Defend the Family

[bones_IV]

By Cardinal Edouard Gagnon

You who are gathered here today must defend the family in spite of the realities of modern social life. I encourage all of you to keep working according to the plans you are following, and to continue expanding your system of home schooling, for home schooling is a benefit not only to families but to society. You should proceed with a desire to share its benefits with others.
The reason for the existence of the home school is in the first plan that God had for the family; the family existed long before schools existed. We learn about God’s plan from Jesus Christ, Our Lord, in the name of God His Father, Who created us. As Pope Pius XI says in his encyclical * Casti Connubii [On Christian Marriage], * God gives parents the duty and the privilege to bring new persons into the world. Pope Pius XI says that parents must never forget their mission, for their vocation is not only to prepare their children to be happy in this world, but to be citizens in heaven.
So it is the family which has the first duty and the right to impart the Faith to their children, along with all the cultural and intellectual values which sustain the Faith and which are incomplete without the Faith.
For this reason, Pope John Paul’s letter to mothers and fathers is an act of faith in the family. The * Charter of the Rights of the Family * emphasizes the importance of the family, with important directives to help them. No family should be without this letter.
This is what the Holy Father says: “The parents are the first and principal educators of their children. In that field, they have a fundamental competence. They are educators because they are parents.” It is not something added to their situation. It is not a new trade, a new function that comes from outside, from society. It comes from the fact of bearing children. The Pope says they share a responsibility with others, such as the Church and others that help the family. But parents must insure that the help they receive is in conformity with their own convictions and desires. It is legitimate, of course, for parents to receive help in order to be able to accomplish their work. In one field, however, the Holy Father says the family cannot be substituted. That is in religious education. For the family grows up as the domestic church.
To accomplish this, the parents choose for their children the model of education, moral and religious, which is in conformity with their own convictions. Even when parents have recourse to other institutions, they have this duty to control everything being taught to their children. So the responsibility you have generously taken, to care directly for the education of your children, is in conformity with the plan of God the Creator, and with the profound desires of the Church. You have rightly assumed the education of your children in the home and, in collaboration with other families, you should be attentive not to present it as only a matter of not being satisfied with the schools. Your role (as educators) is not a subsidiary role.
While it is true that many things do not go well in the school systems, it is not for this reason that the institution of home schooling is justified. I was a theologian at Vatican II. After reflection, the Council concluded that lay people are called to be apostles, to share in the three functions of the Church: one, to teach the Faith; two, to pray; and three, to sanctify, and by this to bring the world to Christ.

 

[bones_IV]

I repeat to you the words of the first Pope, St. Peter: “through Baptism, we are all priests” in the wide sense of the word. We represent the world to God, and we represent God to the world. We cannot truly pray if we pray only for ourselves or for those close to us. As Christians, we have the means of sanctifying the world. This is done by prayer and by helping others get to the sacraments, preparing them for the sacraments so they may profit by them. This is the function of all laypersons.
But parents also have a sacrament of their own which gives them a more precise responsibility for the mission of the Church in the world. This is the Sacrament of Matrimony. Marriage gives parents the duty and the right to be apostles themselves. Home schooling is based on that principle. It is the fundamental duty and right of parents to be apostles in the true sense of the word, first toward their own children, and then also in society by the influence they can have on others.
Both the Second Vatican Council and Pope John Paul II, in his exhortation on the family, * Familiaris Consortio, * say that the family should be apostles. The family can do this first by witnessing, by showing others its Faith, by making the Faith known to others, by asking for respect for one’s convictions in one’s Faith and one’s religious practices. The family can do this by making the Faith attractive to others, showing them that in our Faith and in our religious practices, we find happiness.
We should all be especially aware when we receive a privilege, like the one you have in being able to be the teachers of your own children, and in having the help of the system of assistance that you have developed. When you have a responsibility like that, it creates the duty of doing it in a perfect way. As St. Paul said to the first Christians, not only must you be Christians, but you must do so in a way that impresses others. In the first century, looking at the disciples, the people said, “See how they love one another.” They were converted because of that. You are doing that. I see more smiles in this convention than in most places where I go. This is one of the characteristics which the home schoolers should preserve. Transmit the Faith with the confidence of transmitting other positive values, and transmitting the key to happiness, serenity, and peace.
The Holy Father in * Familiaris Consortio * goes on to say that in the end, we will be judged on our love. When the Last Judgment and when the Particular Judgment comes on every one of us, it is on love that we will be judged.
But precisely what is love? Love is a gift of self. This can be learned only in the family, or for those who are deprived of the family, in places which try to reproduce what is lived in the family. It is transmitted by the family because family means the parents who give oneself to the other, each at the service of the other, and together they give themselves to the child they welcome, the child they want to grow as a spiritual, private human being according to the plan of God. The family is the place where the civilization of love is to begin.
Love of others must begin with understanding between the different members of the family. It has to begin with teaching the children that in everything they do, there must be that dimension of thinking about the other, of looking for the good of the other before looking for their own personal advantage. Having your children at home, teaching them the different disciplines of instruction, and teaching them at the same time the devout cultural values that you have inherited, you are teaching them a sense of love.
Each child is different. You respect their differences. You expect the children to respect others and not dominate one over the other, not to become egotistic and selfish. It is from the family that love will come to the whole world. The reason why God did not create us as adults, why He made us to be born so weak, in such need of being helped and nourished, is because He wanted us to be born of the love of a man and woman.
That is how God wants to reveal to us His love, the intimacy of His love for us. This is why not only giving life but working together to give perfection to life, you are giving your children their education, working together without delegating your authority to others. This is an immense proof of love for each other, for the children, and for the Church. You possess the signs of the love of God for us.
Also, you are giving certainty about things. We know very well that during all these years of confusion, when the society is teaching that nothing is certain, actually society is being destroyed. You make Jesus Christ known to His children as the Word of His Father, the One Who tells us what is the Will of the Father over us. You give your children a sense of security in life. You teach the truth with confidence and certainty to the children you love.

 

[bones_IV]

So we must have confidence. The family has always had dire challengers. Times today are different, but if we study history, we see that there were other challenges in other times. What we have to look for are positive signs of change for the good, such as home schooling.
What is the future of the family? In a poll recently, people answered that the thing they trusted most is the family. What they care most for is for the love of their parents and for the direction of their parents. There is a need for what you do. And there is a need to make it known to others.
Let us ask Our Blessed Mother to help you continue giving that witness to the Church, and to find in that witness the happiness you deserve.

Speech given at a Catholic home school conference in Washington D.C.
Seton Home Study School, Front Royal, VA, August 2006

 

[Eden]

Thanks for posting this. I’ve just begun homeschooling my oldest child with the Seton Kindergarten program this month. It was thanks to other parents at catholic.com that I initially became aware of Seton. So, it’s great to see a new thread related to the topic.