Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church

The importance and centrality of the family with regard to the person and society is repeatedly underlined by Sacred Scripture. “It is not good that the man should be alone” (Gen 2:18). From the texts that narrate the creation of man (cf. Gen 1:26-28, 2:7-24) there emerges how — in God's plan — the couple constitutes “the first form of communion between persons”^{458Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 12: AAS 58 (1966), 1034.}. Eve is created like Adam as the one who, in her otherness, completes him (cf. Gen 2:18) in order to form with him “one flesh” (Gen 2:24; cf. Mt 19:5-6)^{459Cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1605.}. At the same time, both are involved in the work of procreation, which makes them co-workers with the Creator: “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth” (Gen 1:28). The family is presented, in the Creator's plan, as “the primary place of ‘humanization' for the person and society” and the “cradle of life and love”^{460John Paul II, Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Christifideles Laici, 40: AAS 81 (1989), 469.}.

It is in the family that one learns the love and faithfulness of the Lord, and the need to respond to these (cf. Ex 12:25-27, 13:8,14-15; Deut 6:20-25, 13:7-11; 1 Sam 3:13). It is in the family that children learn their first and most important lessons of practical wisdom, to which the virtues are connected (cf. Prov 1:8-9, 4:1-4, 6:20-21; Sir 3:1-16, 7:27-28). Because of all this, the Lord himself is the guarantor of the love and fidelity of married life (cf. Mal 2:14-15). Jesus was born and lived in a concrete family, accepting all its characteristic features ^{461The Holy Family is an example of family life: “May Nazareth remind us what the family is, what the communion of love is, its stark and simple beauty, its sacred and inviolable character; may it help us to see how sweet and irreplaceable education in the family is; may it teach us its natural function in the social order. May we finally learn the lesson of work”: Paul VI, Address at Nazareth (5 January 1964): AAS 56 (1964), 168.} and he conferred the highest dignity on the institution of marriage, making it a sacrament of the new covenant (cf. Mt 19:3-9). It is in this new perspective that the couple finds the fullness of its dignity and the family its solid foundation.

Enlightened by the radiance of the biblical message, the Church considers the family as the first natural society, with underived rights that are proper to it, and places it at the centre of social life. Relegating the family “to a subordinate or secondary role, excluding it from its rightful position in society, would be to inflict grave harm on the authentic growth of society as a whole”^{462John Paul II, Letter to Families Gratissimam Sane, 17: AAS 86 (1994), 906.}. The family, in fact, is born of the intimate communion of life and love founded on the marriage between one man and one woman^{463Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 48: AAS 58 (1966), 1067-1069}. It possesses its own specific and original social dimension, in that it is the principal place of interpersonal relationships, the first and vital cell of society^{464Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Decree Apostolicam Actuositatem, 11: AAS 58 (1966), 848.}. The family is a divine institution that stands at the foundation of life of the human person as the prototype of every social order.