From: kriz@skat.usc.edu (KRIZ)
Newsgroups: talk.religion.misc
Subject: Cath. Christianity 101 - JP II's letter "On the Family" - 11 (repost)
Date: 25 Jul 1992 20:01:01 -0700
Organization: University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
NNTP-Posting-Host: skat.usc.edu


The following is a portion of Pope John Paul II's 1981 Apostolic
Exhortation "Familiaris Consortio" (On the Family).  The document
is organized in the following way:

     Introduction.
     Part 1. Bright Spots and Shadows for the Family Today.       
     Part 2. The Plan of God for Marriage and the Family.
     Part 3. The Role of the Christian Family.
          I. Forming a Community of Persons.
          II. Serving Life.
               A. The Transmission of Life.
               B. Education.
          III. Participating in the Development of Society.       
          IV. Sharing in the Life and Mission of the Church.      
(*)  Part 4. Pastoral Care of the Family.
          I. Stages of Pastoral Care of the Family.
          II. Structures of Family Pastoral Care.
--->      III. Agents of the Pastoral Care of the Family.
          IV. Pastoral Care of the Family in Difficult Cases.     
     Conclusion.


Note: (-->) denotes which portion of the document is presented
herein.

In Christ,

Dennis
kriz@skat.usc.edu

------------------------------------------------------------------
John Paul II's 1981 Apostolic Exhortation "On the Family" - Pt 4III


                            PART FOUR
                   PASTORAL CARE OF THE FAMILY
                             (cont)


III. AGENTS OF THE PASTORAL CARE OF THE FAMILY.
-----------------------------------------------

  As well as the family, which is the object but above all the
subject of pastoral care of the family, one must also mention the
other agents in this particular sector.


73. Bishops and priests.
------------------------

  The person principally responsible in the diocese for the
pastoral care of the family is the bishop.  As father and pastor,
he must exercise particular solicitude in this clearly priority
sector of pastoral care.  He must devote to it personal interest,
care, time, personnel and resources, but above all personal support
for the families and for all those who, in the various diocesan
structures, assist him in the pastoral care of the family.

  It will be his particular care to make the diocese ever more
truly a "diocesan family," a model and source of hope for many
families that belong to it.  The setting up of the Pontifical
Council for the family is to be seen in this light to be a sign of
the importance that I attribute to pastoral care for the family in
the world, and at the same time to be an effective instrument for
aiding and promoting it at every level.

  The bishops avail themselves especially of the priests, whose
task -- as the synod expressly emphasized -- constitutes an
essential part of the church's ministry regarding marriage and the
family.  The same is true of deacons to whose care this sector of
pastoral work may be entrusted.

  Their responsibility extends not only to moral and liturgical
matters, but to personal and social matters as well. They must
support the family in its difficulties and sufferings, caring for
its members and helping them to see their lives in the light of the
Gospel.  It is not superfluous to note that from this mission, if
it is exercised with due discernment and with a truly apostolic
spirit, the minister of the church draws fresh encouragement and
spiritual energy for his own vocation, too, and for the exercise of
his ministry.

  Priests and deacons, when they have received timely and serious
preparation for this apostolate, must unceasingly act toward
families as fathers, brothers, pastors and teachers, assisting them
with the means of grace and enlightening them with the light of
truth.  Their teaching and advice must therefore always be in
harmony with the authentic magisterium of the church, in such a way
as to help the people of God to gain a correct sense of the faith
to be subsequently applied to practical life.  Such fidelity to the
magisterium will also enable priests to make every effort to be
united in their judgements in order to avoid troubling the
consciences of the faithful.

  In the church, the pastors and the laity share in the prophetic
mission of Christ: The laity do so by witnessing to the faith by
their words and by their Christian lives; the pastors do so by
distinguishing in that witness what is the expression of genuine
faith from what is less in harmony with the light of faith; the
family, as a Christian community, does so through its special
sharing and witness of faith.

  Thus there begins a dialogue also between pastors and families. 
Theologians and experts in family matters can be of great help in
this dialogue.  By explaining exactly the content of the church's
magisterium and the content of the experience of family life.  In
this way the teaching of the magisterium becomes better understood
and the way is opened to its progressive development.  

  But it is useful to recall that the proximate and obligatory norm
in the teaching of the faith -- also concerning family matters --
belongs to the hierarchical magisterium.  Clearly defined
relationships between theologians, experts in family matters and
the magisterium are of no little assistance for the correct
understanding of the faith and for promoting -- within the
boundaries of the faith -- legitimate pluralism.


74. Men and women religious.
----------------------------

  The contribution that can be made to the apostolate of the family
by men and women religious and consecrated persons in general finds
its primacy, fundamental and original expression precisely in their
consecration to God.  By reason of this consecration, "for all
Christ's faithful religious recall that wonderful marriage made by
God, which will be fully manifested in the future age, and in which
the church has Christ for her only spouse" [169], and they are
witnesses to that universal charity which, through chastity
embraced for the kingdom of heaven, makes them ever more available
to dedicate themselves generously to the service of God and to the
works of the apostolate.

  Hence the possibility for men and women religious and members of
secular institutes and other institutes of perfection, either
individually or in groups, to develop their service to families,
with particular solicitude for children, especially if they are
abandoned, unwanted, orphaned, poor or handicapped.  They can also
visit families and look after the sick; they can foster
relationships of respect and charity toward one-parent families or
families that are in difficulties or are separated; they can offer
their own work of teaching and counseling in the preparation of
young people for marriage and in helping couples toward truly
responsible parenthood; they can open their own houses for simple
and cordial hospitality so that families can find there the sense
of God's presence and gain a taste for prayer and recollection and
see the practical examples of lives lived in charity and fraternal
joy as members of the larger family of God.

  I would like to add a most pressing exhortation to the heads of
institutes of consecrated life to consider -- always with
substantial respect for the proper and original charism of each one
-- the apostolate of the family as one of the priority tasks
rendered even more urgent by the present state of the world.


75. Lay specialists.
--------------------

  Considerable help can be given to families by lay specialists
(doctors, lawyers, psychologists, social workers, consultants,
etc.) who either as individuals or as members of various
associations and undertakings offer their contribution of
enlightenment, advice, orientation and support.  TO these people
one can well apply the exhortations that I had the occasion to
address to the Confederation of Family Advisory Bureaus of
Christian Inspiration:

  "Yours is a commitment that well deserves the title of mission,
so noble are the aims that it pursues, and so determining, for the
good of society and the Christian community itself, are the results
that derive from it ... All that you succeed in doing to support
the family is determined to have an effectiveness that goes beyond
its own sphere and reaches other people too, and has an effect on
society.  The future of the world and of the church passes through
the family" [170].


76. Recipients and agents of social communications.
---------------------------------------------------

  This very important category in modern life deserves a word of
its own.  It is well know that the means of social communication
"affect and often profoundly, the minds of those who use them,
under the affective and intellectual aspect and also under the
moral and religious aspect," especially in the case of young people
[171].  They can thus exercise a beneficial influence on the life
and habits of the family and on the education of children, but at
the same time they also conceal "snares and dangers that cannot be
ignored" [172].  They could also become a vehicle -- sometimes
cleverly and systematically manipulated, as unfortunately happens
in various countries of the world -- for divisive ideologies and
distorted ways of looking at life, the family, religion and
morality, attitudes that lack respect for man's true dignity and
destiny.

  This danger is all the more real inasmuch as "the modern
lifestyle -- especially in the more industrialized nations -- all
too often causes families to abandon their responsibility to
educate their children.  Evasion of this duty is made easy for them
by the presence of television and certain publications in the home,
and in this way they keep their children's time and energies
occupied" [173].  Hence "the duty ... to protect the young from the
forms of aggression they are subjected to by the mass media," and
to ensure that the use of the media in the family is carefully
regulated.  Families should also take care to seek for their
children often forms of entertainment that are more wholesome,
useful and physically, morally and spiritually formative, "to
develop and use to advantage the free time of the young and direct
their energies" [174].

  Furthermore, because the means of social communication, like the
school and the environment, often have a notable influence on the
formation of children, parents as recipients must actively ensure
the moderate, critical, watchful and prudent use of the media by
discovering what effect they have on their children and by
controlling the use of media in such a way as to "train the
conscience of their children to express calm and objective
judgements, which will then guide them in the choice or rejection
of programs available" [175].

  With equal commitment parents will endeavor to influence the
selection and preparation of the programs themselves by keeping in
contact -- through suitable initiatives -- with those in charge of
the various phases of production and transmission.  In this way
they will ensure that fundamental human values that form part of
the true good of society are not ignored or deliberately attacked. 
Rather they will ensure the broadcasting of programs that present
in the right light family problems and their proper solutions.  In
this regard my venerated predecessor Paul VI wrote:

  "Producers must know and respect the needs of the family, and
this sometimes presupposes in them true courage, and always a high
sense of responsibility.  In fact they are expected to avoid
anything that could harm the family in its existence, its
stability, its balance and its happiness.  Every attack on the
fundamental value of the family -- meaning eroticism or violence,
the defense of divorce or of anti-social attitudes among young
people -- is an attack on the true good of man" [176].

  I myself, on a similar occasion, pointed out that families "to a
considerable extent need to be able to count on the good will,
integrity and sense of responsibility of the media professionals --
publishers, writers, producers, directors, playwrights, newsmen,
commentators and actors" [177].  It is therefore also the duty of
the church to continue to devote every care to these categories, at
the same time encouraging and supporting Catholics who feel the
call and have the necessary talents to take up this sensitive type
of work.

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Footnotes:

[169] Second Vatican Council, PERFECTAE CARITATIS, 12.

[170] John Paul II, Address to the Confederation of Family Advisory
Bureaus of Christian Inspiration (Nov. 29, 1980), 3-4: INSEGNAMENTI
III, 2 (1980), 1453-1454.

[171] Paul VI, Message for the Third Social Communications Day
(April 7, 1969): AAS 61 (1969), 455.

[172] John Paul II, Message for the 1980 World Social
Communications Day (May 1, 1980): INSEGNAMENTI III, 1 (1980), 1042.

[173] John Paul II, Message for the 1981 World Social
Communications Day (May 10, 1981): L'Osservatore Romano, May 22,
1981.

[174] Ibid.

[175] Paul VI, Message for the Third Social Communications Day
(April 7, 1969): AAS 61 (1969), 456.

[176] John Paul II, Message for the 1980 World Social
Communications Day, loc. cit. 1044.

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: talk.religion.misc