Call to Family, Community, and Participation

We are reminded that the human person is both sacred and social. For this reason we have a right and a duty to be in- volved in and participate in society—working together for the common good.

In Amoris Laetitia Pope Francis states:

"The family is thus an agent of pastoral activity through its explicit proclamation of the Gospel and its legacy of varied forms of witness, namely solidarity with the poor, openness to a diversity of people, the protection of creation, moral and material solidarity with other families, including those most in need, commitment to the promotion of the common good and the transformation of unjust social structures, beginning in the territory in which the family lives, through the practice of the corporal and spiritual works of mercy.”

Pope Francis has a vision of the Catholic family forming what is commonly called the “Domestic Church.” The family unit is actually the basic building block of the universal Church. When we, as families, live the Gospel and work for the building up of the Kingdom of God the entire universal Church prospers. Families must be concerned about the poor, families must be open to a diversity of people, families must work to help others. The corporal and spiritual works of mercy and must first be experienced and practiced within the family.

Having had the experience of being formed by a family committed to living the Gospel individuals can then go forth and do the special work that Christ calls them to do. Children who see parents living a selfless life become selfless adults— children who see selfish parents easily become selfish adults. God did not create humans to live alone, they are creat- ed to live in community. Catholicism becomes meaningful only when it is lived in the context of the community. Christi- anity is interactional.