Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church

The family has central importance in reference to the person. It is in this cradle of life and love that people are born and grow; when a child is conceived, society receives the gift of a new person who is called “from the innermost depths of self to communion with others and to the giving of self to others”^{465John Paul II, Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Christifideles Laici, 40: AAS 81 (1989), 468.}. It is in the family, therefore, that the mutual giving of self on the part of man and woman united in marriage creates an environment of life in which children “develop their potentialities, become aware of their dignity and prepare to face their unique and individual destiny”^{466John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Centesimus Annus, 39: AAS 83 (1991), 841.}. In the climate of natural affection which unites the members of a family unit, persons are recognized and learn responsibility in the wholeness of their personhood. “The first and fundamental structure for ‘human ecology' is the family, in which man receives his first formative ideas about truth and goodness, and learns what it means to love and to be loved, and thus what it actually means to be a person”^{467John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Centesimus Annus, 39: AAS 83 (1991), 841.}. The obligations of its members, in fact, are not limited by the terms of a contract but derive from the very essence of the family, founded on the irrevocable marriage covenant and given structure in the relationships that arise within it following the generation or adoption of children.