Bedrock of society

Since the beginning of time when man walked the earth, it was the desire of the man and the woman to perpetuate their specie. This inherent, natural desire is the key to survival not only of man but all living creatures.

The sexual act between man and woman reproduces the specie. There is no other way. Man and another man, or woman and another woman, whatever sexual act they engage in, can never perpetuate their kind. In the end their line becomes extinct.

The birth of a child and its continuity of its life is insured within the family unlike other species where the offspring is left to fend for itself.

During his visit to Ecuador, Pope Francis called the family as the “bedrock of society” that needs to “be supported and strengthened.” He also praised the family as “the nucleus of the society.” The Holy Father reiterates what the Church and all societies have been saying through the centuries.

Indeed without the family, the newborn child can die from the elements or hunger. It cannot grow to maturity or learn the means of survival. It is in the family that a child learns to speak and cope with the exigencies of life. It is from the group of families that society is born, it is the nucleus as the Pope said.

From the family spins the rest of society and as population grows so does society. Through the centuries the family multiplies until we do not know who are related to us in blood. A study was made with the advent of the DNA and scientists discovered that we are all related and descended from a common ancestor. They traced this to from 50 to 60 million years.

This finding authenticates the Biblical narrative that we are descended* from a couple. It could be this couple, called Adam and Eve multiplied through many generations which are unclear in the Bible in terms of time reckoning. What is important is that we, as humans, descended from the same ancestors.

The family is a natural environment for procreation and care of the offspring. Religion sanctified this with simple or elaborate ceremonies but what is important is that society recognizes the blessedness* this union and respects it. As humans evolve so did their respect for the natural state of this union and violators are punished because they put into jeopardy the continuity of the human species and of society itself. In ancient times deviants are removed lest they destroy the family and society.

Catholic belief is that God gives life and uses the man and the woman as instrument for giving birth to life. People are born through the natural process of the union of man and woman. That is what natural law dictates. We cannot alter that process. Sure, artificial or in vitro conception is possible but one cannot produce life in a disc out of nothing. Life is already imbedded in the sperm and the egg and man simply intervenes in their union.

Because of the religious nature of this union – man and woman as co-creator of another person – marriage was instituted. For Catholics marriage is elevated into the sphere of the sacrament because God is the vital part of this union. We cannot and should not exclude God.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church (1603) identifies the origin of marriage and defines what it is.

“The intimate community of life and love which constitutes the married state has been established by the Creator and endowed by him with its proper laws…God himself is the author of marriage. The vocation to marriage is written in the very nature of man and woman as they come from the hand of the Creator.

“Marriage is not purely human institution despite the many variations it may have undergone through the centuries in different cultures, social structures and spiritual attitudes. These differences should not cause us to forget its common and permanent characteristics. Although the dignity of this institution is not transparent everywhere with the same clarity, some sense of greatness of the matrimonial union exists in all cultures.

“The well-being of the individual person and of both human and Christian society is closely bound up with the healthy state of conjugal and family life.”

The decisions of human institutions, governments and their courts may exclude the Creator in their kind of marriage so that they decide contrary to the intent of the Creator and legalize an unnatural, aberrant union. *

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