Hosted by Second ExodusPrécis of Official Catholic Teaching
Hosted by Second Exodus
Vatican Documents Faith, Revelation and the Bible Christ Our Lord The Church Marriage, Family and Sexuality Sanctity of Human Life Social Teaching of the Church The Ordained Priesthood Worship and the Sacraments The Christian Call to Personal Sanctification Catholic Education Marian Devotions Four Last Things Jewish Issues Other Teachings Document Index About Précis Frequently Asked Questions Abbrev Review of Précis Buy Précis History of Church Letters Libraries CCSP Copyright
Copyright © 1992 Catholics Committed to Support the Pope
Pope John Paul II challenged us with his prophetic words, in Familiaris Consortio, # 86: “The future of humanity passes by way of the family.” When we study the teaching of the Church on the family, we know that we have entered the most decisive area of human life. In the home, the issues facing humanity are worked out long before politicians and statesmen make their decisions. In the Catholic family, a “domestic church,” the future of the Church begins to unfold. Every form of pastoral care of the family, if it is to be authentic, must be based on doctrinal truths and fidelity to the will of the Lord, who is the Author of the plan for marriage and the family.
In this fourth volume of Précis of Official Catholic Teaching, the mind of the modern Popes and the Second Vatican Council on family life is placed “at the reader’s fingertips.” Here we find the essential themes such as the nature and value of the sacrament of marriage, the procreation and education of children and the evangelizing role of the “little church” in the Christian home.
Therefore, this is the right place to present the teaching of the Church on the transmission of human life and on sexual morality, so often contested and rejected in our times. Once we understand human sexuality as inseparable from marriage and procreation, it makes sense to present related moral questions in the context of the community of life and love.
I thank Mr. George P. Morse and Catholics Committed to Support the Pope for another invaluable volume of Church teaching. I am confident that all who take up this book will find not only a handy key to Catholic teaching, but also that they will be inspired to go back to the complete texts of the great documents, in particular Humanae Vitae and Familiaris Consortio. In this way, they can help the family to respond to the other challenge of Pope John Paul II in Familiaris Consortio, # 17: “Family, become what you are!”
Alfonso Cardinal Lopez Trujillo
President of the Pontifical Council for the Family