Family and Marriage

Council for Marriage and the Family of the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference

This council comes under the Episcopal Commission for Pastoral Care

Contact Details

Council for Marriage and the Family
Columba Centre
Maynooth
Co. Kildare
Ireland
Tel: +353 (0)1 505 3000 Fax: +353 (0)1 601 6401
Email: [email protected]

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Family

Members

Episcopal membership:
Bishop Denis Nulty (Chairman)
Archbishop Dermot Farrell

About

The natural family, as an intimate communion of life and love, based on marriage between a man and a woman, constitutes “the primary place of ‘humanization’ for the person and society”, and a “cradle of life and love”. . . .the family is the first and indispensable teacher of peace.

Pope Benedict XVI, Message for the Celebration of the World Day of Peace 2008

The Council for Marriage and the Family of the Irish Episcopal Conference assists the Bishops’ Conference principally to respond to contemporary issues facing marriage and family life.

Work

The vocation of marriage and family life enriches the whole community.  The Council for Marriage and the Family is a Council of the Irish Episcopal Conference.  The Council was established in 2010 with the purpose of assisting the Irish Catholic Bishops in their mission, specifically as it relates to marriage, families and family life.  It strives to do this in a number of ways, including encouraging and supporting the spiritual and pastoral care of marriage and the family in parishes and dioceses.  It endeavours to promote and support marriage and family life throughout the community and society.  The Council works in collaboration with the Pontifical Council for the Family and with other Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference commissions, agencies and councils and with representatives of various organisations who support the Catholic understanding of marriage and the family.

The Christian family is called upon to take part actively and responsibly in the mission of the Church in a way that is original and specific, by placing itself, in what it is and what it does as an “intimate community of life and love,” at the service of the Church and of society.

Since the Christian family is a community in which the relationships are renewed by Christ through faith and the sacraments, the family’s sharing in the Church’s mission should follow a community pattern: the spouses together as a couple, the parents and children as a family, must live their service to the Church and to the world.

POPE JOHN PAUL II, FAMILIARIS CONSORTIO