Family
“Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain”
(Ps. 127 [126]:1)
The family is, by nature, the fundamental building block of society, the
institution designed for the continuance and development of the human
race. Though small in itself, it constitutes a true society, with its own head
and members, rights and obligations:
“The family is a society limited, indeed, in numbers, but no less a
true society, anterior to every kind of state or nation, invested with
rights and duties of its own, totally independent of the civil
community ... governed by a power within its limits, that is, the
father.”¹
The family is said to be “the way of the Church,” in fact, the first and most
important way. According to Pope John Paul II:
“It is a path common to all, yet one which is particular, unique and
unrepeatable, just as every individual is unrepeatable; it is a path
from which man cannot withdraw.”²
The family is also said to be prior to the State, for without the family as its
principle and foundation, the State would not properly exist. Hence, it is the
obligation of the State to promote and protect the well being of the family:
“if the family finds itself in exceeding distress ... it is right that
extreme necessity be met by public aid, since each family is a part of
the commonwealth. In like manner, if, within the precincts of the
household, there should occur grave disturbance of mutual rights,
public authority should intervene to force each party to yield to the
other its proper due...”³
1
Pope Leo XIII, Rerum Novarum, 1891.
2
Letter to Families, 1994, # 2.
3
Ibid.
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