Modern Catholic Family Teaching: Commentaries and Interpretations begins by describing a curious discrepancy between the framing and presentation of Catholic teaching on social issues and Catholic teaching on family life. Catholic Social Teaching (CST) is widely recognized as a “developing tradition of theological reflection in conversation with social, political, and economic developments”; by contrast, “Catholic teaching on the family has generally been presented as stable, unchangeable, and concerned only with rearticulating objective truths about marriage, the family, sexuality, relationships, and the human person in changing contexts” (xi). Given the more dynamic framing of CST, on the one hand, and the more static presentation of Catholic teaching on the family, on the other, it is unsurprising to find numerous volumes engaging with and elaborating on CST, but relatively few that do the same for Catholic teaching on the family. Modern Catholic Family Teaching both claims and aims to demonstrate that the “historically developing moral tradition” of Catholic teaching on the family,” or “CFT,” is “worthy of critical study in a parallel fashion to CST” (xi). Importantly, the editors acknowledge, and several contributors illustrate, that there are significant points of intersection and overlap between CFT and CST; therefore, the volume aims to complexify and challenge the notion that CST and CFT operate in parallel, proposing instead that they might be imagined as a “living double helix” (xii).
The introduction elaborates on the pitfalls and promises of CFT. The editors lament early CFT documents’ “deep-seated Eurocentrism” and lack of engagement with “the full geographical, cultural, and racial diversity of the Catholic faithful,” and they note the disturbing contemporaneity of recent CFTS documents’ emphasis on sexual norms alongside revelations of the global sexual abuse crisis in the church (3). Although the introduction dwells primarily on the significant shortcomings of CFT, the editors suggest that the teachings of CFT “can provide a framework for family flourishing” if they are received responsibly (4). To that end, the volume invites a range of contributors from a diversity of disciplines, methodologies, institutions, cultural backgrounds, family experiences, and geographies to engage with CFT.
The editors have made thoughtful and helpful organizational choices. The first part (of two) “adopts a hermeneutical approach to CFT” (4), with five contributors examining CFT’s development through the lenses of Scripture, natural law, moral theology, history, and ecclesiology. The second part proceeds chronologically, with chapter commentaries by systematic and moral theologians on key documents from CFT. The same chapter structure maintained throughout the second part helps bring consistency amid the rich diversity of contributors’ perspectives. Section headers in the table of contents and second part of the volume, which organize document commentaries within papacies, also prove helpful.
Several documents featured in the second part will already be familiar to readers well-acquainted with CST, yet the analyses here bring a different focus to these well-known documents by examining their relevance to questions related to family and marriage amid broader social issues. The inclusion of Rerum Novarum, for instance, makes the entanglement of CST and CFT clear from the start. The discussion of Gaudium et Spes illustrates how concerns of the family and society remain connected during and after the Second Vatican Council.
Commentaries on two key apostolic exhortations that focus on family life, John Paul II’s Familiaris Consortio and Francis’s Amoris Laetitia, appear alongside analyses of shorter papal letters, Vatican reports, and Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith declarations. These commentaries critically assess the hierarchy’s response to the global sexual abuse crisis, trace the evolving response of the church to same-sex relationships and parenting, and underscore the increasing, yet limited, recognition in CFT of the diversity of family relationships and structures among the faithful. Given recent debates in the US context regarding fetal personhood and IVF, it was notable that the volume leaves wholly unexamined documents that address pathways of family formation and infertility treatments (e.g., the CDF’s 1987 Instruction, Donum Vitae, and the more recent Instruction, Dignitas Personae). Importantly, however, the framing and tone of the entire volume emphasize engagement, dynamism, and dialogue, providing a strong foundation that, in its final pages, invites future engagements on additional issues in family life to advance the living tradition of CFT.
