"PRECIOUS GOOD"

Today, if they are to give a truly human face to society, no people can ignore the precious good of the family, founded on marriage.

"NO OTHER ALTERNATIVES"

The Church cannot cease to proclaim that in accordance with God's plans (cf. Mt 19:3-9), marriage and the family are irreplaceable and permit no other alternatives.

"A VERY NOBLE MISSION"

Today more than ever, the Christian family has a very noble mission that it cannot shirk: the transmission of the faith, which involves the gift of self to Jesus Christ Who died and rose, and insertion into the Ecclesial Community.

"A CRUCIAL RESOURCE"

Christian families constitute a crucial resource for education in the faith, for the edification of the Church as communion and for her ability to be a missionary presence in the most varied situations of life, as well as to act as a Christian leaven in the widespread culture and social structures.

"THE FIRST EVANGELIZERS"

Parents are the first evangelizers of children, a precious gift from the Creator ..., and begin by teaching them their first prayers. In this way a moral universe is built up, rooted in the will of God, where the child grows in the human and Christian values that give life its full meaning.

"VERY IMPORTANT"

The witness and public commitment of Christian families is very important, especially in order to reassert the inviolability of human life from conception until its natural end, the unique and irreplaceable value of the family founded on marriage and the need for legislative and administrative measures that support families in the task of bringing children into the world and raising them, an essential duty for our common future.

THE FAMILY AND THE CHURCH

The family and the Church ... are called to collaborate more closely in the fundamental task that consists, inseparably, in the formation of the person and the transmission of the faith.

(Sources: Letter for Fifth World Meeting of Families, dated 5/17/05, and inaugural address at Ecclesial Diocesan Convention of Rome, 6/6/05)