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A. Prior to Vatican II[2]
Modern Catholic social
teaching was born in 1891 in Rerum Novarum (“On the Condition
of the Working Classes”). While the role of the Church as teacher on
“social issues” was not new (the Church has always and everywhere been, by
virtue of her divine commission, teacher of faith and morals), it was in
Rerum Novarum that the Church first systematically responded to the problems
of the modern era. Indeed, a subsequent pontiff, Pius XI, in Quadregessimo
Anno, called it “the magna carta on which all Christian activities in social
matters are ultimately bas ed”.[3]
In Rerum Novarum, Pope
Leo XIII set forth what has come to be recognized as the “social doctrine of the
Church”. Many principles were enunciated that, as we will see, would be
subsequently developed by the teaching magisterium of the Church. For instance,
the encyclical insisted on the right to marriage,[4]
the understanding that property ownership was integral to the fulfillment of
parental duties,
[5]
and the dignity of work. The State was obliged to respect the inherent rights
and integrity of the family.[6]
Central to the conception of the relationship of the State and the family is the
role of the parents, their rights and responsibilities. “Paternal authority is
such that it can be neither abolished nor absorbed by the State.”[7]
B. Vatican Ecumenical Council
II (1963-65)
Vatican II addressed the
family, to varying degrees, in four important documents – the Declaration on
Christian Education, the Declaration on Religious Liberty, the
Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity, and the Pastoral Constitution on
the Church in the Modern World.
In the Declaration on
Christian Education (Gravissimum Educationis, Oct 28, 1965), the Council
Fathers emphasized the irreplaceable role of parents in the education of
children. “The role of parents in education is of such importance that it is
almost impossible to provide an adequate substitute.”[8]
The civil and political authorities “should recognize the duties and
responsibilities of parents…and provide them with the requisite assistance. In
accordance with the principle of subsidiarity, when the efforts of the parents
and of other organizations are inadequate, it should itself undertake the duty
of education, with due consideration, however, for the wishes of the parents.”[9]
The Decree on the
Apostolate of the Lay People (Apostolicam Actuositatem, Nov 18, 1965)
discusses the apostolate of married persons and of the family. Of course, in
essence, these are one and the same. There is no distinction between “married
persons” and “the family”. Rather the family (with or without children) is the
fruit of marriage. However, since there is no family without marriage, “the
married state is the beginning and foundation of human society.”[10]
Families, “along with all the faithful,” are to collaborate with “people of good
will” to ensure that civil legislation respects marriage and the family, and to
ensure that the peculiar needs of families are respected in social legislation
concerning, for example, housing, education, and social security. In addition,
the family itself, apart from its role in political society, is to offer “active
hospitality and practice[] justice and other good works for the benefit of all
its brothers suffering from want.”[11]
The Pastoral Constitution
on the Church in the Modern World (Guadium et Spes, Dec 7, 1965) in a
section on “The Dignity of Marriage and the Family,” the Council proclaimed:
“The well-being of the individual person and of both human and Christian society
is closely bound up with the healthy state of conjugal and family life.”[12]
The family prepares individuals for social life. It teaches them how to
cooperate with others. “As such it constitutes the basis of society.”[13]
The critical role the family
plays in forming a healthy society obliges the civil authorities to protect and
promote the family and marriage. “Civil authority should consider it a sacred
duty to acknowledge the true nature of marriage and the family, to protect and
foster them, to safeguard public morality and promote domestic prosperity.”[14]
The obligation extends to “everyone...who exercises an influence in the
community and in social groups”.[15]
C. Post-Vatican II[16]
John Paul II’s teaching on
the family has been principally in four documents, The Role of the Christian
Family in the Modern World (Familiaris Consortio) (1981), On the
Hundredth Anniversary of Rerum Novarum (Centesimus Annus) (1991),
Letter to Families (1994), and The Gospel of Life (Evangelium Vitae)
(1995). Without doubt, his most systematic and comprehensive teaching is
developed in Familiaris Consortio.
i. Familiaris Consortio and
the Charter on the Rights of the Family
In Familiaris Consortio,
in the first years of his pontificate, the Holy Father explored deeply the
meaning and significance of the family. He reflected upon various themes
identified at Vatican II. He carried forward the implications of those themes
for “real life,” that is, for life in society. This was an urgent matter
because “the family is the object of numerous forces that seek to destroy it or
in some way to deform it” and because “the well-being of society and [of the
Church] are intimately tied to the good of the family”.[17]
As man and woman encounter
each other and learn to love one another in marriage, they also form the first
human society. “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…”[18]
This “experience of communion and sharing that should characterize the family’s
daily life represents its first and fundamental contribution to society.”[19]
The family teaches its members to love others with whom they are joined in
community, and, thereby, to deepen that community. This model of love as
self-giving is then taken by members of the family into their other
relationships in the wider society, and, thereby, the entire society benefits.
In addition, each family must
act politically in society to secure and to defend its rights and those of all
families. The Holy Father is quite explicit in this proscription.
“The social role of families
is called upon to find expression…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”.[20]
“By virtue of this principle
[of subsidiarity], the state cannot and must not take away from families the
functions that they can just as well perform.”[21]
A second way in which “the
law and institutions of the State” “offend” the family is when those laws and
institutions do not protect the family and its members from harmful influences.
If that is the case, not only the family but all members of the Church are
obligated to rectify the situation. For instance, regarding “de facto unions”
(i.e., opposite sex couples living together without being married), “the People
of God should…make approaches to the public authorities, in order that the
latter may resist these tendencies which divide society”.[22]
It is their responsibility “to ensure that public opinion is not led to
undervalue the institutional importance of marriage and the family.”[23]
“The laws and
institutions of the State,” in addition to refraining from harming the family,
are, as we saw above, enjoined by John Paul II to “support and positively to
defend the rights and duties of the family.” “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.”[24]
This necessarily includes discriminating against other kinds of relationships in
order to positively favor the family founded upon marriage between one man and
one woman. Thus, special policies should be designed to assist the family
economically. For instance, “society and the public authorities should favor
legitimate marriage by means of a series of social and political actions which
will guarantee a family wage, by issuing directives ensuring housing fitting for
family life, and by creating opportunities for work and life.”[25]
Families are not, however, to
restrict themselves to political action in defense of the family, but should
take part, as families, in all activities beneficial to the larger society.
“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 humane 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
international level; for the collaboration with the school and with the other
institutions that complete the education of children, and so forth.”[26]
Pope John Paul II goes so far
as to note a catalogue of fourteen “rights” of the family. In 1983, the
Pope’s thoughts were given expanded, systematic treatment when the Holy See
issued the Charter on the Rights of the Family (hereafter, “Charter”).
ii. Centesimus Annus (1991),
Letter to Families (1994), Evangelium Vitae (1995)
Ten years after Familiaris
Consortio, the Holy Father returned to the family in the context of a
restatement of all of Catholic social teaching on the occasion of the one
hundredth anniversary of Rerum Novarum. In Centesimus Annus, the
Holy Father noted the crucial role of the family in combating individualism and
in promoting life - “In the face of the so-called culture of death, the family
is the heart of the culture of life.”[27]
In Evangelium Vitae
itself, the Holy Father noted, “The underlying causes of attacks on life have to
be eliminated, especially by ensuring proper support for families and
motherhood. A family policy must be the basis and the driving force of all
social policies. For this reason there needs to be set in place social and
political initiatives capable of guaranteeing conditions of true freedom of
choice in matters of parenthood. It is also necessary to rethink labour,
urban, residential and social service policies so as to harmonize working
schedules with time available for the family, so that it becomes effectively
possible to take care of children and the elderly.”[28]
In his Letter to Families,
John Paul II had asked, “What does the family as an institution expect from
society?” He noted that, its first legitimate expectation was “recognition if
its identity and an acceptance of its status as a subject in society.”[29]
The family is founded on marriage. Marriage is a covenant between one man and
one woman, whereby they establish a partnership for life. “Only such a union
can be recognized and ratified as a ‘marriage’ in society.”[30]
The civil authorities are not free to recognize any other relationship as
“marriage”.[31]
Endnotes:
[1] William L. Saunders, Jr., is Senior Fellow at the
Family Research Council. He is a graduate of the Harvard Law School.
[2] Internal citations in quotations taken from
councilor or papal documents are omitted throughout this paper.
[3] Quadregessimo Anno I-3.
[4] “No law of man can abolish the natural and
primeval right of marriage.” Rerum Novarum 19.
[5] “Rights of this kind [i.e., property rights] which
reside in individuals are seen to have much greater validity when viewed
as fitted into and connected with the obligations of human beings in
family life.” Rerum Novarum 18.
[6] Rerum Novarum 20.
[7] Ibid.
[8] Gravissimum Educationis 3.
[9] Ibid.
[10] Apostolicam Actuositatem 11.
[11] Ibid.
[12] Gaudium et Spes 47. There
is a wealth of social science data that marriage is good for individuals
and for society. See, e.g., William L. Saunders, “What the facts show
about religion, marriage and society,” Touchstone, April 2003. See
also, Bridget Maher, ed., The Family Portrait: a Compilation of
Data, Research and Public Opinion on the Family (Family Research
Council: Washington, D.C., 2002) (hereinafter, “Maher”).
[13] Gaudium et Spes 52.
[14] Ibid.
[15] Ibid. (emphasis added)
[16] Marriage and the family are extensively addressed
in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. See, e.g., paragraphs
2197-2233 on the family. However, my intention has been to review the
development of doctrine on these matters in the actual teaching
documents of the Church, and I have relied on the encyclicals and other
documents of individual pontiffs and of Vatican II. Nonetheless, for the
sake of brevity, some citations to the Catechism will be used in Part
II.
[17] Familiaris Consortio 3.
[18] Familiaris Consortio 37.
[19] Familiaris Consortio 43.
[20] Familiaris Consortio 44.
[21][21]
Familiaris Consortio 45.
[22] Familiaris Consortio 81.
[23] Ibid.
[24] Familiaris Consortio 45.
[25] Familiaris Consortio 81.
[26] Familiaris Consortio 72.
[27] Centesimus Annus 39.
[28] Evangelium Vitae 90.
[29] Letter to Families 17.
[30] Ibid.
[31] Ibid.
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