The Catholic family is often called the "Domestic Church", and is the primary place where we practice coming to intimately love other persons.
The Family is a “school of love” where the virtues necessary for the building of a just and peaceful society are taught, developed, and put into practice in the concrete reality of daily life. For this reason, the Church recognizes in the family, the fundamental building block of society.
In the family we discover a good that can only be realized within a relationship of love with another.
The emphasis that our recent popes and bishops have placed on the family speaks to the profound dignity and importance of the work of all laypeople!