Christian Concept of the Family

The conjugal community is established on the consent of the spouses. Marriage and family are
ordained to the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of children. The love of
the spouses and the procreation of children establish among the members of the family
personal relationships and primary responsibilities. A man and a woman united in marriage,
with their children, form a family. This disposition is prior to any acknowledgment by the public
authority.

When God created man and woman, he instituted the human family and gave it its
fundamental constitution. Its members are persons who are equal in dignity. There is a diversity
of responsibilities, duties, and rights within the family, for the common good of its members
and society.1

a) Divine Origin of the Family

The Christian family constitutes a specific revelation and realization of the ecclesial communion,
and for this reason, it can and should be called “the domestic Church.”2 A Christian family is a
communion of persons, and a reflection and image of the communion of God the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Spirit. The family’s procreative and educational activities are a reflection of
God’s creative work.3 God has wanted to establish the family as the basic cell of the social
organism. The value and permanence of this institution are thus beyond the reach of human
laws and decisions. The latter must facilitate the fulfillment of the task that God has entrusted
to the family. Let it be repeated as an immutable and inviolable fundamental doctrine that
matrimony was not instituted or restored by man but by God; not by man were the laws made
to strengthen and confirm and elevate it but by God, the Author of nature, and by Christ Our
Lord by Whom nature was redeemed, and hence these laws cannot be subject to any human
decrees or to any contrary pact even of the spouses themselves.4 For a Christian marriage is
not just a social institution, much less a mere remedy for human weakness. It is a real
supernatural calling.5

Among the properties that God assigned to marriage since its origin, the most important are
unity, indissolubility, and openness to fertility. Christian doctrine thus opposes any attempt to
reduce the family institution to a mere remedy for concupiscence, which is a result of original
sin.6 That would imply a false spiritualism of human nature as it came out of the hands of God.
For even before the first fall, God had wanted to cut short man’s original solitude and give him
a mate: “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him” (Gn
2:18). This shows that the family is the natural environment in which the spouses build up their
Christian life and practice the virtues. Through the Sacrament of Marriage, God grants the
spouses the graces they need to become saints in their union and in the cares and chores of
family life. Christ himself wanted to be born and to spend most of his earthly life in the family of
Nazareth, giving us an ever-valid example.

b) The Most Natural and Necessary Community

It follows from the above that the family is the “primary vital cell of society.”7 Hence, civil
progress must take into account the needs of the family; what is more, laws and public policies
must protect and perfect it more and more.8 The family is the linchpin that builds up and
consolidates the common good itself. Civic virtues are acquired in the family. Life within the
family is the initiation to life in society. The family’s vitality is the vitality of the whole society.
The family cannot be replaced in this task of bringing up children to be truly human. Everything
must be done in order that the family should not be replaced. That is necessary not only for the
“private”= good of every person, but also for the common good of every society, nation, and
State of any continent. The family is placed at the very center of the common good in its various
dimensions, precisely because man is conceived and born in it.9
c) The Family Is Prior to the State

Since no institution takes precedence over the family, the state cannot claim rights over it
either. On the contrary, the state is bound to respect and protect the rights and duties of the
family, which are the original and primary rights. The dispositions of state authorities should
never interfere with the life and responsibility of family members for the fulfillment of their
own ends. In this field, too, the principle of subsidiarity must be applied. Society, and more
specifically the state, must acknowledge that “every family … is a society with its own basic
rights.”10 Thus, the state has the serious obligation of observing the principle of subsidiarity in
its relationship with the family: By virtue of this principle, the State cannot and must not take
away 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.11

d) The Essential Element of the Human Community

The true dimension of social welfare and progress is reached when social virtues are fostered in
the family. The Second Vatican Council could thus say that the family is a “school for human
enrichment.”12 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
relationships marked by respect, justice, dialogue and love.13 The different kinds of attacks
against the ends of the family, besides opposing the plan of God, seriously harm the whole of
society. Nevertheless, by themselves, they cannot undermine the solid position of the family as
the basic institution of society, in spite of the difficulties that are brought by changes in the
world. However, this happy picture of the dignity of these partnerships is not reflected
everywhere, but is overshadowed by polygamy, the plague of divorce, so-called free love, and
similar blemishes; furthermore, married love is too often dishonored by selfishness, hedonism,
and unlawful contraceptive practices. Besides, the economic, social, psychological, and civil
climate of today has a severely disturbing effect on family life.… And yet the strength and vigor
of the institution of marriage and family shines forth time and again: for despite the hardships
flowing from the profoundly changing conditions of society today, the true nature of marriage
and of the family is revealed in one way or another.14

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1 Cf. CCC, 2201–2203. The Catechism of the Catholic Church takes up the subject of the family in nos. 2201-2233.
2 Cf. John Paul II, Ap. Ex. Familiaris Consortio, 21; LG, 11.
3 Cf. CCC, 2204–2206.
4 Pius XI, Enc. Casti Connubii, 3.
5 St. Josemaría Escrivá, Christ is Passing By, 23.
6 Cf. Joseph Hoeffner, Fundamentals of Christian Sociology, 57.
7 AA, 11.
8 Cf. Pius XII, Address, June 1, 1941; GS, 48.
9 John Paul II, General Audience, Jan. 3, 1979.
10 Second Vatican Council, Decl. Dignitatis Humanae, no. 5.
11 John Paul II, Ap. Ex. Familiaris Consortio, 45.
12 GS, 52.
13 John Paul II, Ap. Ex. Familiaris Consortio, 43.
14 GS, 47.