Authority and Family Roles

General Notes:

All authority is God-given and for the purpose of those under authority, not for the one in authority.

God, the omniscient, created the world orderly, hierarchically, and with authority structures in place.

Exorcists report: Anytime we step outside authority, we open up ourselves, and those under our authority, for potential demonic attack. (see Fr. Ripperger videos)

God is the ONLY unconditional Authority. All others have conditional authority.

Christ is King. Viva Cristo Rey!
Quas Primas (1925)

How binding are Papal Encyclicals: Humani Generis #20

All people (including authority) must follow Divine Law (official teachings of the Catholic Church on faith and morals and the most up to date Code of Canon Law)

Some authority structures:
Government has divine authority over citizens (on matters not contradicting the Church)
Employers have divine authority over employees (on matters not contradicting the Church)
Teachers have divine authority over students (on matters not contradicting the Church)

We are obligated to resist any authority that tells us to do anything contrary to the official teachings of the Catholic Church on faith and morals and the current Canon Law.

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Authority in the Family Structure

Fr. Ripperger video series on authority in the family and spiritual warfare in the home

Husband has two-fold authority over his wife (spiritual and physical, due to the marital contract)
Wife has one-fold authority over her husband (physical, due to the marital contract)
Husband and wife have authority over children.

Fr. Ripperger article on Parental Roles and Leadership
The husbands has 2 roles:
Protect and Provide (1) spiritually (2) materially

Papal Encyclicals on authority in the family
How binding are Papal Encyclicals: Humani Generis #20

Arcanum (1880)

#11 "The husband is the chief of the family and the head of the wife. The woman, because she is flesh of his flesh, and bone of his bone, must be subject to her husband and obey him; not, indeed, as a servant, but as a companion, so that her obedience shall be wanting in neither honor nor dignity. Since the husband represents Christ, and since the wife represents the Church, let there always be, both in him who commands and in her who obeys, a heaven-born love guiding both in their respective duties."

#12 "As regards children, they ought to submit to the parents and obey them, and give them honor for conscience' sake; while, on the other hand, parents are bound to give all care and watchful thought to the education of their offspring and their virtuous bringing up: "Fathers,... bring them up" [that is, your children] "in the discipline and correction of the Lord."(19) From this we see clearly that the duties of husbands and wives are neither few nor light";"

Rerum Novarum #19-20 (1891)
"right of ownership...bestowed on individual persons by nature, must be assigned to man in his capacity as head of the family...It is a most sacred law of nature that the father of a family see that his offspring are provided with all the necessities of life...Parental authority...can be neither abolished nor absorbed by the State, because it has the same origin in common with that of man's own life...before they (children) have use of free will, they are kept under the care of their parents."

Casti Connubii #26-29, #75 (1930) 

"society...should flourish in it that “order of love"...includes both the primacy of the husband with regard to the wife and children, the ready subjection of the wife and her willing obedience, which the Apostle commends in these words: “Let women be subject to their husbands as to the Lord, because the husband is the head of the wife, and Christ is the head of the Church.”

"This subjection...does not deny or take away the liberty which fully belongs to the woman both in view of her dignity as a human person, and in view of her most noble office as wife and mother and companion; nor does it bid her obey her husband’s every request if not in harmony with right reason or with the dignity due to wife; nor, in fine, does it imply that the wife should be put on a level with those persons who in law are called minors, to whom it is not customary to allow free exercise of their rights on account of their lack of mature judgment, or of their ignorance of human affairs. But it forbids that exaggerated liberty which cares not for the good of the family; it forbids that in this body which is the family, the heart be separated from the head to the great detriment of the whole body and the proximate danger of ruin. For if the man is the head, the woman is the heart, and as he occupies the chief place in ruling, so she may and ought to claim for herself the chief place in love.

"Again, this subjection of wife to husband in its degree and manner may vary according to the different conditions of persons, place and time. In fact, if the husband neglect his duty, it falls to the wife to take his place in directing the family. But the structure of the family and its fundamental law, established and confirmed by God, must always and everywhere be maintained intact .

"With great wisdom...(Pope) Leo XIII...speaking of this order to be maintained between man and wife, teaches: “The man is the ruler of the family, and the head of the woman; but because she is flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone, let her be subject and obedient to the man, not as a servant but as a companion, so that nothing be lacking of honor or of dignity in the obedience which she pays. Let divine charity be the constant guide of their mutual relations, both in him who rules and in her who obeys, since each bears the image, the one of Christ, the other of the Church.”

#75
"this false liberty and unnatural equality with the husband is to the detriment of the woman herself, for if the woman descends from her truly regal throne to which she has been raised within the walls of the home by means of the Gospel, she will soon be reduced to... slavery...and become...the mere instrument of man."

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Unique Roles of Husband and Wife

Note: a longer explanation is provided here for wives/mothers to display the sharp contrast between Traditional Catholicism versus a society infected by toxic feminism.


Wife/Mother:

Catechism of the Council of Trent- Sacrament of Matrimony
"to a mother it belongs to conceive, bring forth and train her offspring...she was to be subject and obedient to her husband."

"it was not hers to command but to obey her husband."

"train their children in the practice of virtue and to pay particular attention to their domestic concerns...the wife should love to remain at home, unless compelled by necessity to go out...let wives never forget that next to God they are to love their husbands, to esteem them above all others, yielding to them in all things not inconsistent with Christian piety, a willing and ready obedience."

Quadragesimo Anno #71 (1931)
"to abuse the years of childhood and the limited strength of women is grossly wrong. Mothers, concentrating on household duties, should work primarily in the home or in its immediate vicinity. It is an intolerable abuse, and to be abolished at all cost, for mothers on account of the father’s low wage to be forced to engage in gainful occupations outside the home to the neglect of their proper cares and duties, especially the training of children."

Vatican II: Gaudium et Spes. #52
"The children, especially the younger among them, need the care of their mother at home. This domestic role of hers must be safely preserved, though the legitimate social progress of women should not be underrated on that account."



Husband/Father:

Catechism of the Council of Trent 
"It is the duty of the husband to treat his wife generously and honorably."

"husband should...be constantly occupied in some honest pursuit with a view to provide necessaries for the support of his family and to avoid idleness...keep all his family in order, to correct their morals, and see that they faithfully discharge their duties."

Vatican II: Gaudium et Spes. #52

"The active presence of the father is highly beneficial to their (children's) formation."

Quadragesimo Anno #71 (1931)

"Every effort must therefore be made that fathers of families receive a wage large enough to meet ordinary family needs adequately."

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More Great Resources:


Homily on Marriage by St. John Chrysostem

Homily 20 on Ephesians by St. John Chrysostem