Ministry
of Family Life
(In
collaboration with the other five Ministry Areas: Church Life, Faith Formation,
Finance
and Administration, Liturgy, and Social Action)
“The
future of the World and of the Church passes by way of the family”
Homily
by John Paul II, November 30, 1986
“Church
leaders need to be more aware of how the Church ~y
policies, programs, ministries, and services
can
either help or hinder families
in
fulfilling their own responsibilities”
A
Family Perspective in Church & Society
Families work to build a community
based on love, compassion, respect, forgiveness, and service to others. In
family, we learn how to give and to receive love. Families share in the life
and mission of the Church when the Gospel vision and values are communicated
and applied in daily life, when faith is celebrated through rituals in the home
or through participation in the sacramental life of the Church, when we gather
as a parish family to pray, and when people reach out in loving service to
others.
The United States Bishop’s document,
A Family Perspective in Church and
Society, describes family life as
“the basic community of believers, bound in love to one another, the family is the arena in which the drama of redemption is
played out. The dying and rising with Christ is most clearly manifested. Here,
the cycle of sin, hurt, reconciliation, and healing is lived out over and over
again. In family life is found the church of the home: where each day ‘two or
three are gathered’ in the Lord’s name; where the hungry are fed, where the
thirsty are given drink; where the sick are comforted. It is in the family that
the Lord’s injunction to forgive, ‘seventy times seven’ is lived out in the
daily reconciliation of husband, wife, parent, child, grandparent, brothers,
sisters, extended kin.”
The family plays a very important
role in the life of the Church. A family striving to place Christ at its center
becomes the most basic Christian community: a domestic church. In 1981 Pope
John Paul II wrote, “(t)he family constitutes a
special revelation and realization of ecclesial communion, and for this reason
too, can and should be called the domestic church.” (Familiaris Consortio #21). Families
are church;
they don’t merely come to church.
In the parish, the ministry of
family life promotes a perspective that views individuals in the context of
relationships, especially family relationships. Family relationships are the
key criteria used to assess programs and policies in the parish. This
sensitivity begs to ask the question: how does what we do affect families,
blended families, single parent families, traditional families, childless
families, single adults, senior adults, etc.?
In Vatican II’s
Pastoral Constitution On The Church In
The Modern World, we read, “the
family is the place where different generations come together and help one
another to grow wiser and harmonize the rights of individuals with other
demands of social life; as such it constitutes the basis of society. Everyone,
therefore who exercises an influence in the community and in social groups
should devote himself effectively to the welfare of marriage and the family.
Civil authority should consider it a sacred duty to acknowledge the true nature
of marriage and the family, to protect and foster them, to safeguard public
morality and promote domestic prosperity.” The Ministry of Family Life also
extends beyond the doors of our churches and our homes into our society.
RESPONSIBILITIES
• To
raise awareness of a family perspective and evaluate the needs within the faith
community.
• To
educate and enrich individuals and families through programs, workshops,
retreats, newsletters, resource centers, etc.
• To
advocate for “family-friendly” programs, policies, and services in parish
planning.
• To
create opportunities to respond to ~Ji stages in the family life cycle.
• To
communicate with other groups, agencies, and institutions in the community that
work with families.
• To
prepare a budget for family life activities and programs within the parish.
• To
encourage participation in deanery/diocesan family life programs.
• To
research the trends in society that impact families.
• To
affirm and support the diversity in family structures and cultures.
• To
provide and encourage leadership training in family ministry.
“No
plan for organized pastoral work at any level must
ever
fail to take into consideration the
pastoral area of the family.”
Familiaris Consortio, On the Role of the Christian Family in the Modern
World.
Pope John Paul II, 1981
SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES
Programs, resources and events
that:
• Strengthen
family relationships: intentional family development, family mission activities
& outreach in the community (including the parish, deanery and diocesan
church), identification of healthy family traits, intergenerational
opportunities, and building communication skills within families.
• Focus
on: parenting, grand-parenting, single parenting, step parenting, foster
parenting, parenting children/youth with special
needs, MOMS groups, and Faithful
Fathers groups.
• Promote
faith development and spirituality: preparation for sacraments, family-centered
catechesis, family retreats, and family rituals.
• Prepare
for and enrich marriages: sponsor couple marriage preparation, natural family
planning, marriage encounter, marriage enrichment (Three is a Couple), anniversary blessings, inter-religious
marriage support, and inter-faith marriages.
• Help
families experiencing loss: bereavement, widowed support,
• Address
the needs of single adults and senior adults.
• Advocate
for families: review public policies and study current research of societal
trends reflected in families.
SUPPORT FOR TIlE MINISTRY
• Diocesan Ministry of Family Life
Contact: Adult & Family Formation/Lay Ministry
Coordinator, IlaMae Hanisch,
563-324-1912 ext.
271
or 641-791-3435, hanisch@davenportdiocese.org
• FMN (Family Ministry Network)
Ministry of Family parish leaders from each deanery in
the Diocese of
Contact: IlaMae Hanisch (see above)
• NACFLM (National Association of Catholic Family Life Ministers)
Contact: 937-229-3324, nacflm@udayton.edu
• The Secretariat for Family, Laity, Women, and Youth (serves the
Committee on Marriage and Family-National Conference of Catholic Bishops)
Contact: 563-324-1911 (Diocese of
“What you do in your family to
create a community of love, to help each other to grow and to serve
those in need is critical not only for your own satisfaction, but for the
strength of society and our Church. It is a participation in the
work
of the Lord, a sharing in the mission of the Church. It is holy.... The early
Church expressed this truth by
calling the Christian family a domestic church or Church of the home.”
Follow
The Way of Love