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national social problem, but
others could be documented.
Every member of each family
has a right to be cared for,
not as an isolated person but
as a person who belongs with
and depends upon a family.
We therefore favor the trend
to consider social service
programs, domestic relations
courts and child welfare
casework as involving family
rather than merely individual
dimensions and solutions.
Whenever a family is
undermined, society suffers
the loss. There are no
insignificant families, as there
is no insignificant person. If
families are to function as the
good of society requires, each
must have income
proportionate to its needs.
Wages in our country are
usually based upon the work
done, plus productivity.
Little or no consideration is
given to the family situation
of the individual, his marital
status, or the number of
children in his home. It
should not normally be
necessary for the father of a
family to “moonlight”,
seeking employment from
more than one source to
support his wife and children.
Single men and the married
men with families receive the
same rates of pay for the
same work. As a result, one
sector of the population bears
a disproportionately large
share of the financial burden
of maintaining the child
population, which means the
future nation, except for
income tax benefits, which
may unfortunately be
cancelled out by consumer
taxes. The effective solution
we are urging may well
require a family allowance
system in the United States
similar to those adopted by
Canada, many European
nations, Australia, New
Zealand and some
governments of South
America. We stand ready to
support enlightened
legislation in this sense.
The challenges and threats
to contemporary family life
may often seem insuperable.
However, the resources of
this nation are more than
sufficient to enhance the
security and prosperity of our
families at home while leaving
us free to fulfil our duties in
charity and justice abroad.
The scientific, educational
and financial resources of our
nation cannot be better
utilized than in defense and
development of the family.
The future of civilization
itself depends upon' such
creative use of our resources.
Our concern with
improved social conditions
and public policies protective
of the family includes
recognition of the special
merits of some families. We
second the tribute of the
Council’s Pastoral
Constitution to parents of
large families; we add a
further tribute to those
parents who, in a tradition
that has been the strength of
American Catholicism, have
provided their children, very
often at great sacrifice, with
educational opportunities
under religious auspices from
pre-school years to higher
education.
We are mindful of those
families which include
disadvantaged children and of
families which by adoption
assume full responsibility for
children not born to them.
Adoption corresponds with a
deeply human instinct; it
gives a home to the homeless
and parents to the orphaned
while at the same time
rewarding, the love with
which a family welcomes life
not originally committed to
its keeping.
Likewise praiseworthy is
the unselfishness which
prompts qualified people to
become foster parents to
children who need material,
emotional or spiritual
assistance at some point in
their lives. Finally, we offer a
word of encouragement to
our brothers or sisters in
Christ who care for children
in one-parent families. The
sacrifices required to provide
for the physical welfare and
psychological development of
children under these
circumstances are sometimes
extraordinary. Those who
thus spend themselves on
behalf of life and love witness
to the world and the Church
a generosity which cannot fail
to inspire others and to
sanctify 0 themselves.
Further Threats To Life
At this tense moment in
our history when external
wars and internal violence
make us so conscious of
death, an affirmation of the
sanctity of human life by
renewed attention to the
family is imperative. Let
society always be on the side
of life. Let it never dictate,
directly or indirectly,
recourse to the prevention of
life or to its distruction in
any of its phases; neither let
it require as a condition of
economic assistance that any
family yield conscientious
determination of the number
of its children to the decision
of persons or agencies outside
the family.
Stepped-up pressures for
moral and legal acceptance of
directly procured abortion
make necessary pointed
reference to this threat to the
right to life. Reverence for
life demands freedom from
direct interruption of life
once it is conceived.
Conception initiates a process
whose purpose is the
realization of human
personality. A human person,
nothing more and nothing
less, is always at issue once
conception has taken place.
We expressly repudiate any
contradictory suggestion as
contrary to Judaeo-Christian
traditions inspired by love for
life, and Anglo-Saxon legal
traditions protective of life
and the person.
Abortion brings to an end
with irreversible finality both
the existence and the destiny
of the developing human
person. Conscious of the
inviolabilty of life, the
Second Vatican Council
teaches:
“God, the Lord of life, has
conferred on man the
surpassing ministry of
safeguarding life, a
ministry which must be
fulfiled in a manner that is
worthy of man. Therefore,
from the moment of its
conception life must be
guarded with the greatest
care while abortion and
infanticide are unspeakable
crimes” (Gaudium et Spes,
51).
The judgment of the
Church on the evil of
terminating life derives from
the Christian awareness that
men are not the masters but
the ministers of life. Hence,
the Council declares:
“At this tense moment in our history . . .
an affirmation of the sanctity of human life by
renewed attention to the family is imperative.
Let society always be on the side of life. Let it
never dictate directly or indirectly, recourse to
the prevention of life or to its destruction in any
of its phases.”
“ ... whatever is opposed
to life itself, such as any
type of murder, genocide,
abortion, euthanasia, or
wilful self-destruction,
whatever violates the
integrity of the human
person ... all these things
and others of their like are
infamies indeed. They
poison human society but
they do more harm to
those who practice them
than those who suffer from
the injury. Moreover, they
are supreme dishonor to
the Creator” (Guadium et
Spes, 27).
V Note 01 Christian
Optimism
Pressing concerns of the
hour have led us to consider
with you many of the
problems of family life,
together with a Christian
appraisal of them. The family
is, however, much more than
the sum of its problems. It is,
as we said earlier, the place
where the person occurs,
where life begins, where
fidelity and hope are
nourished, where human love
reaches its most intense
expression. The family is,
indeed, that “school of
deeper humanity” of which
the Vatican Council speaks.
(Gaudium et Spes, 52)
The Christian family is an
image of God and a sign of
the Church. It is the
community wherein Christ is
most powerfully preached,
where Christians first hear the
name of God, first learn to
pray, and first express their
faith. In the words and
example of their believing
parents, children come to
know what faith is and how it
must be lived, what life is and
how it must be honored. For
tnis reason, a spirituality
which is suitable to the
contemporary family and
which brings all members of
the family together in faith
and hope is, we repeat, the
most urgent need of modern
culture.
Since the family is the
basic unit of human society,
it should be the object of
civilzation’s most enlightened
concern. Since it is the basic
unit of their life, parishes
should make the needs of the
family and the benefits which
the family brings to the
parish controling norms in
the planning of parish
organizations and activities,
liturgical, educational,
charitable and social.
As bishops of the Catholic
Church in the United States,
concerned for its present
well-being and prospects, our
first prayer is for the families
who comprise its parishes and
dioceses. Our optimism for
the future of the Church, the
family of God, springs largely
from opt imism for the future
of the family. In turn, our
basis for optimism for the
future of family life, despite
occasional negative signs,
rests upon the persevering
hope of married couples
whose responsibility to life
and vocation to love have
been the opening theme of
this pastoral letter.
As last year we saluted
priests, for their special part
in the work of God, so this
year we salute Christian
spouses who “made to the
image of the living God and
enjoying the authentic
dignity of persons, are joined
to one another in equal
affection, harmony of mind
and the work of mutual
sanctification. Thus,
following Christ Who is the
principle of life, by the
sacrifices and joys of their
vocation and through their
faithful love, (they have)
become witnesses of the
mystery of love which the
Lord revealed to the world by
His dying and His rising up to
live again.” (Gaudium et
Spes, 52)
Chapter Two
The Family Of
Nations
We share the deep concern
of thoughtful people in our
times, a concern voiced by
the Vatican Council, that
“the whole human family has
reached an hour of supreme
crisis” (Gaudium et Spes, 77).
The crisis can ultimately offer
great promise for a more
abundant human life, but at
the moment it portends grave
threats to all life. The threats
to life depend on urgent and
difficult decisions concerning
war and peace. In considering
these we share the conviction
of Vatican Counci II that the
horror and perversity of
technological warfare
“compel us to undertake an
evaluation of war with an
entirely new attitude.” (n.
80, emphasis added)
This compelling obligation
is the greater in our case since
we are citizens of a nation in
many ways the most
powerful in the world. The
responsibility of moral
leadership is the greater in the
local Church of a nation
whose arsenals contain the
greatest nuclear potential for
both the harm that we would
wish to impede or the help it
is our obligation to
encourage. We are acutely
aware that our moral posture
and comportment in this
hour of supreme crisis will be
assessed by the judgment of
history and of God.
We renew the affirmation
by the Council that “the
loftier strivings and
aspirations of the human race
are in harmony with he
message of the Gospel” (n.
77). We speak as witnesses to
that Gospel, aware that the
issues of war and peace test
the relevancy of its message
for our generations,
particularly in terms of the
service of life and its dignity.
We seek to speak in the spirit
of that Gospel message,
which is at heart a doctrine of
non-violence rather than
violence, of peace understood
as Jesus proclaimed it (cf.
John 14:27).
We call upon American
Catholics to evaluate war
with that “entirely new
attitude” for which the
Council appealed and which
may rightly be expected of all
who, calling themselves
Christians, proclaim their
identity with the Prince of
Peace. We share with all men
of good will the conviction
that a more humane society
will not come “unless each
person devotes himself with
renewed determination to the
cause of peace” (n. 77). We
appeal to policy makers and
statesmen to reflect soberly