370 THE IMPORTANCE OF THE FAMILY

YOUCAT Lesson 370

YOUCAT the catechism for Catholic youth

370  Why should the State protect and promote families?

The welfare and future of a State depend on the ability of the smallest unit within it, the family, to live and develop.  [2209-2213, 2250]

An Assyrian Christian family forced to flee their home took refuge in at a Catholic church in Amman, Jordan. P. J. Smith photo….. 370

No State has the right to intrude on the basic cell of society, the family, by its regulations or to question its right to exist.  No State has the right to define the family differently, for the family’s commission comes from the Creator.  No State has the right to deprive the family of its fundamental functions, especially in the area of education.  On the contrary, every State has the duty to support families with its assistance and to ensure that its material needs are met.  123

“If the family is in order, the State will be in order; if the State is in order, the great community of mankind will live in peace.”  Lu Buwei (ca. 300 b.c., Chinese philosopher)

[2209-2213, 2250]

2209 The family must be helped and defended by appropriate social measures. Where families cannot fulfill their responsibilities, other social bodies have the duty of helping them and of supporting the institution of the family. Following the principle of subsidiarity, larger communities should take care not to usurp the family's prerogatives or interfere in its life. –Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition

2210 The importance of the family for the life and well-being of society(Compare Gaudium et Spes 47 § 1.)¹³ entails a particular responsibility for society to support and strengthen marriage and the family. Civil authority should consider it a grave duty "to acknowledge the true nature of marriage and the family, to protect and foster them, to safeguard public morality, and promote domestic prosperity."( Gaudium et Spes 52 § 2.)^{14 –}CCC

2211 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.( Compare Familiaris Consortio 46.)¹⁵ –CCC

2212 The fourth commandment illuminates other relationships in society. In our brothers and sisters we see the children of our parents; in our cousins, the descendants of our ancestors; in our fellow citizens, the children of our country; in the baptized, the children of our mother the Church; in every human person, a son or daughter of the One who wants to be called "our Father." In this way our relationships with our neighbors are recognized as personal in character. The neighbor is not a "unit" in the human collective; he is "someone" who by his known origins deserves particular attention and respect. –CCC

2213 Human communities are made up of persons. Governing them well is not limited to guaranteeing rights and fulfilling duties such as honoring contracts. Right relations between employers and employees, between those who govern and citizens, presuppose a natural good will in keeping with the dignity of human persons concerned for justice and fraternity. –CCC

IN BRIEF

2250 "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" (Gaudium et Spes 47 § 1). --CCC