Welcome to the Family First Blog. Here we will will post links to articles on the importance of the Catholic family with an emphasis on local issues and practical suggestions to protect, strengthen and restore the “domestic church.”
Recently there was an excellent article at the Crisis Magazine website. The author, David Torkington, relates how discovering the words, Ad maiorem Dei gloriam, written on his plumber’s toolbox opened his eyes to some important truths about the family.
“The only way to evangelize the modern pagan world today would be once again through the family. If we do not realize this, then our enemies do—and that is why they are trying to undermine and destroy the family which stands in the way of the neo-pagan world they want to reconstitute. … it is not too late for the families who once transformed a pagan world into a Catholic world to do so once more—and this time to make sure that the forces of evil do not reemerge to destroy it, or at least distort and disunite what once had been one in Christ.”
The project to restore the family is something that all Catholics can contribute to regardless of their family status. Dr. Jeff Mirus at Catholic Culture has some practical suggestions about how we can all help both as individuals and also on a parish level.
Education must be controlled by a child’s parents
“Through the dominant public methods of education in the United States, in fact, students are most generally taught to think not clearly but ideologically. Both intellectually and morally, such education is a deadly poison.”
But what is the antidote to such poison? Mirus suggests that home schooling and what he calls “cooperative schooling” will play a vital role.
“But then as now, for such home-grown efforts to work, help must come not only from the increasingly beleaguered Catholic Church but also from the relatives and friends of the parents.”
“This is where parish and diocesan help in various forms can be invaluable, by offering facilities as needed and by providing guidance and even some financial support.
But this is also where the relatives and friends of those with larger numbers of children can look for ways to be helpful, in everything from financial to actual educational assistance, and definitely not excluding vital levels of moral and spiritual support.”
Lastly here is an item of great local interest. Former Superintendent Tom Carroll has advice for Catholic schools: double down on your Catholicity!
