Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church

The family is present as the place where communion — that communion so necessary for a society that is increasingly individualistic — is brought about. It is the place where an authentic community of persons develops and grows^{490Cf. John Paul II, Apostolic Exhortation Familiaris Consortio, 18: AAS 74 (1982), 100-101.}, thanks to the endless dynamism of love, which is the fundamental dimension of human experience and which finds in the family the privileged place for making itself known. “Love causes man to find fulfilment through the sincere gift of self. To love means to give and to receive something which can be neither bought nor sold, but only given freely and mutually”^{491John Paul II, Letter to Families Gratissimam Sane, 11: AAS 86 (1994), 883.}. It is thanks to love, the essential reality for defining marriage and the family that every person — man and woman — is recognized, accepted and respected in his dignity. From love arise relationships lived in gratuitousness, which “by respecting and fostering personal dignity in each and every one as the only basis for value ... takes the form of heartfelt acceptance, encounter and dialogue, disinterested availability, generous service and deep solidarity”^{492John Paul II, Apostolic Exhortation Familiaris Consortio, 43: AAS 74 (1982), 134.}. The existence of families living this way exposes the failings and contradictions of a society that is for the most part, even if not exclusively, based on efficiency and functionality. By constructing daily a network of interpersonal relationships, both internal and external, the family is instead “the first and irreplaceable school of social life, and example and stimulus for the broader community relationships marked by respect, justice, dialogue and love”^{493John Paul II, Apostolic Exhortation Familiaris Consortio, 43: AAS 74 (1982), 134.}.

Love is also expressed in the generous attention shown to the elderly who live in families: their presence can take on great value. They are an example of connections between generations, a resource for the well-being of the family and of the whole of society: “Not only do they show that there are aspects of life — human, cultural, moral and social values — which cannot be judged in terms of economic efficiency, but they can also make an effective contribution in the work-place and in leadership roles. In short, it is not just a question of doing something for older people, but also of accepting them in a realistic way as partners in shared projects — at the level of thought, dialogue and action”^{494John Paul II, Message to the Second World Assembly on Ageing, Madrid (3 April 2002): L'Osservatore Romano, English edition, 24 April 2002, p. 6; cf. John Paul II, Apostolic Exhortation Familiaris Consortio, 27: AAS 74 (1982), 113-114.}. As the Sacred Scripture says: “They still bring forth fruit in old age” (Ps 92:15). The elderly constitute an important school of life, capable of transmitting values and traditions, and of fostering the growth of younger generations, who thus learn to seek not only their own good but also that of others. If the elderly are in situations where they experience suffering and dependence, not only do they need health care services and appropriate assistance, but — and above all — they need to be treated with love.

The human being is made for love and cannot live without love. When it is manifested as the total gift of two persons in their complementarities, love cannot be reduced to emotions or feelings, much less to mere sexual expression. In a society that tends more and more to relativize and trivialize the very experience of love and sexuality, exalting its fleeting aspects and obscuring its fundamental values, it is more urgent than ever to proclaim and bear witness that the truth of conjugal love and sexuality exist where there is a full and total gift of persons, with the characteristics of unity and fidelity^{495Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 48: AAS 58 (1966), 1067-1069; Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1644-1651.}. This truth, a source of joy, hope and life, remains impenetrable and unattainable as long as people close themselves off in relativism and scepticism.

Faced with theories that consider gender identity as merely the cultural and social product of the interaction between the community and the individual, independent of personal sexual identity without any reference to the true meaning of sexuality, the Church does not tire of repeating her teaching: “Everyone, man and woman, should acknowledge and accept his sexual identity. Physical, moral and spiritual difference and complementarities are oriented towards the goods of marriage and the flourishing of family life. The harmony of the couple and of society depends in part on the way in which the complementarities, needs and mutual support between the sexes are lived out”^{496Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2333.}. According to this perspective, it is obligatory that positive law be conformed to the natural law, according to which sexual identity is indispensable, because it is the objective condition for forming a couple in marriage.

The nature of conjugal love requires the stability of the married relationship and its indissolubility. The absence of these characteristics compromises the relationship of exclusive and total love that is proper to the marriage bond, bringing great pain to the children and damaging repercussions also on the fabric of society. The stability and indissolubility of the marriage union must not be entrusted solely to the intention and effort of the individual persons involved. The responsibility for protecting and promoting the family as a fundamental natural institution, precisely in consideration of its vital and essential aspects, falls to the whole of society. The need to confer an institutional character on marriage, basing this on a public act that is socially and legally recognized, arises from the basic requirements of social nature. The introduction of divorce into civil legislation has fuelled a relativistic vision of the marriage bond and is broadly manifested as it becomes “truly a plague on society”^{497Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2385; cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1650-1651, 2384.}. Couples who preserve and develop the value of indissolubility “in a humble and courageous manner ... perform the role committed to them of being in the world a ‘sign' — a small and precious sign, sometimes also subjected to temptation, but always renewed — of the unfailing fidelity with which God and Jesus Christ love each and every human being”^{498John Paul II, Apostolic Exhortation Familiaris Consortio, 20: AAS 74 (1982), 104.}.

The Church does not abandon those who have remarried after a divorce. She prays for them and encourages them in the difficulties that they encounter in the spiritual life, sustaining them in faith and in hope. For their part, these persons, insofar as they are baptized, can and indeed must participate in the life of the Church. They are exhorted to listen to the Word of God, to attend the sacrifice of the Mass, to persevere in prayer, to perform acts of charity and take part in community projects for justice and peace, to raise their children in faith, and to nurture a spirit of penitence and works of penance in order to beseech, day after day, the grace of God. Reconciliation in the sacrament of Penance — which opens the way to the sacrament of the Eucharist — can only be given to those who, after repenting, are sincerely disposed to a new form of life that is no longer in contradiction with the indissolubility of marriage^{499The respect owed to the sacrament of Marriage, as well as to the married couples themselves, their families and the faith community, forbids pastors regardless of motivation and pretext — even pastoral — from setting up any kind of ceremony for the divorced who wish to remarry. Cf. John Paul II, Apostolic Exhortation Familiaris Consortio, 20: AAS 74 (1982), 104.}. Acting in this fashion, the Church professes her fidelity to Christ and to his truth; at the same time she shows a maternal spirit to her children, especially those who, through no fault of their own, have been abandoned by their legitimate spouse. With steadfast trust she believes that even those who have turned away from the Lord's commandment, and continue to live in that state, can obtain from God the grace of conversion and salvation, if they persevere in prayer, penance and charity^{500Cf. John Paul II, Apostolic Exhortation Familiaris Consortio, 77, 84: AAS 74 (1982), 175-178, 184-186.}.

De facto unions, the number of which is progressively increasing, are based on a false conception of an individual's freedom to choose ^{501Cf. John Paul II, Letter to Families Gratissimam Sane, 14: AAS 86 (1994), 893-896; Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2390.} and on a completely privatistic vision of marriage and family. Marriage is not a simple agreement to live together but a relationship with a social dimension that is unique with regard to all other relationships, since the family — attending as it does to caring for and educating children — is the principal instrument for making each person grow in an integral manner and integrating him positively into social life. Making “de facto unions” legally equivalent to the family would discredit the model of the family, which cannot be brought about in a precarious relationship between persons ^{502Cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2390.} but only in a permanent union originating in marriage, that is, in a covenant between one man and one women, founded on the mutual and free choice that entails full conjugal communion oriented towards procreation.

Connected with de facto unions is the particular problem concerning demands for the legal recognition of unions between homosexual persons, which is increasingly the topic of public debate. Only an anthropology corresponding to the full truth of the human person can give an appropriate response to this problem with its different aspects on both the societal and ecclesial levels^{503Cf. Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Letter on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons (1 October 1986), 1-2: AAS 79 (1987), 543-544.}. The light of such anthropology reveals “how incongruous is the demand to accord ‘marital' status to unions between persons of the same sex. It is opposed, first of all, by the objective impossibility of making the partnership fruitful through the transmission of life according to the plan inscribed by God in the very structure of the human being. Another obstacle is the absence of the conditions for that interpersonal complementarity between male and female willed by the Creator at both the physical-biological and the eminently psychological levels. It is only in the union of two sexually different persons that the individual can achieve perfection in a synthesis of unity and mutual psychophysical completion”^{504John Paul II, Address to the Tribunal of the Roman Rota (21 January 1999), 5: L'Osservatore Romano, English edition, 10 February 1999, p. 3.}. Homosexual persons are to be fully respected in their human dignity ^{505Cf. Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Document on Some Considerations Concerning the Response to Legislative Proposals on the Non-Discrimination of Homosexual Persons (23 July 1992): L'Osservatore Romano, 24 July 1992, p. 4; cf. Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Declaration Persona Humana (29 December 1975), 8: AAS 68 (1976), 84-85.} and encouraged to follow God's plan with particular attention in the exercise of chastity^{506Cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2357-2359.}. This duty calling for respect does not justify the legitimization of behaviour that is not consistent with moral law, even less does it justify the recognition of a right to marriage between persons of the same sex and its being considered equivalent to the family^{507Cf. John Paul II, Address to Spanish Bishops on their Ad Limina Visit (19 February 1998), 4: L'Osservatore Romano, English edition, 11 March 1998, p. 5; Pontifical Council for the Family, Family, Marriage and “De facto Unions” (26 July 2000), 23, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, Vatican City 2000, pp. 40-43; Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Considerations Regarding Proposals to Give Legal Recognition to Unions Between Homosexual Persons (3 June 2003), Libreria Editrice Vaticana, Vatican City 2003.}. “If, from the legal standpoint, marriage between a man and a woman were to be considered just one possible form of marriage, the concept of marriage would undergo a radical transformation, with grave detriment to the common good. By putting homosexual unions on a legal plane analogous to that of marriage and the family, the State acts arbitrarily and in contradiction with its duties”^{508Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Considerations Regarding Proposals to Give Legal Recognition to Unions Between Homosexual Persons (3 June 2003), 8, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, Vatican City 2003, p. 9.}.

The solidity of the family nucleus is a decisive resource for the quality of life in society, therefore the civil community cannot remain indifferent to the destabilizing tendencies that threaten its foundations at their very roots. Although legislation may sometimes tolerate morally unacceptable behaviour^{509Cf. John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Evangelium Vitae, 71: AAS 87 (1995), 483; Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, I-II, q. 96, a. 2 (“Utrum ad legem humanam pertineat omnia vitia cohibere”): Ed. Leon. 7, 181.}, it must never weaken the recognition of indissoluble monogamous marriage as the only authentic form of the family. It is therefore necessary that the public authorities “resist these tendencies which divide society and are harmful to the dignity, security and welfare of the citizens as individuals, and they must try to ensure that public opinion is not led to undervalue the institutional importance of marriage and the family”^{510John Paul II, Apostolic Exhortation Familiaris Consortio, 81: AAS 74 (1982), 183.}. It is the task of the Christian community and of all who have the good of society at heart to reaffirm that “the family constitutes, much more than a mere juridical, social and economic unit, a community of love and solidarity, which is uniquely suited to teach and transmit cultural, ethical, social, spiritual and religious values, essential for the development and well-being of its own members and of society”^{511Holy See, Charter of the Rights of the Family (24 November 1983), Preamble, E, Vatican Polyglot Press, Vatican City 1983, p. 6.}.