Call to Family, Community & Participation

Along with

•The Right to Life & the Dignity of the Human Person
•Rights & Responsibilities
•Option for the Poor & Vulnerable
•Dignity of Work & the Rights of Workers
•Solidarity
•Caring for God's Creation

the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops explains that Call to Family, Community & Participation is one of the seven key themes of Catholic Social Teaching:

“The family, based on marriage between a man and a woman, is the fundamental unit of society. This sanctuary for the creation and nurturing of children must not be redefined, undermined, or neglected. Supporting families should be a priority for economic and social policies. How our society is organized—in economics and politics, in law and public policy—affects the well-being of individuals and of society. Every person and association has a right and a duty to participate in shaping society to promote the well-being of individuals and the common good.”

As per Chapter 5 of the Vatican's Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church,

“The family possesses inviolable rights & finds its legitimization in human nature and not in being recognized by the State....Marriage is not a simple agreement to live together but a relationship with a social dimension that is unique with regard to all other relationships, since the family…is the principal instrument for making each person grow in an integral manner and integrating him positively into social life....[The] duty calling for respect does not justify the legitimization of behaviour that is not consistent with moral law....All programmes of economic assistance aimed at financing campaigns of sterilization and contraception, as well as the subordination of economic assistance to such campaigns, are to be morally condemned as affronts to the dignity of the person and the family."

And in Harrisburg....

Please see the below forwarded email from the Pennsylvania Family Institute on tomorrow's National Pray for Marriage Day....