The influence of the world of work on family life

Abstract

The year 1981 was an important year for the history of the social discourse of the Catholic Church. Two significant documents were released, one commemorating the hundredth anniversary of Rerum Novarum and another one on the problems of contemporary family, which was supposed to present a synthesis of the conclusions of the Synod of Bishops held in Rome the previous year. The coincidence of the publication of these documents on the same year gives us a clue about the importance that the Catholic Church gives to these topics as well as the close relationship existing between them. In fact, the Church proclaims in these documents the absolute priority of labour over capital and of the family over any other social institution. The Church's social teaching and its whole strategy of evangelisation and pastoral care are focused around the family. The social conditions that surround the family are, therefore, a major concern of evangelization. A serious consideration of the dignity of the human person and of the common good, must start from the family which stands as a mediation between these two basic principles of Catholic social doctrine. "The well-being of the individual person and of human and Christian society is intimately linked with the healthy conditions of that community produced by marriage and family."