Evangelium Vitae #78-79"You are God's own people,that you may declare wonderful deeds of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light

"You are God's own people, that you may declare the wonderful deeds of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light" (1 Pet 2:9): a people of life and for life

78. The Church has received the Gospel as a proclamation and a source of joy and salvation. She has received it as a gift from Jesus, sent by the Father "to preach good news to the poor" (Lk 4:18). She has received it through the Apostles, sent by Christ to the whole world (cf. Mk 16:15; Mt 28:19-20). Born from this evangelizing activity, the Church hears every day the echo of Saint Paul's words of warning: "Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel!" (1 Cor 9:16). As Paul VI wrote, "evangelization is the grace and vocation proper to the Church, her deepest identity. She exists in order to evangelize".¹⁰¹

Evangelization is an all-embracing, progressive activity through which the Church participates in the prophetic, priestly and royal mission of the Lord Jesus. It is therefore inextricably linked to preaching, celebration and the service of charity. Evangelization is a profoundly ecclesial act, which calls all the various workers of the Gospel to action, according to their individual charisms and ministry.

This is also the case with regard to the proclamation of the Gospel of life, an integral part of that Gospel which is Jesus Christ himself. We are at the service of this Gospel, sustained by the awareness that we have received it as a gift and are sent to preach it to all humanity, "to the ends of the earth" (Acts 1:8). With humility and gratitude we know that we are the people of life and for life, and this is how we present ourselves to everyone.

79. We are the people of life because God, in his unconditional love, has given us the Gospel of life and by this same Gospel we have been transformed and saved. We have been ransomed by the "Author of life" (Acts 3:15) at the price of his precious blood (cf. 1 Cor 6:20; 7:23; 1 Pet 1:19). Through the waters of Baptism we have been made a part of him (cf. Rom 6:4-5; Col 2:12), as branches which draw nourishment and fruitfulness from the one tree (cf. Jn 15:5). Interiorly renewed by the grace of the Spirit, "who is the Lord and giver of life", we have become a people for life and we are called to act accordingly.

We have been sent. For us, being at the service of life is not a boast but rather a duty, born of our awareness of being "God's own people, that we may declare the wonderful deeds of him who called us out of darkness into his marvellous light" (cf. 1 Pet 2:9). On our journey we are guided and sustained by the law of love: a love which has as its source and model the Son of God made man, who "by dying gave life to the world".¹⁰²

We have been sent as a people. Everyone has an obligation to be at the service of life. This is a properly "ecclesial" responsibility, which requires concerted and generous action by all the members and by all sectors of the Christian community. This community commitment does not however eliminate or lessen the responsibility of each individual, called by the Lord to "become the neighbour" of everyone: "Go and do likewise" (Lk 10:37).

Together we all sense our duty to preach the Gospel of life, to celebrate it in the Liturgy and in our whole existence, and to serve it with the various programmes and structures which support and promote life.

Evangelium Vitae #75-77: "You shall love your neighbour as yourself" (Lk 10:27):"promote" life

"You shall love your neighbour as yourself" (Lk 10:27):"promote" life

75. God's commandments teach us the way of life. The negative moral precepts, which declare that the choice of certain actions is morally unacceptable, have an absolute value for human freedom: they are valid always and everywhere, without exception. They make it clear that the choice of certain ways of acting is radically incompatible with the love of God and with the dignity of the person created in his image. Such choices cannot be redeemed by the goodness of any intention or of any consequence; they are irrevocably opposed to the bond between persons; they contradict the fundamental decision to direct one's life to God. ⁹⁹

In this sense, the negative moral precepts have an extremely important positive function. The "no" which they unconditionally require makes clear the absolute limit beneath which free individuals cannot lower themselves. At the same time they indicate the minimum which they must respect and from which they must start out in order to say "yes" over and over again, a "yes" which will gradually embrace the entire horizon of the good (cf. Mt 5:48). The commandments, in particular the negative moral precepts, are the beginning and the first necessary stage of the journey towards freedom. As Saint Augustine writes, "the beginning of freedom is to be free from crimes... like murder, adultery, fornication, theft, fraud, sacrilege and so forth. Only when one stops committing these crimes (and no Christian should commit them), one begins to lift up one's head towards freedom. But this is only the beginning of freedom, not perfect freedom".¹⁰⁰

76. The commandment "You shall not kill" thus establishes the point of departure for the start of true freedom. It leads us to promote life actively, and to develop particular ways of thinking and acting which serve life. In this way we exercise our responsibility towards the persons entrusted to us and we show, in deeds and in truth, our gratitude to God for the great gift of life (cf. Ps 139:13-14).

The Creator has entrusted man's life to his responsible concern, not to make arbitrary use of it, but to preserve it with wisdom and to care for it with loving fidelity. The God of the Covenant has entrusted the life of every individual to his or her fellow human beings, brothers and sisters, according to the law of reciprocity in giving and receiving, of self-giving and of the acceptance of others. In the fullness of time, by taking flesh and giving his life for us, the Son of God showed what heights and depths this law of reciprocity can reach. With the gift of his Spirit, Christ gives new content and meaning to the law of reciprocity, to our being entrusted to one another. The Spirit who builds up communion in love creates between us a new fraternity and solidarity, a true reflection of the mystery of mutual self-giving and receiving proper to the Most Holy Trinity. The Spirit becomes the new law which gives strength to believers and awakens in them a responsibility for sharing the gift of self and for accepting others, as a sharing in the boundless love of Jesus Christ himself.

77. This new law also gives spirit and shape to the commandment "You shall not kill". For the Christian it involves an absolute imperative to respect, love and promote the life of every brother and sister, in accordance with the requirements of God's bountiful love in Jesus Christ. "He laid down his life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren" (1 Jn 3:16).

The commandment "You shall not kill", even in its more positive aspects of respecting, loving and promoting human life, is binding on every individual human being. It resounds in the moral conscience of everyone as an irrepressible echo of the original covenant of God the Creator with mankind. It can be recognized by everyone through the light of reason and it can be observed thanks to the mysterious working of the Spirit who, blowing where he wills (cf. Jn 3:8), comes to and involves every person living in this world.

It is therefore a service of love which we are all committed to ensure to our neighbour, that his or her life may be always defended and promoted, especially when it is weak or threatened. It is not only a personal but a social concern which we must all foster: a concern to make unconditional respect for human life the foundation of a renewed society.

We are asked to love and honour the life of every man and woman and to work with perseverance and courage so that our time, marked by all too many signs of death, may at last witness the establishment of a new culture of life, the fruit of the culture of truth and of love.

Familiaris Consortio #53:Ecclesial Service

53. The ministry of evangelization carried out by Christian parents is original and irreplaceable. It assumes the characteristics typical of family life itself, which should be interwoven with love, simplicity, practicality and daily witness.(127)

The family must educate the children for life in such a way that each one may fully perform his or her role according to the vocation received from God. Indeed, the family that is open to transcendent values, that serves its brothers and sisters with joy, that fulfills its duties with generous fidelity, and is aware of its daily sharing in the mystery of the glorious Cross of Christ, becomes the primary and most excellent seed-bed of vocations to a life of consecration to the Kingdom of God.

The parents' ministry of evangelization and catechesis ought to play a part in their children's lives also during adolescence and youth, when the children, as often happens, challenge or even reject the Christian faith received in earlier years. Just as in the Church the work of evangelization can never be separated from the sufferings of the apostle, so in the Christian family parents must face with courage and great interior serenity the difficulties that their ministry of evangelization sometimes encounters in their own children.

It should not be forgotten that the service rendered by Christian spouses and parents to the Gospel is essentially an ecclesial service. It has its place within the context of the whole Church as an evangelized and evangelizing community. In so far as the ministry of evangelization and catechesis of the Church of the home is rooted in and derives from the one mission of the Church and is ordained to the upbuilding of the one Body of Christ,(128) it must remain in intimate communion and collaborate responsibly with all the other evangelizing and catechetical activities present and at work in the ecclesial community at the diocesan and parochial levels.

Familiaris Consortio #45:Society at the Service of the Family

45. Just as the intimate connection between the family and society demands that the family be open to and participate in society and its development, so also it requires that society should never fail in its fundamental task of respecting and fostering the family.

The family and society have complementary functions in defending and fostering the good of each and every human being. But society-more specifically the State-must recognize that "the family is a society in its own original right"(111) and so society is under a grave obligation in its relations with the family to adhere to the principle of subsidiarity.

By virtue of this principle, the State cannot and must not take away from families the functions that they can just as well perform on their own or in free associations; instead it must positively favor and encourage as far as possible responsible initiative by families. In the conviction that the good of the family is an indispensable and essential value of the civil community, the public authorities must do everything possible to ensure that families have all those aids- economic, social, educational, political and cultural assistance-that they need in order to face all their responsibilities in a human way.

Familiaris Consortio #41:Manifold Service to Life

41. Fruitful married love expresses itself in serving life in many ways. Of these ways, begetting and educating children are the most immediate, specific and irreplaceable. In fact, every act of true love towards a human being bears witness to and perfects the spiritual fecundity of the family, since it is an act of obedience to the deep inner dynamism of love as self-giving to others.

For everyone this perspective is full of value and commitment, and it can be an inspiration in particular for couples who experience physical sterility.

Christian families, recognizing with faith all human beings as children of the same heavenly Father, will respond generously to the children of other families, giving them support and love not as outsiders but as members of the one family of God's children. Christian parents will thus be able to spread their love beyond the bonds of flesh and blood, nourishing the links that are rooted in the spirit and that develop through concrete service to the children of other families, who are often without even the barest necessities.

Christian families will be able to show greater readiness to adopt and foster children who have lost their parents or have been abandoned by them. Rediscovering the warmth of affection of a family, these children will be able to experience God's loving and provident fatherhood witnessed to by Christian parents, and they will thus be able to grow up with serenity and confidence in life. At the same time the whole family will be enriched with the spiritual values of a wider fraternity. Family fecundity must have an unceasing "creativity," a marvelous fruit of the Spirit of God, who opens the eyes of the heart to discover the new needs and sufferings of our society and gives courage for accepting them and responding to them. A vast field of activity. lies open to families: today, even more preoccupying than child abandonment is the phenomenon of social and cultural exclusion, which seriously affects the elderly, the sick, the disabled, drug addicts, ex-prisoners, etc.

This broadens enormously the horizons of the parenthood of Christian families: these and many other urgent needs of our time are a challenge to their spiritually fruitful love. With families and through them, the Lord Jesus continues to "have compassion" on the multitudes.

Familiaris Consortio #36:The Right and Duty of Parents Regarding Education

36. The task of giving education is rooted in the primary vocation of married couples to participate in God's creative activity: by begetting in love and for love a new person who has within himself or herself the vocation to growth and development, parents by that very fact take on the task of helping that person effectively to live a fully human life. As the Second Vatican Council recalled, "since parents have conferred life on their children, they have a most solemn obligation to educate their offspring. Hence, parents must be acknowledged as the first and foremost educators of their children. Their role as educators is so decisive that scarcely anything can compensate for their failure in it. For it devolves on parents to create a family atmosphere so animated with love and reverence for God and others that a well-rounded personal and social development will be fostered among the children. Hence, the family is the first school of those social virtues which every society needs."(99)

The right and duty of parents to give education is essential, since it is connected with the transmission of human life; it is original and primary with regard to the educational role of others, on account of the uniqueness of the loving relationship between parents and children; and it is irreplaceable and inalienable, and therefore incapable of being entirely delegated to others or usurped by others.

In addition to these characteristics, it cannot be forgotten that the most basic element, so basic that it qualifies the educational role of parents, is parental love, which finds fulfillment in the task of education as it completes and perfects its service of life: as well as being a source, the parents' love is also the animating principle and therefore the norm inspiring and guiding all concrete educational activity, enriching it with the values of kindness, constancy, goodness, service, disinterestedness and self-sacrifice that are the most precious fruit of love.

Familiaris Consortio #4:The Need To Understand the Situation

PART ONE

BRIGHT SPOTS AND SHADOWS FOR THE FAMILY TODAY

The Need To Understand the Situation

4. Since God's plan for marriage and the family touches men and women in the concreteness of their daily existence in specific social and cultural situations, the Church ought to apply herself to understanding the situations within which marriage and the family are lived today, in order to fulfill her task of serving.(8)

This understanding is, therefore, an inescapable requirement of the work of evangelization. It is, in fact, to the families of our times that the Church must bring the unchangeable and ever new Gospel of Jesus Christ, just as it is the families involved in the present conditions of the world that are called to accept and to live the plan of God that pertains to them. Moreover, the call and demands of the Spirit resound in the very events of history, and so the Church can also be guided to a more profound understanding of the inexhaustible mystery of marriage and the family by the circumstances, the questions and the anxieties and hopes of the young people, married couples and parents of today.(9)

To this ought to be added a further reflection of particular importance at the present time. Not infrequently ideas and solutions which are very appealing but which obscure in varying degrees the truth and the dignity of the human person, are offered to the men and women of today, in their sincere and deep search for a response to the important daily problems that affect their married and family life. These views are often supported by the powerful and pervasive organization of the means of social communication, which subtly endanger freedom and the capacity for objective judgment.

Many are already aware of this danger to the human person and are working for the truth. The Church, with her evangelical discernment, joins with them, offering her own service to the truth, to freedom and to the dignity of every man and every woman.

Familiaris Consortio #1:The Church at the Service of the Family

The Church at the Service of the Family

1. The family in the modern world, as much as and perhaps more than any other institution, has been beset by the many profound and rapid changes that have affected society and culture. Many families are living this situation in fidelity to those values that constitute the foundation of the institution of the family. Others have become uncertain and bewildered over their role or even doubtful and almost unaware of the ultimate meaning and truth of conjugal and family life. Finally, there are others who are hindered by various situations of injustice in the realization of their fundamental rights.

Knowing that marriage and the family constitute one of the most precious of human values, the Church wishes to speak and offer her help to those who are already aware of the value of marriage and the family and seek to live it faithfully, to those who are uncertain and anxious and searching for the truth, and to those who are unjustly impeded from living freely their family lives. Supporting the first, illuminating the second and assisting the others, the Church offers her services to every person who wonders about the destiny of marriage and the family.(1)

In a particular way the Church addresses the young, who are beginning their journey towards marriage and family life, for the purpose of presenting them with new horizons, helping them to discover the beauty and grandeur of the vocation to love and the service of life.

Familiaris Consortio: Schemata

APOSTOLIC EXHORTATION
FAMILIARIS CONSORTIO
OF POPE
JOHN PAUL II
TO THE EPISCOPATE
TO THE CLERGY AND TO THE FAITHFUL
OF THE WHOLE CATHOLIC CHURCH
ON THE ROLE
OF THE CHRISTIAN FAMILY
IN THE MODERN WORLD

INTRODUCTION

• Familiaris Consortio #1:The Church at the Service of the Family
• Familiaris Consortio #2:The Synod of 1980 in Continuity with Preceding Synods
• Familiaris Consortio #3:The Precious Value of Marriage and of the Family

PART ONE

BRIGHT SPOTS AND SHADOWS FOR THE FAMILY TODAY

• Familiaris Consortio #4:The Need To Understand the Situation
• Familiaris Consortio #5:Evangelical Discernment
• Familiaris Consortio #6:The Situation of the Family in the World Today
• Familiaris Consortio #7:The Influence of Circumstances on the Consciences of the Faithful
• Familiaris Consortio #8:Our Age Needs Wisdom
• Familiaris Consortio #9:Gradualness and Conversion
• Familiaris Consortio #10:Inculturation

PART TWO

THE PLAN OF GOD FOR MARRIAGE AND THE FAMILY

• Familiaris Consortio #11:Man, the Image of the God Who Is Love
• Familiaris Consortio #12:Marriage and Communion Between God and People
• Familiaris Consortio #13:Jesus Christ, Bridegroom of the Church, and the Sacrament of Matrimony
• Familiaris Consortio #14:Children, the Precious Gift of Marriage
• Familiaris Consortio #15:The Family, a Communion of PersonsFamiliaris Consortio #16:Marriage and Virginity or Celibacy

PART THREE

THE ROLE OF THE CHRISTIAN FAMILY

• Familiaris Consortio #17:Family, Become What You Are

I - FORMING A COMMUNITY OF PERSONS

• Familiaris Consortio #18:Love as the Principle and Power of Communion
• Familiaris Consortio #19:The Indivisible Unity of Conjugal Communion
• Familiaris Consortio #20:An Indissoluble Communion
• Familiaris Consortio #21: The Broader Communion of the Family
• Familiaris Consortio #22:The Rights and Role of Women
• Familiaris Consortio #23: Women and Society
• Familiaris Consortio #24: Offenses Against Women's Dignity
• Familiaris Consortio #25:Men as Husbands and Fathers
• Familiaris Consortio #26: The Rights of Children
• Familiaris Consortio #27:The Elderly in the Family

II - SERVING LIFE

1. The Transmission of Life

• Familiaris Consortio #28:Cooperators in the Love of God the Creator
• Familiaris Consortio #29: The Church's Teaching and Norm, Always Old Yet Always New
• Familiaris Consortio #30:The Church Stands for Life
• Familiaris Consortio #31:Man, the Image of the God Who Is Love
• Familiaris Consortio #32: In an Integral Vision of the Human Person and of His or Her Vocation
• Familiaris Consortio #33:The Church as Teacher and Mother for Couples in Difficulty
• Familiaris Consortio #34-35:The Moral Progress of Married People

2. Education

• Familiaris Consortio #36:The Right and Duty of Parents Regarding Education
• Familiaris Consortio #37:Educating in the Essential Values of Human Life
• Familiaris Consortio #38:The Mission To Educate and the Sacrament of Marriage
• Familiaris Consortio #39:First Experience of the Church
• Familiaris Consortio #40:Relations with Other Educating Agents
• Familiaris Consortio #41:Manifold Service to Life

III - PARTICIPATING IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIETY

• Familiaris Consortio #42:The Family as the First and Vital Cell of Society
• Familiaris Consortio #43:Family Life as an Experience of Communion and Sharing
• Familiaris Consortio #44:The Social and Political Role
• Familiaris Consortio #45:Society at the Service of the Family
• Familiaris Consortio #46:The Charter of Family Rights
• Familiaris Consortio #47:The Christian Family's Grace and Responsibility
• Familiaris Consortio #48:For a New International Order

IV - SHARING IN THE LIFE AND MISSION OF THE CHURCH

• Familiaris Consortio #49:The Family, Within the Mystery of the Church

1. The Christian Family as a Believing and Evangelizing Community

• Familiaris Consortio #50:A Specific and Original Ecclesial Role
• Familiaris Consortio #51:Faith as the Discovery and Admiring Awareness of God's Plan for the Family
• Familiaris Consortio #52:The Christian Family's Ministry of Evangelization
• Familiaris Consortio #53:Ecclesial Service
• Familiaris Consortio #54:To Preach the Gospel to the Whole Creation

2. The Christian Family as a Community in Dialogue with God

• Familiaris Consortio #55:The Church's Sanctuary in the Home
• Familiaris Consortio #56:Marriage as a Sacrament of Mutual Sanctification and an Act of Worship
• Familiaris Consortio #57:Marriage and Virginity or Celibacy
• Familiaris Consortio #58:The Sacrament of Conversion and Reconciliation
• Familiaris Consortio #59: Family Prayer
• Familiaris Consortio #60:Educators in Prayer
• Familiaris Consortio #61:Liturgical Prayer and Private Prayer
• Familiaris Consortio #62:Marriage and Communion Between God and People

3. The Christian Family

• Familiaris Consortio #63:The New Commandment of Love
• Familiaris Consortio #64:To Discover the Image of God in Each Brother and Sister
• Familiaris Consortio #65:The Church Accompanies the Christian Family on Its Journey Through Life
• Familiaris Consortio #66:Preparation for Marriage
• Familiaris Consortio #67:The Celebration
• Familiaris Consortio #68:Celebration of Marriage and Evangelization of Non-believing Baptized Persons
• Familiaris Consortio #69:Pastoral Care After Marriage

II - STRUCTURES OF FAMILY PASTORAL CARE

Pastoral activity is always the dynamic expression of the reality of the Church, committed to her mission of salvation. Family pastoral care too-which is a particular and specific form of pastoral activity- has as its operative principle and responsible agent the Church herself, through her structures and workers.

• Familiaris Consortio #70:The Ecclesial Community and in Particular the Parish
• Familiaris Consortio #71:The Family
• Familiaris Consortio #72:Associations of Families for Families

III - AGENTS OF THE PASTORAL CARE OF THE FAMILY

As well as the family, which is the object but above all the subject of pastoral care of the family, one must also mention the other main agents in this particular sector.

• Familiaris Consortio #73:Bishops and Priests
• Familiaris Consortio #74:Men and Women Religious
• Familiaris Consortio #75:Lay Specialists
• Familiaris Consortio #76:Recipients and Agents of Social Communications

IV - PASTORAL CARE OF THE FAMILY IN DIFFICULT CASES

• Familiaris Consortio #77:Marriage and Communion Between God and People
• Familiaris Consortio #78:Mixed Marriages
• Familiaris Consortio #79Pastoral Action in Certain Irregular Situations
• Familiaris Consortio #80:a) Trial Marriages
• Familiaris Consortio #81:b) De Facto Free Unions
• Familiaris Consortio #82: c) Catholics in Civil Marriages
• Familiaris Consortio #83: d) Separated or Divorced Persons Who Have Not Remarried
• Familiaris Consortio #84:e) Divorced Persons Who Have Remarried
• Familiaris Consortio #85:Those Without a Family

CONCLUSION