From: kriz@skat.usc.edu (KRIZ)
Newsgroups: talk.religion.misc
Subject: Cath. Christianity 101 - JP II's letter "On the Family" - 4 (repost)
Date: 25 Jul 1992 19:53:21 -0700
Organization: University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
NNTP-Posting-Host: skat.usc.edu


I posted this recently.  Since then, the discussion has been almost
absurdly muddled.  WHILE I DO NOT MAKE THIS A HABIT, I do feel it
necessary that the document be posted again, simply to allow others
besides Loren and myself focused on what is being talked about.

I **DO** APOLOGIZE for this inconvenience,

In Christ,

dennis
kriz@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" - Part 3I


                           PART THREE
                THE ROLE OF THE CHRISTIAN FAMILY


17. Family, Become What You Are.
--------------------------------

  The family finds in the plan of God the creator and redeemer not
only its identity, what it is, but also its mission, what it can
and should do.  The role that God calls the family to perform in
history derives from what the family is: its role represents the
dynamic and existential development of what it is.  Each family
finds within itself a summons that cannot be ignored and that
specifies both its dignity and its responsibility: Family become
what you are.

  Accordingly, the family must go back to the "beginning" of God's
creative act if it is to attain self-knowledge and self-realization
in accordance with the inner truth not only of what it is, but also
of what it does in history.  And since in God's plan it has been
established as an "intimate community of live and love" [44], the
family has the mission to become more and more what it is, that is
to say, a community of life and love in an effort that will find
fulfillment, as will everything created and redeemed, in the
kingdom of God. Looking at it in such a way as to reach its very
roots, we must say that the essence and role of the family are in
the final analysis specified by love.  Hence the family has the
mission to guard, reveal and communicate love, and this is a living
reflection of and a real sharing in God's love for humanity and the
love of Christ the Lord for the church, his bride.

  Every particular task of the family is an expression and concrete
actuation of that fundamental mission.  We must therefore go deeper
into the unique riches of the family's mission and probe its
contents, which are both manifold and unified.

  Thus, with love as its point of departure and making constant
reference to it, the recent synod emphasized four general tasks for
the family:

     I. Forming a community of persons;
     II. Serving life;
     III. Participating in the development of society;
     IV. Sharing in the life and mission of the church.


I. FORMING A COMMUNITY OF PERSONS.
----------------------------------

18. Love as the principle and power of communion.
-------------------------------------------------

  The family, which is founded and given life by love, is a
community of persons: of husband and wife, of parents and children,
of relatives.  Its first task is to live with fidelity the reality
of communion in a constant effort to develop an authentic community
of persons.

  The inner principle of that task, its permanent power and its
final goal, is love: Without love the family is not a community of
persons, and in the same way, without love the family cannot live,
grow and perfect itself as a community of persons.  What I wrote in
the Encyclical REDEMPTOR HOMINIS applies primarily and especially
within the family as such: "Man cannot live without love.  He
remains a being that is incomprehensible for himself, his life is
senseless, if love is not revealed to him, if he does not encounter
love, if he does not experience it and make it his own, if he does
not participate intimately in it" [45].

  The love between husband and wife and, in a derivatory and
broader way, the love between members of the same family -- between
parents and children, brothers and sisters and relatives and
members of the household -- is given life and sustenance by the
unceasing inner dynamism leading the family to ever deeper and more
intense communion, which is the foundation and soul of the
community of marriage and the family.


19. The indivisible unity of conjugal communion.
------------------------------------------------

  The first communion is the one which is established and which
develops between husband and wife: By virtue of the covenant of
married life, the man and woman "are no longer two but one flesh"
[46] and they are called to grow continually in their communion
through day-to-day fidelity to their marriage promise of total
mutual self-giving.

  This conjugal communion sinks its roots in the natural
complementarity that exists between man and woman and is nurtured
through the personal willingness of the spouses to share their
entire life project, what they have and what they are: For this
reason such communion is the fruit and the sign of a profoundly
human need.  But in the Lord Christ God takes up this human need,
confirms it, purifies it and elevates it, leading it to perfection
through the sacrament of matrimony: the Holy Spirit who is poured
out in the sacramental celebration offers Christian couples the
gift of a new communion of love that is the living and real image
of that unique unity which makes of the church the indivisible
mystical body of the Lord Jesus.

  The gift of the spirit is a commandment of life for Christian
spouses and at the same time a stimulating impulse so that every
day they may progress toward an ever richer union with each other
on all levels -- of the body, of the character, of the heart, of
the intelligence and will, of the soul [47] -- revealing in this
way to the church and to the world the new communion of love, given
by the grace of Christ.

  Such a communion is radically contradicted by polygamy: This, in
fact, directly negates the plan of God which was revealed from the
beginning, because it is contrary to the equal personal dignity of
men and women, who in matrimony give themselves with a love that is
total and therefore unique and exclusive.  As the Second Vatican
Council writes: "Firmly established by the Lord, the unity of
marriage will radiate from the equal personal dignity of husband
and wife, a dignity acknowledged by mutual and total love" [48].


20. An indissoluble communion.
------------------------------

  Conjugal communion is characterized not only by its unity, but
also by its indissolubility: "As a mutual gift of two persons, this
intimate union, as well as the good of the children, imposes total
fidelity on the spouses and argues for an unbreakable oneness
between them" [49].

  It is a fundamental duty of the church to reaffirm strongly, as
the synod fathers did, the doctrine of the indissolubility of
marriage.  To all those who in our times consider it too difficult
or indeed impossible to be bound to one person for the whole of
life, and to those caught up in a culture that rejects
indissolubility of marriage and openly mocks the commitment of
spouses to fidelity, it is necessary to reconfirm the good news of
the definitive nature of that conjugal love that has in Christ its
foundation and strength [50].

  Being rooted in the personal and total self-giving of the couple
and being required by the good of the children, the indissolubility
of marriage finds its ultimate truth in the plan that God has
manifested in his revelation: He wills and communicates the
indissolubility of marriage as a fruit, a sign and a requirement of
the absolutely faithful love that God has for man and that the Lord
Jesus has for the church.

  Christ renews the first plan that the creator inscribed in the
hearts of man and woman, and in the celebration of the sacrament of
matrimony offers "a new heart": thus the couples are not only able
to overcome "hardness of heart" [51], but also, and above all, they
are able to share the full and definitive love of Christ, the new
and eternal covenant made flesh.  Just as the Lord Jesus is the
"faithful witness" [52], the "yes" of the promises of God [53] and
thus the supreme realization of the unconditional faithfulness with
which God loves his people, so Christian couples are called to
participate truly in the irrevocable indissolubility that binds
Christ to the church, his bride, loved by him to the end [54].

  The gift of the sacrament is at the same time a vocation and
commandment for Christian spouses, that they may remain faithful to
each other forever, beyond every trial and difficulty, in generous
obedience to the holy will of the Lord: "What therefore God has
joined together, let not man put asunder" [55].

  To bear witness to the inestimable value of the indissolubility
and fidelity of marriage is one of the most precious and most
urgent tasks of Christian couples in our time.  So, with all my
brothers who participated in the Synod of Bishops, I praise and
encourage those numerous couples who, though encountering no small
difficulty, preserve and develop the value of indissolubility: Thus
in a humble and courageous manner they perform the role committed
to them of being in the world a "sign" -- a small and precious
sign, sometimes also subjected to temptation, but always renewed --
of the unfailing fidelity with which God and Jesus Christ love each
and every human being.  But it is also proper to recognize the
value of the witness of those spouses who, even when abandoned by
their partner, with the strength of faith give an authentic witness
to fidelity, of which the world today has a great need.  For this
reason they must be encouraged and helped by the pastors and the
faithful of the church.


21. The broader communion of the family.
----------------------------------------

  Conjugal communion constitutes the foundation on which is built
the broader communion of family, of parents and children, of
brothers and sisters with each other, of relatives and other
members of the household.

  This communion is rooted in the natural bonds of flesh and blood
and grows to its specifically human perfection with the
establishment and maturing of the still deeper and richer bonds of
the spirit: The love that animates the interpersonal relationships
of the different members of the family constitutes the interior
strength that shapes and animates the family communion and
community.

  The Christian family is also called to experience a new and
original communion which confirms and perfects natural and human
communion.  In fact the grace of Jesus Christ, "the firstborn among
many brethren" [56], is by its nature and interior dynamism "a
grace of brotherhood," as St. Thomas Aquinas calls it [57].  The
Holy Spirit, who is poured forth in the celebration of the
sacraments, is the living source and inexhaustible sustenance of
the supernatural communion that gathers believers and links them
with Christ and with each other in the unity of the church of God. 
The Christian family constitutes a specific revelation and
realization of ecclesial communion, and for this reason too it can
and should be called "the domestic church" [58].

  All members of the family, each according to his or her own gift,
have the grace and responsibility of guiding day by day the
communion of persons, making the family "a school of deeper
humanity" [59]: This happens where there is care and love for the
little ones, the sick, the aged, where there is mutual service
every day; when there is a sharing of goods, of joys and of
sorrows.

  A fundamental opportunity for building such a communion is
constituted by the educational exchange between parents and
children [60], in which each gives and receives.  By means of love,
respect and obedience toward their parents, children offer their
specific and irreplaceable contribution to the construction of an
authentically human and Christian family [61].  They will be aided
in this if parents exercise their unrenounceable authority as a
true and proper "ministry", that is, as a service to the human and
Christian well-being of their children and in particular as a
service aimed at helping them acquire a truly responsible freedom,
and if parents maintain a living awareness of the "gift" they
continually receive from their children.

  Family communion can only be preserved and perfected through a
great spirit of sacrifice.  It requires, in fact, a ready and
generous openness of each and all to understanding, to forbearance,
to pardon, to reconciliation.  There is no family that does not
know how selfishness, discord, tension and conflict violently
attack and at times mortally wound its own communion: Hence there
arise the many and varied forms of division in family life.  But,
at the same time, every family is called by the God of peace to
have the joyous and renewing experience of "reconciliation", that
is, communion re-established, unity restored.  In particular,
participation in the sacrament of reconciliation and in the banquet
of the one body of Christ offers to the Christian family the grace
and the responsibility of overcoming every division and of moving
toward the fullness of communion willed by God, responding in this
way to the ardent desire of the Lord: "that they may be one" [62].


22. The rights and role of women.
---------------------------------

  In that it is, and ought to become, a communion and community of
persons, the family finds in love the source and the constant
impetus for welcoming, respecting and promoting each one of its
members in his or her lofty dignity as a person, that is, as a
living image of God.  As the synod fathers rightly stated, the
moral criterion for the authenticity of conjugal and family
relationships consists in fostering the dignity and vocation of the
individual persons, who achieve their fullness by sincere self-
giving [63].

  In this perspective the synod devoted special attention to women,
to their rights and role within the family and society.  In the
same perspective are also to be considered men as husbands and
fathers, and likewise children and the elderly.

  Above all it is important to underline the equal dignity and
responsibility of women with men.  This equality is realized in a
unique manner in that reciprocal self-giving by each one to the
other and by both to the children which is proper to marriage and
the family.  What human reason intuitively perceives and
acknowledges is fully revealed by the word of God: The history of
salvation, in fact, is a continuous and luminous testimony to the
dignity of women.

  In creating the human race "male and female" [64], God gives man
and woman an equal personal dignity, endowing them the inalienable
rights and responsibilities proper to the human person.  God then
manifests the dignity of women in the highest form possible, by
assuming human flesh from the Virgin Mary, whom the church honors
as the mother of God, calling her the new Eve and presenting her as
the model of redeemed woman.  The sensitive respect of Jesus toward
the women that he called to his following and his friendship, his
appearing on Easter morning to a woman before the other disciples,
the mission entrusted to women to carry the good news of the
resurrection to the apostles -- these are all signs that confirm
the special esteem of the Lord Jesus for women.  The apostle Paul
will say: "IN Christ Jesus you are all children of God through
faith ... There is neither slave nor free, there is neither male
nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus" [65].


23. Women and society.
----------------------

  Without intending to deal with all the various aspects of the
vast and complex theme of the relationships between women and
society and limiting these remarks to a few essential points, one
cannot but observe that in the specific area of family life a
widespread social and cultural tradition has considered women's
role to be exclusively that of wife and mother, without adequate
access to public functions, which have generally been reserved for
men.

  There is no doubt that the equal dignity and responsibility of
men and women fully justifies women's access to public functions. 
On the other hand the true advancement of women requires that clear
recognition be given to the value of their maternal and family
role, by comparison with all other public roles and all other
professions.  Furthermore, these roles and professions should be
harmoniously combined if we wish the evolution of society and
culture to be truly and fully human.

  This will come about more easily if, in accordance with the
wishes expressed by the synod, a renewed "theology of work" can
shed light upon and study in depth the meaning of work in the
Christian life and determine the fundamental bond between work and
the family, and therefore the original and irreplaceable meaning of
work in the home be recognized and respected by all in its
irreplaceable value.

  This is of particular importance in education: For possible
discrimination between the different types of work and professions
is eliminated at its very root once it is clear that all people in
every area are working with equal rights and equal
responsibilities.  The image of God in man and in woman will thus
be seen with added luster.

  While it must be recognized that women have the same right as men
to perform various public functions, society must be structured in
such a way that wives and mothers are not in practice compelled to
work outside the home, and that their families can live and prosper
in a dignified way even when they themselves devote their full time
to their own family.

  Furthermore, the mentality which honors women more for their work
outside the home than for their work within the family must be
overcome.  This requires that men should truly esteem and love
women with total respect for their personal dignity, and that
society should create and develop conditions favoring work in the
home.

  With due respect to the different vocations of men and women, the
church must in her own life promote as far as possible the equality
of rights and dignity: and this for the good of all, the family,
the church, and society.

  But clearly all of this does not mean for women a renunciation of
their femininity or an imitation of the male role, but the fullness
of true feminine humanity which should be expressed in their
activity, whether in the family or outside it, without disregarding
the differences of customs and cultures in this sphere.


24. Offenses against women's dignity.
-------------------------------------

  Unfortunately the Christian message about the dignity of women is
contradicted by that persistent mentality which considers the human
being not as a person but as a thing, as an object of trade, at the
service of selfish interest and mere pleasure: The first victims of
this mentality are women.

  This mentality produces very bitter fruits, such as contempt for
man and for women, slavery, oppression of the weak, pornography,
prostitution -- especially in an organized form -- and all those
various forms of discrimination that exist in the fields of
education, employment wages, etc.

  Besides, many forms of degrading discrimination still persist
today in a great part of our society that affect and seriously harm
particular categories of women, as for example childless wives,
widows, separated or divorced women, and unmarried mothers.

  The synod fathers deplored these and other forms of
discrimination as strongly as possible.  I therefore ask that
vigorous and incisive pastoral action be taken by all to overcome
them definitively so that the image of God that shines in all human
beings without exception may be fully respected.


25. Men as husbands and fathers.
--------------------------------

  Within the conjugal and family communion-community, the man is
called upon to live his gift and role as husband and father.

  In his wife he sees the fulfillment of God's intention: "It is
not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fir
for him" [67], and he makes his own of the cry of Adam, the first
husband: "This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh"
[68].

  Authentic conjugal love presupposes and requires that man have a
profound respect for the equal dignity of his wife: "You are not
her master," writes St. Ambrose, "but her husband; she was not
given to you to be your slave, but your wife. ... Reciprocate her
attentiveness to you and be grateful to have her for her love"
[69].  With his wife a man should live "a very special form of
personal friendship" [70].  As for the Christian, he is called upon
to develop a new attitude of love, manifesting toward his wife a
charity that is both gentle and strong life that which Christ has
for the church.

  Love for his wife as mother of their children and love for the
children themselves are for the man the natural way of
understanding and fulfilling his own fatherhood.  Above all where
social and cultural conditions so easily encourage a father to be
less concerned with his family or at any rate less involved in the
work of education, efforts must be made to restore socially the
conviction that the place and task of the father in and for the
family is of unique and irreplaceable importance [72].  As
experience teaches, the absence of a father causes psychological
and moral imbalance and notable difficulties in family
relationships, as does, in contrary circumstances, the oppressive
presence of a father, especially where there still prevails the
phenomenon of "machismo," or a wrong superiority of male
prerogatives which humiliates women and inhibits the development of
healthy family relationships.

  In revealing and in reliving on earth the very fatherhood of God
[73], a man is called upon to ensure the harmonious and united
development of all the members of the family: He will perform this
task by exercising generous responsibility for the life conceived
under the heart of the mother, by a more solitious commitment to
education, a task he shares with his wife [74], by work which is
never a cause of division in the family but promotes its unity and
stability, and by means of the witness he gives of an adult
Christian life which effectively introduces the children into the
living experience of Christ and the church.


26. The rights of children.
---------------------------

  In the family, which is a community of persons, special attention
must be devoted to the children by developing a profound esteem for
their personal dignity and a great respect and generous concern for
their rights.  This is true of every child, but it becomes all the
more urgent the smaller the child is and the more it is in need of
everything, when it is sick, suffering or handicapped.

  By fostering and exercising a tender and strong concern for every
child that comes into this world, the church fulfills a fundamental
mission: for she is called upon to reveal and put forward anew in
history the example and the commandment of Christ the Lord, who
placed the child at the heart of the kingdom of God: "Let the
children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs
the kingdom of heaven" [75].

  I repeat once again what I said to the General Assembly of the
United Nations Oct. 2, 1979:

  "I wish to express the joy that we all find in children, the
springtime of life, the anticipation of the future history of each
of our present earthly homelands.  No country on earth, no
political system can think of its own future otherwise than through
the image of these new generations that will receive from their
parents the manifold heritage of values, duties and aspirations of
the nation to which they belong and of the whole human family. 
Concern for the child, even before birth, from the first moment of
conception and then throughout the years of infancy and youth, is
the primary and fundamental test of the relationship of one human
being to another.  And so, what better which can I express for
every nation and the whole of mankind, and for all the children of
the world than a better future in which respect for human rights
will become a complete reality throughout the third millennium
which is drawing near" [76].

  Acceptance, love esteem, many-sided and united material,
emotional, educational and spiritual concern for every child that
comes into this world should always constitute a distinctive,
essential characteristic of all Christians, in particular of the
Christian family: Thus children while they are able to grow "in
wisdom and in stature, and in favor with God and man" [77], offer
their won precious contribution to building up the family community
and even to the sanctification of their parents [78].


27. The elderly in the family.
------------------------------

  There are cultures which manifest a unique veneration and great
love for the elderly: Far from being outcasts from the family or
merely tolerated as a useless burden, they continue to be present
and to take an active and responsible part in family life, though
having to respect the autonomy of the new family, above all they
carry out the important mission of being a witness to the past and
a source of wisdom for the young and for the future.

  Other cultures, however, especially in the wake of disordered
industrial and urban development, have both in the past and in the
present set the elderly aside in unacceptable ways.  This causes
acute suffering to them and spiritually impoverishes many families.

  The pastoral activity of the church must help everyone to
discover and to make good use of the role of the elderly within the
civil and ecclesial community, in particular within the family.  In
fact, "the life of the aging helps to clarify a scale of human
values; it shows the continuity of generations and marvelously
demonstrates the interdependence of God's people.  The elderly
often have the charism to bridge generation gaps before they are
made.  How many children have found understanding and love in the
eyes and words and caresses of the aging! And how many old people
have willingly subscribed to the inspired word that the 'crown of
the aged is their children's children' (Prv. 17:6)!" [79].

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

[44] Second Vatican Council, GAUDIUM ET SPES, 48.

[45] Encyclical REDEMPTOR HOMINIS, 10: AAS 71 (1979), 274.

[46] Mt. 19:6; cf. Gn. 2:24.

[47] Cf. John Paul II, Letter NOVO INCIPIENTE (April 8, 1979), 9:
AAS 71 (1979), 274.

[48] GAUDIUM ET SPES, 49; cf. JOHN PAUL II, Address at Kinshasa 4:
loc cit.

[49] Second Vatican Council, GAUDIUM ET SPES, 48.

[50] Cf. Eph. 5:25.

[51] Mt. 19:8.

[52] Rv. 3:14.

[53] Cf. 2 Cor. 1:20.

[54] Cf. Jn. 13:1.

[55] Mt. 19:6.

[56] Rom. 8:29.

[57] St. Thomas Aquinas, SUMMA THEOLOGIAE, II-II, q 14, art. 2, ad
4.

[58] Second Vatican Council, LUMEN GENTIUM, 11; cf. APOSTOLICAM
ACTUSITATEM, 11.

[59] Second Vatican Council, GAUDIUM ET SPES, 52.

[60] Cf. Eph. 6:1-4.

[61] Cf. Second Vatican Council, GAUDIUM ET SPES, 48.

[62] Jn. 17:21.

[63] Cf. Second Vatican Council, GAUDIUM ET SPES, 24.

[64] Gn. 1:27.

[65] Gal. 3:26, 28.

[66] Cf. John Paul II, Encyclical LABOREM ECERCENS, 19: AAS 73
(1981), 625.

[67] Gn. 2:18.

[68] Gn. 2:23.

[69] St. Ambrose, EXAMERON, V 7, 19: CSEL 32, I, 154.

[70] Paul VI, Encyclical HUMANAE VITAE, 9: AAS 60 (1968), 486.

[71] Cf. Eph. 5:25.

[72] Cf. John Paul II, Address to the General Assembly of the
United Nations (Oct. 2, 1979), 21: AAS 71 (1979), 1159.

[73] Cf. Eph. 3:15.

[74] Cf. Second Vatican Council, GAUDIUM ET SPES, 52.

[75]  Lk. 18:16; cf. Mt. 19:14; Mk. 18:16.

[76] John Paul II, Address to the General Assembly of the United
Nations (Oct. 2, 1979), 21: AAS 71 (1979), 1159.

[77] Lk. 2:52.

[78] Cf. Lk. 2:52.

[79] John Paul II, Address to the Participants in the International
Forum on Active Aging (Sept. 5, 1980), 5: INSEGNAMENTI, III (1980),
539.

-------------------------------------------------------------------