Fr. Shenan J. Boquet: The Role of the Family and Parental Rights

By Fr. Shenan J. Boquet, Human Life International, June 3, 2024

As president of Human Life International, Fr. Boquet is a leading expert on the international pro-life and family movement, having journeyed to nearly 90 countries on pro-life missions over the last decade. Father Boquet works with pro-life and family leaders in 116 counties that partner with HLI to proclaim and advance the Gospel of Life. Read his full bio here.

“The family, a natural society, exists prior to the State or any other community, and possesses inherent rights which are inalienable.”

― Charter of the Rights of the Family

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Societies once almost universally respected the family and the rights of parents to raise and educate their children, recognizing the family’s unique role as the essential unit and “vital cell of society” (Familiaris consortio, 42). They upheld that parents have an irreplaceable responsibility and are best suited to teach and transmit cultural, social, spiritual, moral, and religious values that are not only essential for the good of the family itself, but also are essential for the good of society.

The Church considers the family as the first natural society with inherent rights that are proper to it. She teaches that the family “does not exist for society or the State, but society and the State exist for the family” (Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Catholic Church, no. 214). Furthermore, she places the family at the center of social life, warning that to exclude the family from its rightful position in society would be to cause grave harm to society.

Yet, despite these warnings regarding the central role of the family in the authentic well-being and growth of society, the family has come under increasing scrutiny and attack around the world, especially in so-called developed nations that have rejected Judeo-Christian principles. Having chosen instead to embrace secular “values,” many in Western society and government see the family, the cornerstone and foundation of society, as a threat to their vision. They see the family as one of the two institutions forestalling their plans, the other being the Church. …