Youcat commented through CCC – Question n. 370 - Part III.

YOUCAT Question n. 370 – Part III. Why should the State protect and promote families?

(Youcat answer - repeated) The welfare and future of a State depend on the ability of the smallest unit within it, the family, to live and develop.    

A deepening through CCC

(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.      

Reflecting and meditating 

(Youcat comment) 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.

(CCC Comment)

(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.

(The next question is: How does a child respect his parents?)

Youcat commented through CCC – Question n. 370 - Part II.

YOUCAT Question n. 370 – Part II. Why should the State protect and promote families?

(Youcat answer - repeated) The welfare and future of a State depend on the ability of the smallest unit within it, the family, to live and develop.

A deepening through CCC

(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 (Cf. FC 46). 

Reflecting and meditating 

(Youcat comment) 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. 

(CCC Comment)

(CCC 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" (GS 47 § 1).     

(This question: Why should the State protect and promote families? is continued)

Youcat commented through CCC – Question n. 370 - Part I.

YOUCAT Question n. 370 – Part I. Why should the State protect and promote families?

(Youcat answer) The welfare and future of a State depend on the ability of the smallest unit within it, the family, to live and develop.

A deepening through CCC

(CCC 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.

Reflecting and meditating 

(Youcat comment) 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.

(CCC Comment)

(CCC 2210) The importance of the family for the life and well-being of society  (Cf. GS 47 § 1) 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" (GS 52 § 2). 

(This question: Why should the State protect and promote families? is continued)

Youcat commented through CCC – Question n. 369.

YOUCAT Question n. 369 - Why are families irreplaceable?

(Youcat answer) Every child is descended from one father and one mother and longs for the warmth and safety of a family so that he may grow up secure and happy.   

A deepening through CCC

(CCC 2207) The family is the original cell of social life. It is the natural society in which husband and wife are called to give themselves in love and in the gift of life. Authority, stability, and a life of relationships within the family constitute the foundations for freedom, security, and fraternity within society. The family is the community in which, from childhood, one can learn moral values, begin to honor God, and make good use of freedom. Family life is an initiation into life in society.      

Reflecting and meditating 

(Youcat comment) The family is the basic cell of human society. The values and principles that are lived out in the small circle of the family are what make solidarity in the life of larger society possible in the first place.

(CCC Comment)

(CCC 2208) The family should live in such a way that its members learn to care and take responsibility for the young, the old, the sick, the handicapped, and the poor. There are many families who are at times incapable of providing this help. It devolves then on other persons, other families, and, in a subsidiary way, society to provide for their needs: "Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained from the world" (Jas 1:27).      

(The next question is: Why should the State protect and promote families?)

Youcat commented through CCC – Question n. 368 - Part II.

YOUCAT Question n. 368 – Part II. What place does the family have in God’s plan of creation?

(Youcat answer - repeated) A man and a woman who are married to each other form, together with their children, a family. God wills that the love of the spouses, if possible, should produce children. These children, who are entrusted to the protection and care of their parents, have the same dignity as their parents.    

A deepening through CCC

(CCC 2204) "The Christian family constitutes a specific revelation and realization of ecclesial communion, and for this reason it can and should be called a domestic church" (Familiaris consortio, 21; cf. Lumen gentium, 11). It is a community of faith, hope, and charity; it assumes singular importance in the Church, as is evident in the New Testament (Cf. Eph 5:21b: 4; Col 3:18-21; 1Pet 3:1-7).

Reflecting and meditating 

(Youcat comment) God himself, in the depths of the Trinity, is communion. In the human sphere, the family is the primordial image of communion. The family is the unique school of living in relationships. Nowhere do children grow up as well as in an intact family, in which they experience heartfelt affection, mutual respect, and responsibility for one another. Finally, faith grows in the family, too; the family is, the Church tells us, a miniature church, a “domestic church”, the radiance of which should invite others into this fellowship of faith, charity, and hope.

(CCC Comment)

(CCC 2205) The Christian family is a communion of persons, a sign and image of the communion of the Father and the Son in the Holy Spirit. In the procreation and education of children it reflects the Father's work of creation. It is called to partake of the prayer and sacrifice of Christ. Daily prayer and the reading of the Word of God strengthen it in charity. The Christian family has an evangelizing and missionary task. (CCC 2206) The relationships within the family bring an affinity of feelings, affections and interests, arising above all from the members' respect for one another. The family is a privileged community called to achieve a "sharing of thought and common deliberation by the spouses as well as their eager cooperation as parents in the children's upbringing" (GS 52 § 1).

(The next question is:  Why are families irreplaceable?)