Rola rodziny w budowaniu europejskiego domu

Abstract

In the present article attention is paid to the role of the family in building Europe’s unity. The family is a basic community from which social life in its various dimensions stems and on which it is based. A man starts his life in a family and then, in a wider community of “the human family” he follows the vocation of his life. First, attention is paid to those phenomena that threaten the family, and hence also threaten Europe. They are, among others, ambiguity in understanding the institution of marriage, questioning the relation between marital love and parenthood, a certain “plot against life”, and improper use made of achievements in the field of medical technology. In the face of a systematic process of destruction of the family in Europe the need to understand and realize the challenges that the family encounters at the threshold of the third millennium is ever more urgent. In order to be able to creatively join the process of building the European home the family first has to discover its own identity. According to God’s plan the family was created as a community of life and love. When the family is understood in this way, it becomes a school of human dignity as well as the most efficient tool of humanization and personalization of the society. Protection and promotion of marriage and family is the key to the real unity of Europe and the fundamental condition for the real good of all its inhabitants.