education, are closely related. In the first category,
the Pope explains,
o "Children must grow up with a correct attitude of
freedom with regard to material goods, by adopting a
simple and austere life style and being fully convinced
that `man is more precious for what he is than for what
he has;'"

o "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;
"Education in love as self-giving" calls parents to

o "give their children a clear and delicate sex

education. Faced with a culture that largely reduces
human sexuality to the level of something commonplace
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 to
leading the person to the gift of self in love.
o "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."
The school is bound to observe the
principle of subsidiarity with regard to
parents when it cooperates with parents in
sex education (which should include
"education for chastity.") Thus the Church
is "firmly opposed" to "imparting sex
information dissociated from moral
principles."
In the second category -- religious formation the
Pope stresses the link between moral and religious
education when he says:

"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 [take care] to show their
children the depths of significance to which the
faith and love of Jesus Christ can lead."
 THE HOLY FATHER QUOTES THE SECOND
VATICAN COUNCIL, WHICH DESCRIBED THE
CONTENT OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION:
"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, especially through liturgical worship; that they may be
trained to conduct their personal life in true righteousness and holiness,
according to their new nature, and thus grow to maturity to the stature of
the fullness of Christ, and devote themselves to the upbuilding of the
Mystical Body. Moreover [they must give] witness to the hope that is in
them and [promote] the Christian transformation of the world." [p 64]
The Pope calls parents "the first heralds of the
Gospel for their children" through their
ministry of educating them. By this
instruction, by praying with their children, by
introducing them to the liturgy of the Church,
parents "become fully parents, in that they are
begetting not only of bodily life but also of the
life that through the Spirit's renewal flows
from the Cross and Resurrection of Christ." [p
64]
And to help Christian parents in assuming this
task by which families share in the priestly
[sacrifice, self-giving] and prophetic [teaching]
mission of Christ and the Church, the Holy Father
expresses the hope of the Synod Fathers that

"a suitable catechism for families would be

prepared, one that would be clear, brief and easily
assimilated by all" and he invites the various
Episcopal conferences to "contribute to producing
this catechism."
{Nearly 14 years after these words were written,
the Catechism of the Catholic Church appeared
for the first time in English. ({It has not yet
appeared in Japanese, two decades later.}) But
despite the CCC, a great gift of John Paul II to the
universal Church, too many "approved" texts used
in our Catholic schools to young Catholics the
truth of the Catholic faith are seriously defective
-- a fact acknowledged by bishops themselves.)
It is through education in the true faith of Christ in
which the message of love as self-giving subsists,
families can extend this love beyond their own
homes to other people and thus respond with
"spiritual fecundity" and genuine compassion to
all those in need. The family members'
commitment to Christ provides the "inner
dynamism" which manifests itself in service to
life; and this service is also their witness to the
world outside of "the faith that is in them."
 SHARING THE LIFE AND MISSION OF
THE CHURCH
In the section Sharing the life and mission of the
Church Pope examines the link between the Christian
family and the Church and says that families not
only receive the love of Christ,but become a principal
means of communicating Christ's love to the world. The
family as a community of persons is not only saved, but
becomes itself a saving community.
 SHARING THE LIFE AND MISSION OF
THE CHURCH
Thus the family is a "domestic Church" Ecclesia domestica a "living
image and historical representation of the mystery of the Church." [p 74]
It is sign, symbol, witness and participant of the Church's `motherhood.'
Through the human experience of conjugal love and love between
parents and children "lived in the Spirit of Christ," we discover the plan
of God and learn "the obedience of faith." For this reason, the Holy
Father says, "the little domestic Church, like the greater Church, needs to
be constantly and intensely evangelized: hence its duty regarding
permanent education in the faith." [p 79]
ON THE CHRISTIAN FAMILY'S
MINISTRY OF EVANGELIZATION, THE
LETTER QUOTES POPE 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."
And from Pope John Paul II's 1979 exhortation,
Catechesi tradendae we learn,

"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 chldren and young
people can receive an authentic catechesis."
The Pope emphasizes the family's ecclesial service,
or service to the Church. He calls the parents'
ministry of evangelization "original and
irreplaceable" He describes the authentically
Christian family as "the primary and most excellent
seedbed of vocations to a life of consecration to the
Kingdom of God." Even challenges presented by
adolescent and young adult children who may reject
the faith should not deter parents from their
evangelical responsibility, says the Pope:
o "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."
In fact, the Holy Father emphasizes that this
"catechesis of the Church of the home" is a
genuine ecclesial ministry, in that it "is rooted
in and derives from the one mission of the
Church and is ordained to the upbuilding of
the one Body of Christ." [p 81]
The Christian family participates in the priestly role
of Christ and His Church in and through
sacramental communion with the whole Church.
The sacraments baptism and marriage in particular
are sources of power and nourishment by which the
family is both called to holiness and brings holiness
into the Church and to the world. But also prayer
private prayer and liturgical prayer is a vital and
necessary part of the family's path towards holiness.
In imitation of Christ's prophetic role,
parents have the specific responsibility to
teach -- beginning with teaching their
children to pray, both by example and by
direct instruction, the letter says. This
instruction in prayer includes preparation of
children to receive the sacraments of Holy
Communion and Confirmation as well as
teaching them the traditional prayers of the
Church.
The Holy Father suggests that it is not enough to send our
children to classes for instruction. What children hear from
parents and what they see us doing will make an indelible
imprint on their lives which, in the Pope's words, "will leave
an impression that the future events in their lives will not be
able to efface." Thus our "concrete example" and "living
witness" is "fundamental and irreplaceable" in teaching our
children to pray. He gives specific examples of prayers
children should be taught, in addition to liturgical prayers
and morning and evening prayers and mealtime grace: they
include devotions to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, popular
devotions to the Blessed Virgin Mary and, especially, the
Rosary. [p 87-91]
PRAYER IS URGENT, THE POPE MAKES
CLEAR, FOR THE FAMILY'S EXERCISE
OF ITS RESPONSIBILITIES:
o "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. The fruitfulness of the Christian family which
`cannot but lead to the transformation of the world'
depends on its "living union with Christ, nourished
by the Liturgy, by self-oblation and by prayer." [p
92]
Finally, the Pope invokes the protection
of the Holy Family, the prototype and
example for all Christian families who
strive to become the "community of life
and love" which is our essential vocation,
our purpose and our mission.
What the Holy Father is saying in this key apostolic
exhortation on the role of the Christian family in
the modern world is that to build the Body of
Christ, it is necessary to start with the foundation
we can only build from the ground up, not from the
top down. The `foundation stones' are Christian
families, formed by the grace of God and in the
obedience of faith into solid `communities of life
and love.' If these foundation stones are threatened,
if they are weakened or collapse, the whole state of
Christ's Church on earth will be damaged, and the
entire social order is endangered.
From the many thousands of letters we have
received , it is clear that a principal concern of
Catholic women (and men, too) is the faith of their
families. They express a deep desire to transmit the
Catholic faith to their children, and they are
urgently asking for help to do it help which, sad to
say, cannot always be expected from local Church
sources. They need encouragement and guidance of
bishops and other Church leaders such as that
provided by papal writings like Familiaris
Consortio and the recent Letter to Families.
The new Catechism of the Catholic
Church is a great blessing and gift
intended to help parents with this task.
Every family also needs the support of
other Catholic families the fellowship
which strengthens, and the benefit of
the experiences and ideas of others
who share their vocation and mission.
 At the beginning of the twenty-first century,
we see that our society shows signs of
imminent collapse not only of social
institutions and public structures, but within
the private lives of individuals.
The "Judeo-Christian" moral
foundation of our culture is being
progressively eroded by hedonism and
self-indulgence, by refusal to make
commitments to and sacrifices for
others, by indifference and even
hostility to religious faith and
principles -- and by indifference and
hostility to life itself.
It is dramatically clear that our world is from
becoming a "community life and love" -- a
community which nurtures and sustains and
saves human lives. Instead, we are becoming
what the Pope has called a "culture of death";
we are confronted daily, in our seriously
damaged culture, by radical isolation, by the
anguish of loneliness and grief, by violence
and disease, destruction and death.
The fundamental and necessary role of the family
in building a community of life and love has never
been more clear, yet the very concept of `family' is
being systematically attacked all around us. The
United Nations Conference on Population in Cairo
held in 1994, and on Women in Beijing -- and the
subsequent international meetings -- have shown
that even our own nation's leaders advocate
coercive "population control", ironically, in the
name of "freedom." (Some courageous bishops
have spoken out movingly against this.)
The Pope was so concerned about the Cairo
Conference in 1994 that he has asked all
Catholics to pray daily to St. Michael the
Archangel. We are still praying this prayer --
and urge all Catholics to join together in
praying it. This along with the Rosary and
Eucharistic Adoration is something we can all
do right now -- and I am convinced that
we must.
 "As the family goes, so goes the nation and so goes
the world in which we live." With these words, the
Holy Father has focused on the Cradle of Faith, the
Domestic Church. In the midst of the present crisis,
many Catholics -- parents, teachers, priests and
religious -- have come to realize that the Truth
embodied in the Catholic Church -- the liberating Truth
of Christ, which is also a "sign of Contradition" to the
world -- is truly the world's only hope of freedom and
peace. And this truth will be transmitted, first of all, by
mothers and fathers to their children.
 "The future of humanity passes by way of the family."
Especially during this time of crisis in our country and
in the world, every Catholic must realize with renewed
dedication that it is precisely our vocation and our
responsibility to help shape that future -- which is the
future of the entire world. We must using every
resource available to us every spiritual and intellectual
gift we possess. This is our share in Christ's mission to
the world. Truly, the family is the Cradle of Faith, the
"domestic church", where life and love begin.
As the Holy Father says at the end of his great
encyclical on the Church's moral teaching,
Veritatis Splendor, "No absolution offered by
beguiling doctrines, even in the areas of
philosophy and theology, can make man truly
happy: only the Cross and the glory of the
Risen Christ can grant peace to his conscience
and salvation to his life."
He closes that encyclical -- and we will close our reflections here -- with this prayer to Mary, the
Mother of the whole Church:
"O Mary, Mother of Mercy,
watch over all people that the Cross of Christ
may not be emptied of its power,
that man may not stray from the path of the good,
or become blind to sin,
but may put his hope ever more fully in God
who is 'rich in mercy'.
May he carry out the good works
prepared by God beforehand, and so live completely

'for the praise of His glory'".

THE CHURCH AT THE
SERVICE OF THE FAMILY
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 towards 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.
PART BRIGHT SPOTS AND SHADOWS FOR THE
ONE FAMILY TODAY
BRIGHT SPOTS AND SHADOWS
FOR THE FAMILY TODAY
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.
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.
EVANGELICAL
DISCERNMENT
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.
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]
THE SITUATION OF THE FAMILY
IN THE WORLD TODAY
6. The situation in which the family finds itself
presents positive and negative aspects: the first are
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.
THE INFLUENCE OF CIRCUMSTANCES
ON THE CONSCIENCES OF THE
FAITHFUL

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.
OUR AGE NEEDS WISDOM
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.
GRADUALNESS AND
CONVERSION
.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.
INCULTURATION
It is by means of "inculturation" that one proceeds towards 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.
PART 2 THE PLAN OF GOD FOR MARRIAGE AND THE
FAMILY
MAN, THE IMAGE OF THE GOD WHO IS
LOVE
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.
MARRIAGE AND COMMUNION
BETWEEN GOD AND PEOPLE

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.
 JESUS CHRIST, BRIDEGROOM OF
THE CHURCH, AND THE SACRAMENT
OF MATRIMONY
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.
 CHILDREN, THE PRECIOUS
GIFT OF MARRIAGE
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 are ordained to the
procreation and education of children, in whom they find
their crowning.[34]
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]
THE FAMILY, A COMMUNION
OF PERSONS
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.
MARRIAGE AND VIRGINITY OR
CELIBACY
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.
PART
THREE THE ROLE OF THE CHRISTIAN FAMILY
FAMILY, BECOME WHAT YOU ARE

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.
Every particular task of the family is an
expressive 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:
1) forming a community of persons;
2) serving life;
3) participating in the development of
society;
4) sharing in the life and mission of the
Church.
1. FORMING A COMMUNITY
OF PERSONS
Love as the Principle and Power of Communion

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.
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.
 THE INDIVISIBLE UNITY OF
CONJUGAL COMMUNION
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-to-day 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.
AN INDISSOLUBLE
COMMUNION
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]
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]
THE BROADER COMMUNION
OF THE FAMILY
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.
THE RIGHTS AND ROLE OF
WOMEN
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.
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.
WOMEN AND SOCIETY
Without intending to deal with all the various aspects
23.
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.
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.
OFFENSES AGAINST
WOMEN'S DIGNITY
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.
OFFENSES AGAINST
WOMEN'S DIGNITY
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.
MEN AS HUSBANDS AND FATHERS

25. Within the conjugal and family communion-

community, the man is called upon to live his gift and
role as husband and father.
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.
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.
THE RIGHTS OF CHILDREN

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.
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]
THE ELDERLY IN THE FAMILY

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.
 2. SERVING LIFE
1. The Transmission of Life
Cooperators in the Love of God the Creator
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]
2. SERVING LIFE
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]
THE CHURCH'S TEACHING AND NORM,
ALWAYS OLD YET ALWAYS NEW
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.
THE CHURCH STANDS FOR
LIFE
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.
THE MORAL PROGRESS OF MARRIED
PEOPLE

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 of respecting
them become more numerous and serious.
2. Education
The Right and Duty of Parents Regarding Education

The task of giving education is rooted in the primary vocation of

married couples to participate n God's creative activity: by
begetting in love and for love a new person who has within
himself or herself the vocation to growth and development,
parents by that very fact take on 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.
EDUCATING IN THE ESSENTIAL VALUES OF
HUMAN LIFE
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 life style and being fully convinced that
"man is more precious for what he is than for what
he has."[100]
THE MISSION TO EDUCATE AND THE
SACRAMENT OF MARRIAGE
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.
FIRST EXPERIENCE OF THE 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.
3. PARTICIPATING IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIETY
THE FAMILY AS THE FIRST AND VITAL CELL 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.
FAMILY LIFE AS AN EXPERIENCE OF
COMMUNION AND SHARING

42.The very experience of communion and sharing

that should characterize the family's daily life
represents its first and fundamental contribution to
society.
The fostering of authentic and mature
communion between persons within the
family is the first and irreplaceable school
of social life, and example and stimulus
for the broader community relationships
marked by respect, justice, dialogue and
love.
THE SOCIAL AND POLITICAL ROLE
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 CHARTER OF FAMILY RIGHTS

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; 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. [112]
4. SHARING IN THE LIFE AND MISSION OF THE CHURCH

The Family, Within the Mystery 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.
THE CHRISTIAN FAMILY AS A BELIEVING
AND EVANGELIZING COMMUNITY

Faith as the Discovery and Admiring Awareness of God's Plan for the
Family

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.
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.
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.
THE CHRISTIAN FAMILY'S MINISTRY OF
EVANGELIZATION

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]
ECCLESIAL SERVICE

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 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.
2. THE CHRISTIAN FAMILY AS A
COMMUNITY IN DIALOGUE WITH GOD

The Church's Sanctuary in the Home

55.The proclamation of the Gospel and its acceptance in faith reach their
fullness in thecelebration 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]
2. THE CHRISTIAN FAMILY AS A
COMMUNITY IN DIALOGUE WITH GOD

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.
MARRIAGE AS A SACRAMENT OF MUTUAL
SANCTIFICATION AND AN ACT OF WORSHIP

55.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]
MARRIAGE AND THE EUCHARIST

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 SACRAMENT OF CONVERSION AND
RECONCILIATION
57.An essential and permanent part of the 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.
FAMILY PRAYER
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]
EDUCATORS IN PRAYER
57.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]
PRAYER AND LIFE
57.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]