The Family: Seedbed for National Renewal

The following is an excerpt from Patrick Kelly’s speech "The Family: Seedbed for National Renewal" presented at The World Congress of Families IV Warsaw, Poland, May 2007:

“The central crisis confronting the family in the West is a crisis of anthropology - a crisis of the proper understanding of the nature of the human person. The problem consists of a faulty anthropology that detaches human freedom from the truth, and values the person in strictly individualistic and materialistic terms. This was the great error of Communism, and it now presents an enormous challenge to the consumer cultures of the West.

These ideologies - classical socialism and classical liberalism - have left us with a cultural legacy that undermines the family even in our present day. In the past four decades we have seen many western democracies change their laws to accommodate divorce, abortion, euthanasia and same-sex unions. In most cases, this was done under the pretext of promoting a particular notion of freedom and liberation.

The root crisis confronting the family in the West is a crisis of anthropology - a crisis of the proper understanding of the nature of the human person. It is necessary to recapture the sense of the family situated within the context of a Christian anthropology -- which can be said to be the unique cultural patrimony of the West. When I say ‘Christian anthropology,’ I am referring to the Christian vision of the origin, nature and destiny of the human person. The human person is the Imago Dei - is made in the image of God. God creates man and woman in a mutual complementarity. He places them at the center of the created order. Thus, every social question is considered from the starting point of the person.

An inadequate anthropology - that is, an improper understanding of the destiny of the person -- leads to a misguided notion of freedom which exalts the isolated individual in an absolute way. It also rejects the natural complementarity of man and woman. The consequence - as we have seen - is the establishment of systems that benefit the strong at the expense of the weak. These systems destroy the family by attacking the sense of solidarity and openness to others that is the very essence of family life.

For the family to become the seedbed for national renewal, we must recover the essential link between freedom and the truth. The family is uniquely situated to promote human dignity in the debates on national renewal. The family stands as the mediating institution that protects the vulnerable person from the power of the state. A society built around the family is the best guarantee against the state 'drifting off course into an individualism or collectivism' that would violate human dignity. This is because within the family the person is always the center of attention as an ends and never as a means. The family, more than any other institution, understands that the person is never a ‘thing’ or an ‘object’ to be used, but [is] - a person endowed with conscience and freedom.

For its part, the State must come to recognize that its own wellbeing is bound up in creating conditions for healthy family life. Without strong families, local communities grow weak. It is within healthy families that moral values are taught and that the spiritual and cultural heritage of the nation is transmitted. The State must also come to recognize that the family does not exist for the State, but that the State exists for the family. John Paul II insisted that the State recognize that 'the family is a society in its own original right.' The family must take priority as the first human society that precedes all others. The State, therefore, has a serious obligation to adhere to the principle of subsidiarity. That is to say, public authorities should never take away from the family the functions which the family can best accomplish by itself. At the same time, public authorities have an obligation to positively favor the family and to ensure it has the assistance it needs to fulfill its unique responsibilities.

To read the entire speech, visit http://www.worldcongress.org/wcf4.spkrs/wcf4.kelly.htm