Pastoral Statement on the Celebration of National Family Week
“FAMILY BE STRONG WITH THE STRENGTH OF GOD! ”
- John Paul II, Letter to Families
BELOVED PEOPLE OF GOD:
As the Church joins the nation in the celebration of National Family Week, we call on all families to a deeper reflection on the identity and mission of the Filipino family as the basic cell of the Church and Society and the point of reference for the social, political, economic and religion-based ideal relationships of the Filipino people and the Philippines as a nation.
The family does not owe its foundation to any organization, but directly to the will of God. It is a natural institution, antecedent to any political or juridical organization. The authentic development of the human person reveals in each of us the image of a child of God. No living being on earth except man was created "in the image and likeness of God" (Gen 1:26).
Human fatherhood and motherhood, though biologically similar to that of other living beings in nature, contain in an essential and unique way a "likeness" to God which is the basis of the family as a community of persons united in love. ( Letter to Families, John Paul II, February 22, 1994, n.6). The marriage covenant established between a man and a woman is a symbol of God’s love for His people and Christ for His Church(Eph 5:25-26). Because the transmission of divine life presumes the transmission of human life, marriage not only brings about the birth of human children, but also, through the power of Baptism, the birth of adopted children of God, who live the life received from Christ through his Spirit. (Letter to Families, n.18)
The family is the true origin of human and Christian development, and the renewal of society. To the family is entrusted the task of unleashing the forces of good, the source of which is found in Christ alone. Every family needs to make these forces their own so that Philippine culture may be “evangelized in depth, true values acknowledged, the rights of men and women defended, and justice promoted in the very structures of society”. (Apostolic Exhortation, Familiaris Consortio , The Role of the Christian Family in the Modern World, November 22, 1981, n. 8). To use a phrase spoken on the occasion of the Millennium of Christianity in Poland, the family must be "strong with the strength of God”. (Cardinal STEFAN WYSZYNSKI, Rodzina Bogiem silna, Homily delivered at Jasna Gora, August 26, 1961).
It is in the family where living stones are formed for that spiritual house spoken of by the Apostle Peter (1 Pet 2:5). The bodies of the husband and wife are the dwelling-place of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 6:19).
The family is placed at the centre of the great struggle between good and evil, between life and death, between love and all that is opposed to love. Christian parents must build a moral universe rooted in the will of God, where the child grows in the human and Christian values that give life its full meaning. And so the Second Vatican Council teaches that "Christian married couples and parents, following their own way, should support one another in grace all through life with faithful love, and should train their children, lovingly received from God, in Christian doctrine and evangelical virtues. (SECOND VATICAN ECUMENICAL COUNCIL, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium , n.41).
The family however, as an institution is the object of numerous forces that seek to destroy it or in some way to deform it (FC, n.3) and is experiencing a radical and widespread crisis (Novo Millennio Ineunte, January 6, 2001, no. 47).
To protect the family “every governing authority, whether national, regional or local, owes it to itself to have a family policy which enables families freely to assume their responsibilities in contemporary society” (Ethical and Pastoral Dimensions of Population Control, May 13, 1994, n. 82) . Family policy would include programs for livelihood assistance, providing access to housing and education and other programs to assist the family.
Family policy should protect and preserve a nation’s sovereignty in the struggle against "contraceptive imperialism" which the delegation of the Holy See denounced in 1974 during the International Conference on Population held in Bucharest. This "contraceptive imperialism," violates religious and cultural traditions of family life and harms families and nations. (Ethical and Pastoral Dimensions of Population Control, May 13, 1994, n. 82) .
Furthermore in their implementation, population control programs utilize government money, laws, incentives and force to pressure people to have fewer children using population growth as a reason to coerce changes in people's intimate beliefs and childbearing practices.
Based on moral principles the Church strongly opposes the “Reproductive Rights/Sexual Rights” Agenda (inclusive of abortion) in Congress and its integration in school textbooks .
St. Augustine says that “laws which threaten the family and the sacred gift of life create the most serious distortions in the social fabric that weakened societies.” (De Civ. Dei 4.:4)
The Filipino family is blessed in that so far it has preserved its religious practices that allow the light of faith to continue to shine on family life. But the faith of young people is endangered by the massive spread of sexual rights / reproductive rights propaganda in the legislature, by local government and in particular, in school textbooks.
The Church is firmly opposed to an often widespread form of imparting sex information dissociated from moral principles. (FC, 37). The Pontifical Council on the Family, under the guidance of the late Pope John Paul II, has provided a practical guide for parents and educators entitled “ The Truth and Meaning of Human Sexuality ”which summarizes and defines the obligations of Catholics and Catholic parents.
Families should be the first to take steps to see that the laws and institutions of the State not only do not offend but support and positively defend the rights and duties of the family (FC, 44). There are four bills that pose serious threats to our families due to their emphasis on population control disguised as “reproductive health”. These bills are: House Bill 3773, where the government would make the two-child family the ideal size and thereby discriminate against larger families; House Bill 5285, where the aspects of so-called “reproductive health,” or birth control, are added to the civil and political rights of women; House Bill 634, where same-sex unions could be allowed; and House Bill 5012, where companies would be required to provide free annual seminars on “reproductive health” to indoctrinate our people.
We need to act with vigilance against these Bills and support those proposals pending in Congress that are pro-family and pro-life which promote the authentic good of the family. Among them are: House Bill 5028 of Congressman Hermilando Mandanas, which will grant our public and private health workers their conscience rights, so that they can protest against any birth control program imposed on them; House Bill 4643 of Congressman Rene Velarde, which will make illegal the use of abortifacient drugs and devices; House Bill 1245 of Congressman Rozzano Rufino Biazon, limiting marriage to natural-born men and women; House Bill 216 of Congressman Rozzano Rufino Biazon, offering free marriage counseling for engaged couples; and House Bill 5327 of Congressman Eduardo Zialcita, offering pregnancy care centers supported by the government.
T he family is fundamental to what Pope Paul VI called the "civilization of love" ( Letter to Families, n.13). In discovering the family as the "sanctuary of life" (John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae, On the Value and Inviolability of Human Life, March 25, 1995, n. 92) men and women can be freed from the "culture of death."
Together with efforts aimed at establishing family policies, the inherent value of each child as a human being must be proclaimed. In the face of population trends, everyone is invited to put to good use the talents given by the Creator to realize personal development and to contribute in an original way to the development of the community. In the final analysis, God created man to make him a partner in his Divine Plan of Life and Love.
Fraternally in the Lord, our Life and Truth,
Most Rev. Paciano B. Aniceto, D.D.
Chairman, CBCP Episcopal Commission on Family and Life
September 25, 2006
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