From: kriz@skat.usc.edu (KRIZ)
Newsgroups: talk.religion.misc
Subject: Cath. Christianity 101 - JP II's letter "On the Family" - 10 (repost)
Date: 25 Jul 1992 20:00:37 -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 4II


                            PART FOUR
                   PASTORAL CARE OF THE FAMILY
                             (cont)


II. STRUCTURES OF FAMILY PASTORAL CARE.
---------------------------------------

  Pastoral activity is always the dynamic expression of the reality
of the church, committed to her mission of salvation.  Family
pastoral care too -- which is a particular and specific form of
pastoral activity -- has as its operative principle and responsible
agent the church herself, through her structures and workers.


70. The ecclesial community and in particular the parish.
---------------------------------------------------------  

  The church, which is at the same time a saved and a saving
community, has to be considered here under two aspects: as
universal and particular.  The second aspect is expressed and
actuated in the diocesan community, which is pastorally divided up
into lesser communities of which the parish is of special
importance.

  Communion with the universal church does not hinder, but rather
guarantees and promotes the substance and originality of the
various particular churches.  These latter remain more immediate
and more effective subjects of operation for putting the pastoral
care of the family into practice.  In this sense every local church
and, in more particular terms, every parochial community must
become more vividly aware of the grace and responsibility that it
receives from the Lord in order that it may promote the pastoral
care of the family.  No plan for organized pastoral work at any
level must ever fail to take into consideration the pastoral area
of the family.

  Also to be seen in the light of this responsibility is the
importance of the proper preparation of all those who will be more
specifically engaged in this kind of apostolate.  Priests and men
and women religious from the time of their formation should be
oriented and trained progressively and thoroughly for the various
tasks.  Among the various initiatives I am pleased to emphasize the
recent establishment in Rome, at the Pontifical Lateran University,
a higher institute for the study of the problems of the family. 
Institutes of this kind have also been set up in some dioceses. 
Bishops should see to it that as many priests as possible attend
specialized courses there before taking on parish responsibilities. 
Elsewhere, formation courses are periodically held at higher
institutes of theological and pastoral studies.  Such initiatives
should be encouraged, sustained, increased in number, and of course
are also open to lay people who intend to use their professional
skills (medial, legal, psychological, social or educational) to
help the family.


71. The family.
---------------

  Nut it is especially necessary to recognize the unique place that
in this field belongs to the mission of married couples and
Christian families by virtue of the grace received in the
sacrament.  This mission must be placed at the service of the
building up of the church, the establishing of the kingdom of God
in history.  This is demanded as an act of docile obedience to
Christ the Lord.  For it is he who, by virtue of the fact that
marriage of baptized persons has been raised to a sacrament,
confers upon Christian married couples a special mission as
apostles, sending them as workers into his vineyard and in a very
special way into this field of the family.

  In this activity married couples act in communion and
collaboration with the other members of the church, who also work
for the family, contributing their own gifts and ministries.  This
apostolate will be exercised in the first place within the families
of those concerned, through the witness of a life lived in
conformity with the divine law in all its aspects, through the
Christian formation of the children, through helping them to mature
in faith, through education to chastity, through preparation for
life, through vigilance in protecting them from the ideological and
moral dangers with which they are often threatened, through their
gradual and responsible inclusion in the ecclesial community and
the civil community, through help and advice in choosing a
vocation, through mutual help among family members for human and
Christian growth together, and so on.  The apostolate of the family
will also become wider through works of spiritual and material
charity toward other families, especially those most in need of
help and support, toward the poor, the sick, the old, the
handicapped, orphans, widows, spouses that have been abandoned,
unmarried mothers and mothers-to-be in difficult situations who are
tempted to have recourse to abortion, and so on.


72. Associations of families for families.
------------------------------------------

  Still within the church, which is the subject responsible for the
pastoral care of the family, mention should be made of the various
groupings of members of the faithful in which the mystery of
Christ's church is in some measure manifested and lived.  One
should therefore recognize and make good use of -- each one in
relationship to its own characteristics, purposes, effectiveness
and methods -- the different ecclesial communities, the various
groups and the numerous movements engaged in various ways, for
different reasons and at different levels, in the pastoral care of
the family.

  For this reason the synod expressly recognized the useful
contribution made by such associations of spirituality, formation
and apostolate.  It will be their task to foster among the faithful
a lively sense of solidarity, to favor a manner of living inspired
by the Gospel and by the faith of the church, to form consciences
according to Christian values and not according to the standards of
public opinion; to stimulate people to perform works of charity for
one another and for others with a spirit of openness which will
make Christian families into a true source of light and a wholesome
leaven for other families.

  It is similarly desirable that, with a lively sense of the common
good, 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 human
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
the international level' for collaboration with the school and with
the other institutions that complete the education of children, and
so forth.

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