CSDC 212

The family has central importance in reference to the person. It is in this cradle of life and love that people are born and grow; when a child is conceived, society receives the gift of a new person who is called “from the innermost depths of self to communion with others and to the giving of self to others”⁴⁶⁵ John Paul II, Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Christifideles Laici, 40: AAS 81AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 81 (1989) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1989), 468.. It is in the family, therefore, that the mutual giving of self on the part of man and woman united in marriage creates an environment of life in which children “develop their potentialities, become aware of their dignity and prepare to face their unique and individual destiny”⁴⁶⁶ John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Centesimus Annus, 39: AAS 83AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 83 (1991) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1991), 841.. In the climate of natural affection which unites the members of a family unit, persons are recognized and learn responsibility in the wholeness of their personhood. “The first and fundamental structure for ‘human ecology' is the family, in which man receives his first formative ideas about truth and goodness, and learns what it means to love and to be loved, and thus what it actually means to be a person”⁴⁶⁷ John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Centesimus Annus, 39: AAS 83AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 83 (1991) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1991), 841.. The obligations of its members, in fact, are not limited by the terms of a contract but derive from the very essence of the family, founded on the irrevocable marriage covenant and given structure in the relationships that arise within it following the generation or adoption of children.