The right to found a family and the right to parenthood. Remarks on articles 2 and 3 of the Charter of the Rights of the Family

Abstract

Family is a basic social unit, a subject of rights and duties. This enunciation, included in no. 46 of the post‑synodal Apostolic Exhortation Familiaris consortio — never ageing and still the most important post‑conciliar document of the papal de matrimonio ac familia Magisterium — precedes a well‑known announcement: The Holy See will undertake the work of deepening the issues in question and will prepare the Charter of the Rights of the Family (CRF). Analyses of this study, assuming a very broad doctrinal range, refer not only to the “title” of articles 2 and 3 of the CRF, but also to points B, C, D of the document’s preamble, which harmonize with their normative overtone. Therefore, the structure of the study is as follows: 1. The origins of the family: “the free and full [matrimonial] consent”; 2. Exclusiveness of the “the mission of transmitting life”: the responsible parenthood; 3. Sovereignty of the family: protection/promotion of its “inherent rights which are inalienable.”