The Social Role of the Family

The family and economic reality

The family can be seen in the light of economics. Pope John Paul II, for example, would talk of the family as standing on work. Work—labor—is what sustains the family. It is through work that the family is able to sustain itself (see Laborem Exercens 10).

The economic reality is basic; it is what allows the family to sustain itself. Only then can the family play a role in society through education and social links. The family is, yes, the place of love and all that stuff. But the poverty and misery wound family life. Misery prohibits the family to play it´s social role. The Church is interested in looking at the conditions of families, especially the poor families. Such families must be accorded just salary and access to private property.

Just salary

What is so important about a just salary? Well, it allows the worker to live decently and allows the family of the worker to live decently. With Pope Leo XIII this was underlined this in his Rerum Novarum. The Popes after him made their specific stands.

Pope Leo XIII denounced the exploitation of workers; the exploitation led to misery (see Rerum novarum 17). Workers were forced to accept working with very low salaries.  Workers were "simply surviving".

Later Pope Pius XI developed an idea of “just salary”. Three important factors had to be considered: the living condition of the workers and their families, the situation of the business, and common good (see Quadragesimo anno 76-82 and Divini redemptoris 52).

Later Pope John XXIII emphasized justice for workers. Workers, he said, must have just salary to lead a decent life—the life based on dignity—and to allow their families to live decently (see Mater et magistra 71). The Popes after also mentioned this.

Pope Benedict XVI gave a strong word regarding this. Work, he says, must give power to workers to live decently, let their families live decently and be able to send their children to education. This education must be available so that the children themselves will not have to work, not at their tender ages.  Workers must be in work conditions that allow them to be in touch with their human roots—on the level of family and faith (see Catitas in veritate 63).

Note then the link between the economic reality and the family. Note also the importance given to just alary. But then the Church would emphasize also the right to private property. Families must own property. We have discussed this notion of private property before, it is not new to the class.

Private Property

A parent must feed the children. The parent must look ahead into the future of the children. Later, when the children will have grown, they will be equipped with the capacity to defend themselves against the harshness of life. Later, children must be equipped to face unexpected cases of bad fortune. How can the parent make this possible? This is made possible through private property (see Rerum novarum 10).

Later Pope Pius XI will make a stand on this too. Through private property the children will be able to face uncertainties, against “surprises” that will throw them away. When a parent dies, it would be important to leave behind property that will secure the children (see Quadragesimo anno 68).

It would be wonderful to have systems like the security social. These systems help in allowing families to access private properties. Vatican II itself would emphasize private property. Private property allows for personal and family autonomy. Through private properties families can exercise social responsibilities. Families feel more free (see Gaudium et spes 71). Let us not forget the stand of the Church regarding private property. It is not an absolute. It has a social feature grounded on the principle of universal destination of goods (Ibid.).

Notice how less sentimental this approach to family is through economic reality. In many instances family problems can be more than about finances and economics. There are issues that touch on parenting and marriage dissolution, for example. These have created new forms of poverty.

The Family has a social role

Vatican II mentioned the family a source of social life (see Gaudium et spes 52). We learn to live with others through family life. The human person becomes human within relationships. In philosophy we say that we are “being-with-others”. The family plays the primordial role. When the family I wounded human life becomes wounded.

We tend to think of the family life as a kind of “stage” to living a free and blooming life. The family is to help us “move on”, so to speak. There is a kind of “individualistic” view here—as if the family’s role is simply to let a child be ready to assume a job and raise a family later. But consider the very social role of the family—how the family participates socially and not just to help an individual child.

Socially the family assures education in justice (see Justicia in mundo 57). Ok, fine, the individual child begins in the family—but this too is social. The child—and all children in families—learn about work in the family (see Laborem exercens 10). Our ideas of truth and goodness are formed in the family. We learn about love—how to love and how to be loved in the family. The notion of solidarity is learned in the family—first with the solidarity of husband with wife and later with children  (see Centeimus annus 39-40). 

In the family we develop “hidden talents”. We learn a lot of things in the family and we carry that with us as we grow up. Through those talents we feel capable to build relationships and give the best of ourselves in social responsibilities. If we look closely at what we do in the larger regions of society we really see what the family has contributed.