The Christian Family: Love, Values, and Society

• Families shape individuals through upbringing, love, and experiences.
• No family is perfect, and negative experiences can occur.
• Choosing love despite past hurts is important.

The Christian Family's Titles

• Christian families are covenantal relationships based on authentic love and trust.
• This love reflects God's enduring covenantal love.
• Families are strengthened, through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, to love as God loves.
• Christian families are domestic Churches, "churches in the home."
• Members are formed with Christian values like prayer, faith study, and charity works.
• Christian families are the first and vital cell of society.
• They deepen love and commitment to the local community and country.
• Christian families have a responsibility towards the greater society, respecting rules, pursuing justice, and showing compassion.

Celebrating God's Gift of Life (5th Commandment)

• Human life is fragile.
• "Culture of death" judges worth based on efficiency or looks.
• It treats people as means to an end.
• It regards the vulnerable (children, elderly, sick, dying) as obstacles.
• It uses means that violate human dignity like abortion, sterilization, artificial contraception, coercive population policies.
• It resorts to violence and proposes legalizing attacks against human life like abortion, euthanasia, and the death penalty.
• It is indifferent to poverty, subhuman living conditions, discrimination, and social injustice.
• "Culture of death" stands in opposition to a "civilization of life and love."
• Filipino culture values life through language, attitudes, celebrations, and values.
• Followers of Christ are called to build a "civilization of life and love" against the "culture of death."
• "Culture of death" refers to mindsets and acts against reverence for human life.
• The 5th Commandment prohibits direct attacks on the lives of others in the Old Testament.
• It emphasizes respect for human dignity and valuing of life.
• It affirms life as a gift from God for community flourishing.
• Jesus Christ perfectly lived out the 5th Commandment.
• Disciples are called to follow Jesus's example through the Holy Spirit.
• Jesus's healing, raising the dead, breaking bread with the poor, and teachings against unjust anger exemplify the commandment.
• Human life is a gift from God, not our possession to abuse.
• God commands us not to kill, upholding our freedom to live.
• Jesus Christ is the perfect example, and the Holy Spirit empowers us to value human life.
• Every human life has dignity from conception.

Special Moral Topics

• Abortion is the deliberate killing of human life in the womb from conception to birth.
• Causes of abortion include poverty, rape, and pregnancy (premarital, teenage, extramarital), and career advancement.
• Euthanasia ("mercy killing") is directly causing death to eliminate suffering
• Ordinary means (food, water, air, basic hygiene, helpful medication) are a duty of care.
• Depriving patients of ordinary means is euthanasia.
• There is no moral obligation to continue extraordinary means, which offer little hope, cause pain, or are overly expensive.
• Withdrawing extraordinary means allows disease to run its course, not directly ending life.
• Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick provides strength through God's grace.
• It is a sacrament of God's mercy and healing, following Jesus' example.
• Christ teaches to love enemies, "make" peace, and follow his path of peace.

Value of Chastity (6th and 9th Commandments)

Sex and Sexuality

• Sex and sexuality include physical, psycho-emotional, and relational characteristics that make us male and female.
• They are part of who we are and a gift from God.
• Everyone is a sexual being, expressed through work and relationships, even in celibacy.

Chastity

• Chastity is understanding and using sexuality to become truly loving persons.
• It directs sexual desires toward the truth and falls under temperance.
• Celibacy is not marrying and abstaining from sexual activity, a discipline and expression of chastity.

6th Commandment

• The 6th Commandment ("You shall not commit adultery") forbids sexual relations outside of marriage.

9th Commandment

• The 9th Commandment ("You shall not covet your neighbor's wife") reminds us of the interior root of adultery, which is covetousness.
• Both commandments uphold marriage, family, commitment, and chastity.
• The 6th Beatitude ("Blessed are the clean of heart") promotes keeping hearts and minds clean to enter God's kingdom.
• Avoid temptation.

Special Moral Topic

• Masturbation is arousing oneself by touching sexual organs, reducing sexuality to personal gratification.
• Temperance is self-control; chastity directs sexual desires toward the truth.
• Pre-marital sex (fornication) is sexual union outside marriage.
• Sex has two purposes: expressing conjugal love and generating offspring.
• The twofold purpose of the sexual act must always be an expression of love, and be open to the possible transmission of life.

Use of Artificial Contraception

• Some forms of artificial contraception do not simply prevent contraception but are abortifacients.
• Contraceptive mentality sees children as obstacles and promotes self-centered, pleasure-oriented views of sex.
• Sexual promiscuity demonstrates a lack of commitment.
• Pornography violates the human sexual act by exposing it to others and leading viewers to sexual excitement.
• Prostitution, which is exchanging sexual acts for money.
• Both pornography and prostitution is a violation of chastity and social justice due to extreme poverty.

Homosexual Act

• Homosexual acts are sexual relationships between persons of the same sex.
• Homosexual orientation refers to sexual attraction toward members of the same sex.
• Factors contributing to different sexual orientations can include biological problems, parental abuse, false education, and other psycho-emotional factors.