A C L OS E R L OOK
THE DOMESTIC CHURCH & CATHOLIC SOCIAL DOCTRINE The Gospel of St. Matthew ends with the charge of Jesus to “make disciples of all nations, . . . teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Mt. 28:19-20). And in the very last words of Christ before His ascension, He tells His disciples, “you will be my witnesses . . . to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). Together, these last words of Jesus tell us both what we are to do, and how we are to do it. Sometimes called the “great commission,” the charge in Matthew is the foundation of the Church’s mandate to “evangelize”—to spread the “good message”—of the Gospel. The words from Acts tell us the primary way we accomplish that is not by argument, but rather by being faithful witnesses of this good news. The family has a necessary role in this mandate. Indeed, from a chronological perspective, the family is the “first Church – the primary place we are evangelized and the most important public witness of the good news. In this context, the family is the primary model of what has become known as Catholic Social Doctrine – the four-fold body of teaching that demonstrates how the Gospel works in the world. DIGNITY OF HUMAN LIFE
The foundation of social doctrine is the dignity of the human person. Sometimes this is articulated as respecting human life “from conception to natural death.” While this is correct, this formulation may not capture the full depth of the meaning of human dignity. For example, being a witness to the dignity of human life begins before conception. It is not just about preserving and protecting life that has been conceived, but rather being 3 0 | T H E C A THOLIC TELE GR A PH
open to the possibility of new life. Even our evangelical Christian brothers and sisters who are opposed to killing the unborn and aged, have no problem with preventing them from being conceived in the first place. It is difficult to be a consistent witness to the goodness of lives that are if we are not welcoming of the lives that may be. As Pope St. John Paul put it in the encyclical, Evangelium Vitae, “contraception and abortion are . . . fruits of the same tree.” Closing ourselves to the possibility of new life sends a message that a life’s dignity is dependent on our decision to bestow it. This is a false witness. We Catholics must be witnesses that the dignity of life comes from God, not from our personal whims. SUBSIDIARITY
The doctrine of subsidiarity teaches us that social goals and challenges must be addressed at the most local and immediate level possible. As Pope Pius XI famously said in his 1931 encyclical, Quadragesimo Anno, it is both “gravely wrong to take from individuals what they can accomplish by their own initiative,” and “a grave evil . . . of right order to assign to a greater and higher association what lesser and subordinate organizations can do.” In this context, the family is not only the first Church for most of us, it is the first unity of society. As such, the family is the primary locus of the care, nurture, and education of the human person. The family is the place where we learn individual moral responsibility, and familial support and nurture. While it is certainly true that many social goods can only be accomplished through larger units of society, this deference must only occur in those instances where they cannot be accomplished by the family.
