Divorce is immoral also because it introduces disorder into the Family and into society. This disorder brings grave harm to the deserted spouse, to children traumatized by the separation of their Parents and often torn between them, and because of its contagious effect which makes it truly a plague on society.

Parents' Respect and affection are expressed by the care and attention they devote to bringing up their young children and providing for their physical and spiritual needs. As the children grow up, the same respect and devotion lead parents to educate them in the right use of their reason and freedom.

Children in turn contribute to the growth in holiness of their Parents. 36 Each and everyone should be generous and tireless in forgiving one another for offenses, quarrels, injustices, and neglect. Mutual affection suggests this. the charity of Christ demands it. 37

Education in the Faith by the Parents should begin in the child's earliest years. This already happens when Family members help one another to grow in faith by the witness of a Christian life in keeping with the Gospel. Family catechesis precedes, accompanies, and enriches other forms of instruction in the faith. Parents have the mission of teaching their children to pray and to discover their vocation as children of God. 35 The parish is the Eucharistic community and the heart of the liturgical life of Christian families; it is a privileged place for the catechesis of children and parents.

Through the Grace of the sacrament of marriage, Parents receive the responsibility and privilege of evangelizing their children. Parents should initiate their children at an early age into the mysteries of the Faith of which they are the "first heralds" for their children. They should associate them from their tenderest years with the life of the Church. 34 A wholesome Family life can foster interior dispositions that are a genuine preparation for a living faith and remain a support for it throughout one's life.

The home is the natural environment for initiating a human being into solidarity and communal responsibilities. Parents should teach children to avoid the compromising and degrading influences which threaten human societies.

Parents have the first responsibility for the Education of their children. They bear witness to this responsibility first by creating a home where tenderness, forgiveness, Respect, fidelity, and disinterested service are the rule. the home is well suited for education in the virtues. This requires an apprenticeship in self-denial, sound judgment, and self-mastery - the preconditions of all true freedom. Parents should teach their children to subordinate the "material and instinctual dimensions to interior and spiritual ones." 31 Parents have a grave responsibility to give good example to their children. By knowing how to acknowledge their own failings to their children, parents will be better able to guide and correct them:

Parents must regard their children as children of God and Respect them as human persons. Showing themselves obedient to the will of the Father in heaven, they educate their children to fulfill God's law.

The fecundity of conjugal love cannot be reduced solely to the procreation of children, but must extend to their moral Education and their spiritual formation. "The role of Parents in education is of such importance that it is almost impossible to provide an adequate substitute." 29 The right and the duty of parents to educate their children are primordial and inalienable. 30

For Christians a special gratitude is due to those from whom they have received the gift of Faith, the Grace of Baptism, and life in the Church. These may include Parents, grandparents, other members of the Family, pastors, catechists, and other teachers or friends. "I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you." 28

Filial Respect promotes harmony in all of Family life; it also concerns relationships between brothers and sisters. Respect toward Parents fills the home with light and warmth. "Grandchildren are the crown of the aged." 26 "With all humility and meekness, with patience, [support] one another in charity." 27

The fourth commandment reminds grown children of their responsibilities toward their Parents. As much as they can, they must give them material and moral support in old age and in times of illness, loneliness, or distress. Jesus recalls this duty of gratitude. 23

As long as a child lives at home with his Parents, the child should obey his parents in all that they ask of him when it is for his good or that of the Family. "Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord." 22 Children should also obey the reasonable directions of their teachers and all to whom their parents have entrusted them. But if a child is convinced in conscience that it would be morally wrong to obey a particular order, he must not do so. As they grow up, children should continue to Respect their parents. They should anticipate their wishes, willingly seek their advice, and accept their just admonitions. Obedience toward parents ceases with the emancipation of the children; not so respect, which is always owed to them. This respect has its roots in the fear of God, one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

As those first responsible for the Education of their children, Parents have the right to choose a school for them which corresponds to their own convictions. This right is fundamental. As far as possible parents have the duty of choosing schools that will best help them in their task as Christian educators. 38 Public authorities have the duty of guaranteeing this parental right and of ensuring the concrete conditions for its exercise.

When they become adults, children have the right and duty to choose their profession and state of life. They should assume their new responsibilities within a trusting relationship with their Parents, willingly asking and receiving their advice and counsel. Parents should be careful not to exert pressure on their children either in the choice of a profession or in that of a spouse. This necessary restraint does not prevent them - quite the contrary from giving their children judicious advice, particularly when they are planning to start a Family.

Some forgo marriage in order to care for their Parents or brothers and sisters, to give themselves more completely to a profession, or to serve other honorable ends. They can contribute greatly to the good of the human Family.

Adultery is an injustice. He who commits adultery fails in his commitment. He does injury to the sign of the covenant which the marriage bond is, transgresses the rights of the other spouse, and undermines the institution of marriage by breaking the contract on which it is based. He compromises the good of human generation and the welfare of children who need their Parents' stable union.

A child is not something owed to one, but is a gift. the "supreme gift of marriage" is a human person. A child may not be considered a piece of property, an idea to which an alleged "right to a child" would lead. In this area, only the child possesses genuine rights: the right "to be the fruit of the specific act of the conjugal love of his Parents," and "the right to be Respected as a person from the moment of his conception." 169

Techniques involving only the married couple (homologous artificial insemination and fertilization) are perhaps less reprehensible, yet remain morally unacceptable. They dissociate the sexual act from the procreative act. the act which brings the child into existence is no longer an act by which two persons give themselves to one another, but one that "entrusts the life and identity of the embryo into the power of doctors and biologists and establishes the domination of technology over the origin and destiny of the human person. Such a relationship of domination is in itself contrary to the dignity and equality that must be common to Parents and children." 167 "Under the moral aspect procreation is deprived of its proper perfection when it is not willed as the fruit of the conjugal act, that is to say, of the specific act of the spouses' union .... Only Respect for the link between the meanings of the conjugal act and respect for the unity of the human being make possible procreation in conformity with the dignity of the person." 168

Sacred Scripture and the Church's traditional practice see in large families a sign of God's blessing and the Parents' generosity. 162

Rape is the forcible violation of the sexual intimacy of another person. It does injury to justice and charity. Rape deeply wounds the Respect, freedom, and physical and moral integrity to which every person has a right. It causes grave damage that can mark the victim for life. It is always an intrinsically evil act. Graver still is the rape of children committed by Parents (incest) or those responsible for the Education of the children entrusted to them.

Formal cooperation in an abortion constitutes a grave offense. The Church attaches the canonical penalty of excommunication to this crime against human life. "A person who procures a completed abortion incurs excommunication latae sententiae," 76 "by the very commission of the offense," 77 and subject to the conditions provided by Canon Law. 78 The Church does not thereby intend to restrict the scope of mercy. Rather, she makes clear the gravity of the crime committed, the irreparable harm done to the innocent who is put to death, as well as to the Parents and the whole of society.

Becoming a disciple of Jesus means accepting the invitation to belong to God's Family, to live in conformity with His way of life: "For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother, and sister, and mother." 40 Parents should welcome and Respect with joy and thanksgiving the Lord's call to one of their children to follow him in virginity for the sake of the Kingdom in the consecrated life or in priestly ministry.

Family ties are important but not absolute. Just as the child grows to maturity and human and spiritual autonomy, so his unique vocation which comes from God asserts itself more clearly and forcefully. Parents should Respect this call and encourage their children to follow it. They must be convinced that the first vocation of the Christian is to follow Jesus: "He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me." 39

Respect for Parents (filial piety) derives from gratitude toward those who, by the gift of life, their love and their work, have brought their children into the world and enabled them to grow in stature, wisdom, and Grace. "With all your heart honor your father, and do not forget the birth pangs of your mother. Remember that through your parents you were born; what can you give back to them that equals their gift to you?" 19

The divine fatherhood is the source of human fatherhood; 16 this is the foundation of the honor owed to Parents. the Respect of children, whether minors or adults, for their father and mother 17 is nourished by the natural affection born of the bond uniting them. It is required by God's commandment. 18

During the greater part of his life Jesus shared the condition of the vast majority of human beings: a daily life spent without evident greatness, a life of manual labour. His religious life was that of a Jew obedient to the law of God, 221 a life in the community. From this whole period it is revealed to us that Jesus was "obedient" to his Parents and that he "increased in wisdom and in stature, and in favour with God and man." 222

The doctrine of original sin, closely connected with that of redemption by Christ, provides lucid discernment of man's situation and activity in the world. By our first Parents' sin, the devil has acquired a certain domination over man, even though man remains free. Original sin entails "captivity under the power of him who thenceforth had the power of death, that is, the devil". 298 Ignorance of the fact that man has a wounded nature inclined to evil gives rise to serious errors in the areas of Education, politics, social action 299 and morals.

Scripture speaks of a sin of these angels. 269 This "fall" consists in the free choice of these created spirits, who radically and irrevocably rejected God and his reign. We find a reflection of that rebellion in the tempter's words to our first Parents: "You will be like God." 270 The devil "has sinned from the beginning"; he is "a liar and the father of lies". 271

Behind the disobedient choice of our first Parents lurks a seductive voice, opposed to God, which makes them fall into death out of envy. 266 Scripture and the Church's Tradition see in this being a fallen angel, called "Satan" or the "devil". 267 The Church teaches that Satan was at first a good angel, made by God: "The devil and the other demons were indeed created naturally good by God, but they became evil by their own doing." 268

The account of the fall in Genesis 3 uses figurative language, but affirms a primeval event, a deed that took place at the beginning of the history of man. 264 Revelation gives us the certainty of Faith that the whole of human history is marked by the original fault freely committed by our first Parents. 265

This entire harmony of original justice, foreseen for man in God's plan, will be lost by the sin of our first Parents.

The Church, interpreting the symbolism of biblical language in an authentic way, in the light of the New Testament and Tradition, teaches that our first Parents, Adam and Eve, were constituted in an original "state of holiness and justice". 250 This Grace of original holiness was "to share in. . .divine life". 251

Man and woman were made "for each other" - not that God left them half-made and incomplete: he created them to be a communion of persons, in which each can be "helpmate" to the other, for they are equal as persons ("bone of my bones. . .") and complementary as masculine and feminine. In marriage God unites them in such a way that, by forming "one flesh", 245 they can transmit human life: "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth." 246 By transmitting human life to their descendants, man and woman as spouses and Parents co-operate in a unique way in the Creator's work. 247

The Church teaches that every spiritual soul is created immediately by God - it is not "produced" by the Parents - and also that it is immortal: it does not perish when it separates from the body at death, and it will be reunited with the body at the final Resurrection. 235

By calling God "Father", the language of Faith indicates two main things: that God is the first origin of everything and transcendent authority; and that he is at the same time goodness and loving care for all his children. God's parental tenderness can also be expressed by the image of motherhood, 62 which emphasizes God's immanence, the intimacy between Creator and creature. the language of faith thus draws on the human experience of Parents, who are in a way the first representatives of God for man. But this experience also tells us that human parents are fallible and can disfigure the face of fatherhood and motherhood. We ought therefore to recall that God transcends the human distinction between the sexes. He is neither man nor woman: he is God. He also transcends human fatherhood and motherhood, although he is their origin and standard: 63 no one is father as God is Father.

This revelation was not broken off by our first Parents' sin. "After the fall, (God) buoyed them up with the hope of salvation, by promising redemption; and he has never ceased to show his solicitude for the human race. For he wishes to give eternal life to all those who seek salvation by patience in well-doing." 7

Like the prophets before him Jesus expressed the deepest Respect for the Temple in Jerusalem. It was in the Temple that Joseph and Mary presented him forty days after his birth. 349 At the age of twelve he decided to remain in the Temple to remind his Parents that he must be about his Father's business. 350 He went there each year during his hidden life at least for Passover. 351 His public ministry itself was patterned by his pilgrimages to Jerusalem for the great Jewish feasts. 352

In a very special way, Parents share in the office of sanctifying "by leading a conjugal life in the Christian spirit and by seeing to the Christian Education of their children." 435

Born with a fallen human nature and tainted by original sin, children also have need of the new birth in Baptism to be freed from the power of darkness and brought into the realm of the freedom of the children of God, to which all men are called. 50 The sheer gratuitousness of the Grace of salvation is particularly manifest in infant Baptism. the Church and the Parents would deny a child the priceless grace of becoming a child of God were they not to confer Baptism shortly after birth. 51

The fourth commandment illuminates other relationships in society. In our brothers and sisters we see the children of our Parents; in our cousins, the descendants of our ancestors; in our fellow citizens, the children of our country; in the baptized, the children of our mother the Church; in every human person, a son or daughter of the One who wants to be called "our Father." In this way our relationships with our neighbors are recognized as personal in character. the neighbor is not a "unit" in the human collective; he is "someone" who by his known origins deserves particular attention and Respect.

The relationships within the Family bring an affinity of feelings, affections and interests, arising above all from the members' Respect for one another. the family is a privileged community called to achieve a "sharing of thought and common deliberation by the spouses as well as their eager cooperation as Parents in the children's upbringing." 11

The fourth commandment is addressed expressly to children in their relationship to their father and mother, because this relationship is the most universal. It likewise concerns the ties of kinship between members of the extended Family. It requires honor, affection, and gratitude toward elders and ancestors. Finally, it extends to the duties of pupils to teachers, employees to employers, subordinates to leaders, citizens to their country, and to those who administer or govern it. This commandment includes and presupposes the duties of Parents, instructors, teachers, leaders, magistrates, those who govern, all who exercise authority over others or over a community of persons.

The fourth commandment opens the second table of the Decalogue. It shows us the order of charity. God has willed that, after him, we should honor our Parents to whom we owe life and who have handed on to us the knowledge of God. We are obliged to honor and Respect all those whom God, for our good, has vested with his authority.

The sacrament of Baptism is conferred "in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." 85 In Baptism, the Lord's name sanctifies man, and the Christian receives his name in the Church. This can be the name of a saint, that is, of a disciple who has lived a life of exemplary fidelity to the Lord. the patron saint provides a model of charity; we are assured of his intercession. the "baptismal name" can also express a Christian mystery or Christian virtue. "Parents, sponsors, and the pastor are to see that a name is not given which is foreign to Christian sentiment." 86

Grave matter is specified by the Ten Commandments, corresponding to the answer of Jesus to the rich young man: "Do not kill, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and your mother." 132 The gravity of sins is more or less great: murder is graver than theft. One must also take into account who is wronged: violence against Parents is in itself graver than violence against a stranger.

In our own time, in a world often alien and even hostile to Faith, believing families are of primary importance as centers of living, radiant faith. For this reason the Second Vatican Council, using an ancient expression, calls the Family the Ecclesia domestica. 166 It is in the bosom of the family that Parents are "by word and example . . . the first heralds of the faith with regard to their children. They should encourage them in the vocation which is proper to each child, fostering with special care any religious vocation." 167

The fruitfulness of conjugal love extends to the fruits of the moral, spiritual, and supernatural life that Parents hand on to their children by Education. Parents are the principal and first educators of their children. 162 In this sense the fundamental task of marriage and Family is to be at the service of life. 163

Candidates for Confirmation, as for Baptism, fittingly seek the spiritual help of a sponsor. To emphasize the unity of the two sacraments, it is appropriate that this be one of the baptismal GodParents. 127

For the Grace of Baptism to unfold, the Parents' help is important. So too is the role of the Godfather and godmother, who must be firm believers, able and ready to help the newly baptized - child or adult on the road of Christian life. 55 Their task is a truly ecclesial function (officium). 56 The whole ecclesial community bears some responsibility for the development and safeguarding of the grace given at Baptism.

Christian Parents will recognize that this practice also accords with their role as nurturers of the life that God has entrusted to them. 52

"God, who creates and conserves all things by his Word, provides men with constant evidence of himself in created realities. and furthermore, wishing to open up the way to heavenly salvation - he manifested himself to our first Parents from the very beginning." 6 He invited them to intimate communion with himself and clothed them with resplendent Grace and justice.