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duty to educate its members in Christian faith and morality. “Since parents
have given children their life, they are bound by the most serious obligation
to educate their offspring and therefore must be recognized as the primary
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and principal educators”.

Christian morality is based on Christian faith. Faith and morality go
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hand-in-hand. Children learn first from their mother and father. “He who
disciplines his son will profit by him, and will boast of him among
acquaintances” (Sir. 30, 2). However, in the new covenant, St. Paul would
remind parents not to irritate their children: “And, parents, never drive your
children to resentment but in bringing them up correct them and guide them
as the Lord does” (Eph. 6, 4).

2. Family as the first school of learning social virtues: the
Church recognizes the family as the first school of learning where children
learn to love God and to live in peace with fellow men. “Hence the family is
the first school of the social virtues that every society needs. It is
particularly in the Christian family, enriched by the grace and office of the
sacrament of matrimony, that children should be taught from their early
years to have a knowledge of God according to the faith received in
Baptism, to worship Him, and to love their neighbor. Here, too, they find
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their first experience of a wholesome human society and of the Church”.

3. Parents are the first teachers of character formation:
Christian spouses, by their firm and constant mutual love and the respect
they manifest toward each other, give formation to their children in
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character and moral life. Pope Benedict XVI also underlined this fact.

48
SACROSANCTUM CONCILIUM OECUMENICUM VATICANUM II, Declaratio de
Educatione Christiana, Gravissimum Educationis, no. 3, 28 October, 1965, in AAS 58,
1966, pp. 728-756.
49 Cf. GRISEZ, GERMAIN, The Way of The Lord Jesus-Christian Moral Principles, Vol.
1, Franciscan Herald Press, USA, 1983, p.608.
50 Gravissimum Educationis, no. 3.
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.“In this spirit I address you, dear parents, to ask you first of all to remain firm for ever in
your reciprocal love: this is the first great gift your children need if they are to grow up
serene, acquire self-confidence and thus learn to be capable in turn of authentic and
generous love. Further, your love for your children must endow you with the style and
courage of a true educator, with a consistent witness of life and the necessary firmness to
temper the character of the new generations, helping them to distinguish clearly between
good and evil so they in turn can form solid rules of life that will sustain them in future
trials.” BENEDICT XVI, Address of His Holiness, Presentation To The Diocese Of Rome
Of The "Letter On The Urgent Task Of Education", St Peter's Square, 23 February, 2008.

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