The Family, the Vital Cell of Society

There are indications that HB 1434 , the Pennsylvania Marriage Protection Amendment, is scheduled for a vote TODAY in the House State Government committee. As per the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference,

• "Pennsylvania’s Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is facing a constitutional challenge in Federal Court in Philadelphia....A Marriage Protection Amendment to the Pennsylvania State Constitution may be the only way to preserve the definition of marriage as the union between one man and one woman."

This very moment has become absolutely vital for Pennsylvania's legislators - particularly those who identify themselves as Catholic - to recall the truth which their Church proclaims about marriage and family. Yet, these are certainly NOT truths which are only applicable to Catholics!

As per Chapter 5 of the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church,

• “The family, the natural community in which human social nature is experienced, makes a unique & irreplaceable contribution to the good of society....The family possesses inviolable rights & finds its legitimization in human nature & not in being recognized by the State....
  “Faced with theories that consider gender identity as merely the cultural and social product of the interaction between the community & the individual, independent of personal sexual identity without any reference to the true meaning of sexuality, the Church does not tire of repeating her teaching: 'Everyone, man and woman, should acknowledge and accept his sexual identity. Physical, moral and spiritual difference and complementarities are oriented towards the goods of marriage and the flourishing of family life. The harmony of the couple and of society depends in part on the way in which the complementarities, needs & mutual support between the sexes are lived out'…. responsibility for protecting and promoting the family as a fundamental natural institution, precisely in consideration of its vital and essential aspects, falls to the whole of society….
  “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....
  “Homosexual persons are to be fully respected in their human dignity & encouraged to follow God's plan with particular attention in the exercise of chastity. This duty calling for respect does not justify the legitimization of behaviour that is not consistent with moral law, even less does it justify the recognition of a right to marriage between persons of the same sex & its being considered equivalent to the family….
  “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. The answer to questions connected with population growth must instead by sought in simultaneous respect both of sexual morals and of social ethics"
  
  

The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church
Part One
Chapter 1, God's Plan of Love for Humanity
Chapter 2, The Church's Mission & Social Doctrine
Chapter 3, The Human Person and Human Rights
Chapter 4, Principles of the Church's Social Doctrine

Part Two
Chapter 5, The Family, the Vital Cell of Society
Chapter 6, Human Work
Chapter 7, Economic Life
Chapter 8, Political Community
Chapter 9, The International Community
Chapter 10, Safeguarding the Environment
Chapter 11, The Promotion of Peace

Part Three
Chapter 12, Social Doctrine & Ecclesial Action

Conclusion, For a Civilization of Love