PONTIFICAL COUNCIL FOR THE FAMILY
THE FAMILY AND HUMAN RIGHTS

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http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/family/documents/rc_pc_family_doc_ 20001115_family-human-rights_en.html

December 9, 1999

65. . . . When the State claims the power to regulate family bonds and emits laws that do not respect this natural community, which is prior to the State, it is feared that the State may make use of families in its own interests, and instead of protecting them and defending their rights, it will weaken or destroy them in order to dominate peoples.

66. In line with the teaching of the Second Vatican Council, Pope John Paul II recalled that the family is the "first and living cell of society". The Declaration emphasizes that this "fundamental and natural" cell requires the protection not only of the State but also of society.

72. Moreover, to defend the sovereignty of the family is to contribute to the sovereignty of nations. . . .the family is the victim of forms of aggression that go as far as to question its existence. . .