Family

Father Hardon’s writings on family explore the Catholic vision of marriage and the Christian home. These articles examine parenting, family prayer, virtue, sacramental marriage, and the role of the family in living and passing on the Catholic faith.

Home Education and Survival of the Catholic Family

By Father John A. Hardon, S.J. There are some topics that are meant to startle the audience to attention. Like clever ads in the newspapers or magazines you say something bizarre to catch the readers’ notice; but the title of the ad does not really mean what the words are saying. This is not the […]

The Catholic Family and Vocations

By Father John A. Hardon, S.J. Where are vocations to the priesthood and the religious life mainly fostered? In strong Catholic families. When do these vocations flourish? When Catholic families flourish. When do vocations wane? When Catholic family life is weak. If this is true, then whatever we can do to stabilize Catholic family life […]

Charter of the Family and the Catholic Faith

By Father John A. Hardon, S.J. No single papal document in modern times has received more publicity than Pope Paul VI’s encyclical Humanae Vitae. Months before it was published on the feast of. St. James the Apostle, July 25, 1968, the secular press of the world predicted a change in the Catholic Church’s position on […]

Catholic Families: Heroic?

By Father John A. Hardon, S.J. (Father John A. Hardon, S.J., an eminent theologian, began his talk at the National Marian Year Symposium by quoting an article from the latest edition of the Marxist Review on women’s liberation. Below are excerpts from his talk given on April 10, l988). It is common knowledge that something […]

The Catholic Family in the Modern World

By Father John A. Hardon, S.J. The Incarnation took place at the peak of Roman imperial history. As St. Luke tells us, it was in obedience to a decree of the Emperor Caesar Augustus that Mary and Joseph went to Bethlehem to be registered by the Roman officials. It was the Roman Procurator, Pontius Pilate, […]

The Christian Family

By Father John A. Hardon, S.J. Catholic Faith Vol. 5 – #1, Jan/ Feb 1999, Editorial Revision 1 of manuscript #122 “Family Manuscript” or “Family” The family as a group of persons of common ancestry began with the human race. But if we are to understand the meaning of the Christian family, we should know […]

How the Catholic Family Will Survive for the Third Millennium

By Father John A. Hardon, S.J. At a former national FFA Congress Father Hardon startled some by stating that the only Catholic families which would survive were those in which the parents were willing to suffer martyrdom. He agreed to tell us more on how they will survive as we approach the year 2000. Fatima […]

The Holy Eucharist: Foundation for Fostering the Christian Family and Rebuilding Christian Civilization

By Father John A. Hardon, S.J. Our present meditation is on the Holy Eucharist as the bedrock foundation for the Christian family and for rebuilding Christian civilization throughout the world. What I wish to stress is two words in the title of this conference: “Foundation” and “Rebuilding.” Our focus, therefore, will be to explain how […]

The Christian Family as God’s Gift to the World

By Father John A. Hardon, S.J. Our subject is “The Christian Family As God’s Gift to the World.” The word “Christian” is essential. Certainly the family is a gift of God. But the family, as we Catholics understand the term, came into existence only with the coming of Christ. The Family Before the Coming of […]

Family

By Father John A. Hardon, S.J. The family as a group of persons of common ancestry began with the human race. But if we are to understand the meaning of the Christian family, we should know something of the family in pre-Christian times. The reason is that Christ elevated the family to a dignity and […]

The Family

By Father John A. Hardon, S.J. Stated in one sentence, parents have the right to give their offspring a share in their own life of the spirit, corresponding to the share they have given the children in their life of the body. Or, in more concrete terms, parents have the right to communicate their own […]

Eucharist and the Alliance of the Hearts of Jesus and Mary

By Father John A. Hardon, S.J. For most people a title like the present one must seem strange. The Eucharist and the Alliance of the Hearts of Jesus and Mary is a strange title even to many Catholic believers. Before we go any further, we had better explain what this title means. There are three […]

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