Father George Okoye,
H.P. St. Paul’s Roman Catholic Church

Do you believe that family is one of the best way to plan and nurture the seed of the Christian faith; moral and cultural values of the society?

Maybe it is good to start with the story that I read in the book of Thomas H. Groom, “Will There Be Faith?”, (Chapter six pages 201-202) of a young Jewish student working in Ph.D. in education who asked to join him in doctoral seminar in Theology and Education at Boston College. She brought to them her Jewish emphasis on the family faith formation.

Why many students were naming their frustrations about the sad state of families in the modern society, suggesting that the Church should step forward to help out. She suddenly came up with something like: “I’m so amazed at how you Christians mistrust your families. You assume that they can’t do faith formation and that you have to do it for them. In my tradition, whether families are observant or not, keep Kosher or not, are orthodox, conservative, or reformed, we tell them that they have first responsibility for the Jewish identity of their children, and then we give them the help they need to fulfill their role as parents. Sure, our Sabbath school is important, but it is a far second to our families”. I agree with this student that the role of our parents in faith or character formation, and teaching of moral and cultural values is very important. Parents are the first educators, not the only educators of their children, it belongs to them, to exercise with responsibility their educational activity with the support and vigilant cooperation of the Church and civil agencies.

The family constitutes “a community of love and solidarity, which is uniquely suited to teach and transmit cultural, ethical, social, spiritual and religious values, essential for thedevelopment and well-being of its own members and of society” (cf. Holy See, Charter of the Rights of the Family, Preamble, E, Vatican Polyglot Press, Vatican city, 1983, p. 6)

Family has a completely original and irreplaceable role in raising children (cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Declaration Gravissimum Educationis, 3: AAS 58, 1966, 1073-1074). The right and duty of parents to educate their children is essential since it is connected with the transmission of human life. Parents have the duty and right to impart a religious education and moral formation to their children. The Church or community and civic institutions can lend its families the resources, training, suggestions, networking, support and active involvement to help them fulfill their functions as the primary religious educators or character formations.

In the Catholic Church for instance, the family’s primacy begins at baptism when the celebrant addresses the parents as “the first teachers of their children in the ways of faith” (Rite of Baptism).

And it is the duty of the parents to choose the formative tools that respond to their convictions and to seek those means that will help them best to fulfill their duty as educators, in the spiritual, cultural and religious sphere also.

The Church supports this duty of the parents in her many teachings. For example; Vatican II declared: “Parents must be acknowledge as the first and foremost educators of their children and especially in faith (Declaration on Christian Education, n.3) Even the code of Canon Law Legislates:
”Parents above all others are obliged to form their children in the faith and practice of the Christian life by word and example” (Can. 774.2).
The General Directory for Catechesisstates boldly that “nothing replaces family catechesis” (n.178) and the Catechism of the Catholic Church advises: “The home is the first school of Christian life” (n. 1657).

Family is a domestic church. It is a primary church, therefore from my personal experience, I maintained that catechesis within the family is very fruitful as well as the teaching of moral and cultural values. This is why I said that Parents are the first educators, not the only educators of their children, it belongs to them, to exercise with responsibility their educational activity with the support and vigilant cooperation of the Church and civil agencies.

As a parent or parent to be, think about this duty. This is gradually fading away from us.