Family Life in Christ

God ordained the Christian family to have a specific design - a man and a woman united in marriage, together with their children. The family is called the domestic church because it is a community of faith, hope and charity. Within the family, we first learn to respect the sanctity of life from conception to natural death. This means welcoming children into the marriage through birth or adoption but also learning to show reverence for the life of others such as the elderly, the infirm, the poor, the disabled, and the imprisoned. Every member of the Christian family has a God-ordained function. Though equal in the sight of God, men and women have entirely different responsibilities. As stated so clearly in the Catechism: