In Familiaris Consortio 4 and 32 we find a guide to what is at stake in this question of the gift of life and the gift of love. However, the family is also a community of life and love in the way it exists and grows day by day. The family is the first living cell of society. Some people imagine that society is a collection of individuals, That mistake seemed to pervade the dominant thinking at the United Nations Conferences at Cairo and Beijing. But when we think carefully, it is not true that society is a collection of individuals.
Families make up society.
Families produce, nourish and form individuals who will in turn go on to make new families. This is the natural cycle of society. This is one reason why the Holy Father constantly warns us against individualism. A selfish individualism leads to the anti-life mentality as I will discuss tomorrow afternoon at Westminster Central Hall. But the healthy, natural, family is a strong antidote to selfish individualism.