The Concept of the Family
The concept of “Family” as a generic term has multifarious meanings and connotations so much so that the word is rendered ambiguous and nebulous. However, from the etymological perspective, the word “Family” is derived from the Latin word “familia” meaning “household”. In its primary understanding, the word refers to the community formed essentially by parents and their children. Let me underline here that it is with this primary understanding that this Paper is concerned. The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines family as “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”. This means, therefore, a married couple and children constitute a family. Pope John Paul II, echoing the Synod on the Family which took place from September 26 to October 25, 1980, describes the family as a community founded and given life by love. This community of persons is made of husband and wife, parents and children and relatives. Their first task is to live with fidelity the reality of communion. There can only be a community of persons where there is love (Familiaris Consortio, 18). To buttress this point, he refers to the very first Encyclical letter of his pontificate, Redemptor hominis, in which he wrote: “Man cannot live without love. He remains a being that is incomprehensible for himself; his life is senseless, if love is not revealed to him, if he does not encounter love, if he does not experience it and make it his own, if he does not participate intimately in it” (Redemptor hominis, 10). The teaching of the Catholic Church on the family is re-echoed at every wedding when the spouses promise to remain bonded faithfully to each other and to be open to welcome and bring up children. In the course of history, the Church has expressed in varied ways her teachings on the essence and function of the family in the Church and in the society at large. Those teachings are summed up in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (1659-1666), the elements of which are as follows:
• Family is founded on the union of a man and woman in the permanent relationship of marriage.
• Marriage was instituted by God for the mutual fulfillment and sanctification of the spouses and for propagating the human race through pro-creation.
Family is:
• the building block of society and the ec clesial community
• a place of growth in the concrete and essential transmission of the virtues which give form to human existence.
• a context in which:
• various generations come together and help one another grow wiser and
• harmonize personal rights with other requirements of social life
• the first setting in which faith illumines the human city • school of humanity
• essential agent in the work of evangelization • first school of evangelization
• cradle of vocation
• the very foundation of society.
The Family as a Domestic Church
In the first sixteen centuries of our faith, the home was basically the school of faith, the first school of religious formation of the children while the parish, on the other hand, perfects it. Some fathers of the Church, when speaking of the role of the family towards the children, wrote, “Fathers, educate the young ones in the fear of God” (St. Clement of Rome). This clearly expresses the fact that the father in the home is considered the head of the family. St. Augustine insists that Christian education is a duty of the family. This indicates that religious education is not only the task of the father but also of the mother. Different synods at different levels in the 9th and 10th centuries represented this to all families. The Second Vatican Council also describes the family as a domestic Church, thereby giving a prime place to Catholic family in the faith formation of the children within it. Pope John Paul II in his encyclical on the family, Familiaris Consortio underlines the role of the family stating that: “the Christian family is called to take part actively and responsibly in the mission of the Church in a way that is original and specific, by placing itself in what it does as an intimate community of life and love at the service of the Church and the society”. The family as a domestic Church therefore carries out its role under three major aspects where it is seen as: 1) a believing community in dialogue with God, 2) an evangelizing community, and 3) a community at the service of humanity. Pope Francis places education, both temporal and religious, at the heart of the family. Since it results from the network of relationships that is nurtured in the institution, this form of education is irreplaceable. Simply put, the family lays the foundation. The Fathers of Vatican II also reiterated the indispensable role of Catholic parents, taking into account the fact that they give life to their children, and referred to them as the “primary and principal educators”. They insist that it is a role that can hardly be substituted. It is the responsibility of parents to provide the conducive atmosphere for inculcating social and spiritual virtues.
The family is therefore referred to as the first school. The Fathers further assert: It is particularly in the Christian family, enriched by the grace and office of the sacrament of matrimony, that children should be taught from their early years to have knowledge of God according to the faith received in Baptism, to worship Him, and to love their neighbour. Here, too, they find their first experience of a wholesome human society and of the Church. Finally, it is through the family that they are gradually led to a companionship with their fellowmen and with the people of God. Lumen Gentium (“Light of the Nations”), one of the documents of the Second Vatican Council, describes the family as the ‘domestic Church’ because it is the first place where young, baptised Christians learn about their faith. It states: “From the wedlock of Christians there comes the family, in which new citizens of human society are born, who by the grace of the Holy Spirit received in baptism are made children of God, thus perpetuating the people of God through the centuries” (Lumen Gentium, 11). The document goes on to explain that this domestic Church has a particular role and responsibility in leading souls to heaven: “In it parents should, by their word and example, be the first preachers of the faith to their children; they should encourage them in the vocation which is proper to each of them, fostering with special care vocation to a sacred state” (Ibid). Through this letter, the Council Fathers intended to emphasize that Christ is the Light of the Nations, and that, as the Church, we each have a responsibility to bring the Light of Christ to others. Within the domestic Church, this means that parents are to cultivate a family life that is centered on Christ.
The Instrumentum Laboris of the Third General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops which reflected on “The Pastoral Challenges of the Family in the Context of Evangelisation” identifies a number of roles the family has to play and challenges that she has to face in carrying out her functions. These different roles are summed up by one: it is the role of the family to bring up children in the faith, that is, to bring them into the world and to bring them to God through baptism. The primary responsibility of parents is to bring up their children in every aspect of life in the society. In other words, parents are parents, not just because they pass genes unto their children, but because, primarily, they pass on values to them, particularly the values of faith. It is the primary responsibility of the Christian family to provide and inculcate civic and religious values to their children, to form good citizens and good Christians. The religious education of children by their parents is the foundation on which their civic education is built. This is best achieved by the witness value and personal example of the parents. The fourth role of the Christian family, as specified in Familiaris Consortio, is to share in the life and mission of the Church. “The family is placed at the service of the building up of the Kingdom of God in history by participating in the life and mission of the Church” (Familiaris Consortio, 49). After the Second Vatican Council had described the family as the “domestic Church” (Lumen Gentium, 11; Apostolicam Actuositatem, 11), Familiaris Consortio goes on to reiterate that “in its own way the family is a living image and historical representation of the mystery of the Church”.
•Prof. Michael Ogunu is International President of the World Apostolate of Fatima
