Preserve Family Life

Guest Editorial by Michael Shackleton

In the past month, important statements have been made by the South African government and the Vatican. Although not directly connected witheach other, they both express concern about the way in which urbanisation, development and consumerism are undermining family and social values.

The South African cabinets Policy Coordination and Advisory Service sees our society as lacking cohesion. It points out that children are not adequately brought up within the strong bonds of the nuclear family household. The government intends to reverse this degenerative process, and asks church bodies to find ways to bolster healthy social relationships.

This immediately strikes a chord with the Catholic Church, whose stance on the importance of marriage and the family is firm and clear.

The Churchs view is that sex-life and fellowship, good in themselves, do not complete the purpose of marriage. This fellowship is structured towards the good of family and social life. The values learned by children within the family have an effect on the community and its value systems. When parents provide their sons and daughters with the material, moral and intellectual tools they need to enable them to make their own responsible decisions, they provide them with the means to enter society as mature and conscientious citizens.

Marriage always has a communal element. It is not merely the private sharing of bed and board, but the public declaration of the couples standing in the community. The steady and unwavering union of man and wife, which can blossom into a cohesive family life of love and caring, is the indispensable building block for every morally strong nation.

The Vaticans new statement in this context, by the Pontifical Council for the Family, is entitled Family and Human Procreation. It is insistent that the family is the only appropriate place for procreation. Without responsible parenthood and family bonds, social life struggles, not having the firmness of healthy roots.

The Vaticans uneasiness centres on the loss of the human and loving dimension of bringing children into the world. Far too many babies are born without two devoted parents. This may be because the need for such parents is no longer highly regarded in a society which can manufacture babies by artificially induced means, or because of such adverse circumstances as poverty and rape.

Common to the two assertions by state and Church is the awareness that traditional nuclear families are losing out to migration, unemployment, HIV/Aids and single-parenthood. The result is a society that lacks the overarching value systems of religion, social responsibility and solidarity within a community that needs the welfare of its families and their rights in order to survive in a healthy condition.

The Church, of course, will cooperate with the state in seeking ways and means to remedy this anti-social, disastrous mess affecting us all. There must be moral as well as material support for young people especially to live loyal and meaningful family lives.

How this is to be achieved on both sides will demand dedication and commitment to the task. Simply allowing things to develop without a strategic plan to turn things around, is not an option. We have a formidable problem to face. Church and state will have to negotiate together earnestly and at length to tackle it effectively.