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Father John A. Hardon, S.J. Archives
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| How
to Preserve the Catholic Family Our subject on "How to Preserve the Catholic Family" deserves more than a single conference. It deserves not only an hour's reflection but a lifetime of prayerful meditation. Nothing less than the survival of the Catholic Church in one county after another is at stake. |
| The
Role of Catholic Women Today - Hope of the Family for the Third Millennium Our title for this conference is unusual. We are not speaking of the family in the third millennium. That would be prophetic because only God knows the future. We are speaking of the family for the third millennium. What do we mean? We mean that family life in the closing decade of the second millennium must be stronger, more solid, more secure than ever before since the dawn of Christianity. Why? Because family life in the Western world is faced with challenges which threaten its very survival. |
| The
Family for the Third Millennium Our plan here is to prayerfully reflect on three areas of a subject that is as broad and deep as the ocean. We shall ask ourselves: What are the challenges facing the family in our day? Why does the Catholic Church offer the only solution to these challenges? How are we to respond to these challenges? |
| The
Eucharist: Foundation of the Christian Family Without the Eucharist, there would not be a livable sacrament of matrimony or a stable Christian family….The Holy Eucharist is indispensable for living out the supernatural, and therefore humanly impossible, demands that Christ places on those who enter marriage in His name. |
| Humanae
Vitae - Charter of the Family and the Catholic Faith No single papal document in modern times has received more publicity than Pope Paul VI's encyclical Humanae Vitae. Months before it was published on the feast of St. James the Apostle, July 25, 1968, the secular press of the world predicted a change in the Catholic Church's position on contraception. When the document was issued, its uncompromising stand on artificial birth control became an acid test of Catholic orthodoxy. For the first time in centuries, the term "dissenters" came into popular use. Those who disagreed with Humanae Vitae came to be identified as dissenters from the Church's ordinary, but infallible, teaching authority. |
| Prodigal Sons and Daughters First, by way of long introduction. I don’t believe anyone has any question about the need for retrieving, recalling, reconverting millions of lapsed Catholics throughout the world and at least hundreds of thousands, I would submit, even millions, in our own country. In one large diocese after another, parishes are closing. Catholics schools are down to a fraction of what they had been even twenty years ago. The millions of young people, once-believing Catholics, who no longer either attend Mass or receive the sacraments. |
| Either Stop Contraception or Destroy the Family God in His mercy allows evil that greater good may come as a result of the evil. He has allowed contraception to plague the modern world so that we may repent and return to our Father's house. I have deliberately stated the title of this conference in uncompromising language: "Either we stop contraception or we destroy the family." This is a warning to all of us, married and single, the laity and the clergy, bishops, priests, deacons, and religious, parents and children. |
| How to Keep Your Children Catholic I don't think anyone here has any doubt about why we should speak about keeping our children Catholic. The widespread loss of young Catholics to the true faith is unparalleled in Christian history. Millions of teenagers and those in their early twenties are leaving the Catholic Church in one so-called developed country after another. I will never forget the dinner I had with a Catholic father and mother who sadly told me that their seventh child had just left the Church. All seven had been given a nominally Catholic education, at great sacrifice to their parents. |
| The Blessed Virgin and the Sanctification of the Family What is the role of the Blessed Virgin in the sanctification of the family? In other words: How important is Our Lady in making holy, or sanctifying the Catholic family? |
| The Holy Family: Model for the Modern World If there is one phenomenon that characterizes the modern world, especially the modern western world, it is the breakdown of family life. The most rampant divorce rate of human history, which in some cities in the United States has reached a rate approaching a 100%. One large city, unnamed, recently had a divorce rate of 500%, five divorces for one marriage that year. The national American rate is well over 50% and climbing constantly. European social scientists, who see what’s happening, say America on these conditions cannot survive. |
| The Survival of the Catholic Family The Catholic family in super-developed countries like the United States is on trial for its existence. This is not my personal opinion but the measured judgment of the Vicars of Christ. One modern pope after another keeps warning the faithful about the deadly struggle going on in the world today, between Christ, the Light of the world, and Satan, the prince of darkness, and the main focus of this struggle is the FAMILY. |
| The Christian Family: Parents For Eternal Life This then brings us face to face with the gravest duty of believing Catholic parents. They must be convinced that their primary responsibility as parents is to prepare the children that God gave them—for eternal life…Parents, in God’s plan, are to conceive and give birth to, and nourish and educate their children for life after bodily death. After all, the only purpose that God has in having parents here on earth is that they might raise families for everlasting life in heaven…Parents must always keep this vision clearly in their minds. We are fathers and mothers of children for heaven. |
| Home Education and Survival of the Catholic Family There are some topics that are meant to startle the audience to attention. Like clever ads in the newspapers or magazines you say something bizarre to catch the readers' notice; but the title of the ad does not really mean what the words are saying. This is not the case here. The full title of my talk to you would read, "Home Education is Necessary for the Survival of the Catholic Family." |
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