Family Life Office

There is a rich heritage of Catholic teaching regarding the topic of marriage and family life presented throughout the past twenty centuries. The focus of these pages will be some of the key developments of the 20th century.

In 1930, Pope Pius XI’s contribution was Casti Connubii. The encyclical, Casti Connubii discusses the divine origins of marriage in the face of early humanistic developments. It signals the beginnings of the secular attack on Christian marriage and family life. This attack on marriage and family life continues today.

With the advent of the Vatican Council II, the Church recasts the understanding of marriage and family in the light of the challenges of the modern world. In the document Gaudium et Spes, the key issues of nature of marriage, responsible parenthood and the family are discussed. The key texts for these reflections are paragraphs 47 to 52. Pope John Paul II uses these Vatican II texts in his teaching regarding marriage and family.

In 1968, Paul VI promulgates the encyclical Humanae Vitae. This creates a firestorm with in the Church regarding the issues of responsible parenthood. It leads many within the Church to open dissent from the constant teaching of the Catholic Church on this topic. It also created an impetus to those in the field of natural family planning to develop the morally acceptable method of family planning for married couples. Natural family planning is a scientific method of observing the signs of a woman’s fertility. (See NFP webpage links for NFP providers)

In 1978, the year of John Paul’s election to the papacy, the bishops of the United States offered the Catholic Church in America The Pastoral Plan for Family Ministry: A Vision and Strategy. Drawing on the theological insights of the Vatican Council II and Pope Paul VI—the bishops formulated this document to give shape to family ministry with the parishes of the United States. This document is more practical rather than theoretical in its vision. However it offers the church one model for the implementation of family ministry.

In 1980, the Synod of Bishops reflects on the topic of marriage and family as the reason for their gathering. The 80s decade is declared the Decade of the Family. The growth of marriage and family life offices begins.

In 1981, after reflecting on the outcome of the Synod of Bishops, John Paul promulgates his Apostolic Exhortation Familiaris Consortio wrote that: “No plan for organized pastoral work at any level must ever fail to take into consideration the pastoral area of the family.”(70). The Holy Father John Paul II summons the family “to become who you are.” This calling entails a search for an identity and a mission. The first part of Familiaris Consortio offers a vision of the four specific tasks of the family in the modern world. By defining the mission of the family, the identity of the family is revealed.

The Four Tasks of the Christian Family

1. The family is to form an intimate community of persons.

2. The family is to serve life in its transmission, both physically by bringing children into the world, and spiritually by handing on values and traditions as well as developing the potential of each member to serve life at every age.

3. The family is to participate in the development of society by becoming a community of social training and hospitality, as well as a community of political involvement and activity.

4. The family is to share in the life and mission of the Church by becoming a believing and evangelizing community, a community in dialogue with God, and a community at the service of humanity.

During 1979-1984, Pope John Paul presented a series of Wednesday audiences that have become known collectively as the Theology of the Body. These highly philosophical reflections on the experience of the human experience through Scriptures will be recognized as the philosophical foundation of the new evangelization in the area of marriage and family ministry. ( See George Weigel’s biography of John Paul II, Witness to Hope).

Our ministry is not simply about structures and programs, but is offering a vision to the human heart that calls it to a new life in Christ. Our structures and programs must facilitate this re-awakening of the human heart toward the truth of marriage and family and the spiritual renewal of our Church.

In the United States, the National Conference of Catholic Bishops adopted a document in 1988 entitled, A Family Perspective in Church and Society. The intent of this document is to apply the four tasks of the family to a practical model composed of four elements that should serve as the foundation of understanding the family perspective as it relates to the organized pastoral work of the Church. These are the four elements adopted by the Catholic Bishops of the United States.

1. Adopt a Christian Vision of Family Life: The family is an intimate community of persons bound together by blood, marriage, or adoption, for the whole of life. In our Catholic tradition, the family proceeds from marriage—an intimate, exclusive, permanent, and faithful partnership of husband and wife.

2. Family is a Developing System: The family assumes the individual person lives, not in isolation, but connected to others. This connection with others creates a system that defines the way the community interacts with one another in the face of change and conversion. It is in this community that the individual finds identity and stability in the midst of on-going changes.

3. Family is Diverse: American Catholic families are not all alike. In addition to the normative nuclear family, there are single parent families, families of divorce, culturally and ethnically diverse families, families that share different faith traditions. The family perspective celebrates the uniqueness of each family. It seeks to build on each family's strengths in order to meet the distinctive challenges that each unique family faces.

4. Partnership between Families and Institutions: We no longer live in a society in which all the needs of the family are met internally, but rather families are regularly interacting with a variety of public and private institutions, governments, programs and the like. Families spend a great deal of time and energy coping with the institutions that now share their responsibilities and coordinating many of the services they receive. Institutions such as parishes and schools must not only respect the primary responsibility families have for the well being of their members, but also enable families to fulfill that responsibility.

The family perspective document offers the church a new “family lens” through which Catholic parishes can direct their ministry. It is a visionary document that embraces the realities of family life in America today. The document offers its readers a series of reflection questions they can use test their parish outreach to families.

The Church continues to be committed to the renewal of marriage and family in our society. John Paul II proclaims this need in Novo Millennio Ineunte : “At a time in history like the present, special attention must also be given to the pastoral care of the family, particularly when this fundamental institution is experiencing a radical and widespread crisis.” (47).

For more information about marriage and family life documents, please checkout these web sites: http://www.usccb.org/ and http://www.vatican.va/

Also see the Catechism of the Catholic Church paragraphs 1601-1666 regarding the Sacrament of Matrimony.

Please pray for all people involved in marriage and family life ministry efforts.

[Compiled by Jan Wonacott, MTS Director Marriage and Family Life Office, Archdiocese of Portland]