Problems with Defining ‘Family’

Abstract

In the Church’s rite of Matrimony the ministers say to each other: “I take you to be my wife (my husband). I promise to be true to you in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health. I will love you and honor you all the days of my life”. What social structures can we identify as supporting such commitment today? Yet, “where must holy priests come from if not from families living the spirit of Christ?” The life of the whole Church and the whole society hangs on that of the family – this mysterious life-giving community. This is the reason why issues pertaining to ‘family’ are so important to leaders and all conscientious faithful. This article presents human
family faced with the continued challenge of self-definition and self-establishment in society both in past and present. The Church does not see the sole contemporary sustaining power of selective attraction to be viable. What other resources are available to
families today? Would ancestral African culture not make significant and corrective contribution to world culture? But for this to become true, Africans must lead the way by example.