CSDC 227

De facto unions, the number of which is progressively increasing, are based on a false conception of an individual's freedom to choose ⁵⁰¹ Cf. John Paul II, Letter to Families Gratissimam Sane, 14: AAS 86AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 86 (1994) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1994), 893-896; Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2390. and on a completely privatistic vision of marriage and family. Marriage is not a simple agreement to live together but a relationship with a social dimension that is unique with regard to all other relationships, since the family — attending as it does to caring for and educating children — is the principal instrument for making each person grow in an integral manner and integrating him positively into social life. Making “de facto unions” legally equivalent to the family would discredit the model of the family, which cannot be brought about in a precarious relationship between persons ⁵⁰² Cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2390. but only in a permanent union originating in marriage, that is, in a covenant between one man and one women, founded on the mutual and free choice that entails full conjugal communion oriented towards procreation.