March 17, 2013 – Catechism 2201 – 2213

There is a lot in these paragraphs dealing with families, the definitions, the effects it has on society, and the idea of subsidiarity.  This last thing is something that I have become a fan of as I have learned about it and run for office and seen what the government is trying to get its hands on and what people are asking it to do.  The whole idea is that a family is the first and foremost community.  A family should try to solve any problems that they can on their own.  By doing so, the family grows in strength and education, is not reliant on other groups or the government, has strong and educated children that will bring skills and experience to the society and their future families.  What a family cannot do on its own, it should look to the families around it, their neighbors.  These neighbors should, from their abundance, aid those neighbors that need such assistance.  What cannot be done by a neighborhood, you look to city wide groups or your local church.  Many resources can be obtained through these groups and can supply families in need with most of what they are lacking, especially when people are generous to these groups and churches because they understand that they are helping people.  When the service cannot be accomplished by these groups, we should look to the local government, then to the state, then, AND ONLY THEN, we should look to the national government.

What has become the actual routine is that, as soon as people start to struggle, they go straight to the federal government for assistance.  People do not even know their neighbors, numbers in churches are down, and the local groups are often controlled and fully rely on government money to run, so going to them is no different than going to the government.  We have gotten the whole flow backwards and it is making us a completely reliant society instead of separate and independent families.  Here is a video describing it in an easier way.

http://youtu.be/jZFRXp7vKZI

http://youtu.be/jE5S411ktG0

These paragraphs and thinking about the family as the foundation for society, what does it mean to change the definition of marriage, essential changing the definition of family.  What effect does that have on society?  You can change the definition of something at the foundation and not expect it do have no effect on the society above.  So, yes, you changing the definition of marriage does affect me and my marriage and my family because we are a part of the same society.