Mexico Declaration 2004
Our Purpose
We address ourselves to all
people of goodwill who, with the majority of the world’s people, value the
natural family. Challenges to the
family’s very legitimacy as an institution include extreme individualism, easy
divorce, radical homosexual activisim, irresponsible sexual behavior, and the
reinterpretation and misapplication of human rights. To protect and promote the family and to direct public policy
with a family perspective, this Declaration asserts principles and recommends
actions that respect and uphold the vital functions that the family plays in
society.
The Family and Society
Principle
The natural family is the fundamental social unit,
inscribed in human nature, and centered on the union of a man and a woman in
the lifelong covenant of marriage. The natural family is defined by marriage, including
extended family members, procreation, and adoption. Secure and stable families that welcome children are necessary
for a healthy society.
Actions
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Encourage governments to uphold and maintain the
natural understanding of marriage.
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Provide special benefits to the unique relationship of
man and woman in marriage.
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Recognize that the security of nations and the
survival of civilization depend upon the strength of families worldwide.
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Establish an effective information system to compile
and disseminate information on family friendly policies.
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Promote research on family issues through specialized
institutions.
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Encourage media and other institutions (such as
schools and non-governmental organizations) to uphold the above principle.
The Family and Marriage
Principle
Marriage, the cornerstone of healthy family life,
brings security, contentment, meaning, joy and spiritual maturity to the man
and woman who enter this lifelong covenant with unselfish commitment. In
marriage, both husband and wife commit to a life of mutual love, respect,
support and compassion. Steadfast
commitment in marriage provides the security in family life that is needed by
children. Children are entitled to the complementary parental love and attention
of both father and mother, which marriage bestows. Due to the importance of a child being raised by a mother and a
father, social policies should not encourage cohabitation or single parenting.
Actions
-
Present
marriage as a desirable good for men and women.
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Implement
programs to prepare men and women for marriage in order to increase their
chances of success.
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Promote
measures that aid in the healing of troubled marriages and broken homes.
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Revise laws to encourage commitment to the marriage
relationship.
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Take legal or other appropriate action in cases of
abusive relationships.
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Encourage media and other institutions (such as
schools and non-governmental organizations) to uphold the above principle.
The Family and Children
Principle
The natural family provides the optimal environment
for the healthy development of children.
Healthy family life fulfills
the basic human need to belong and satisfies the longings of the human heart to
give and receive love. The family
shapes the human person’s attitude towards such fundamental matters as identity,
security, responsibility, love, morality, and religion. In personal and intimate ways, the natural
family cares for its children and provides for their spiritual, physical,
intellectual, social, psychological, and ethical growth.
Actions
-
Encourage and support mothers in their essential role
in caring for their children.
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Recognize the vital role of fathers in child rearing.
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Facilitate adoptions as a means to provide children
with a family and to reduce abortions.
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Recognize the right of all children to a father
and
a mother.
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Support agencies which assist women and families in
crisis.
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Strive for a society where all families have access to
good homes, health care, and nourishment and opportunities for physical,
intellectual and recreational development.
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Encourage media and other institutions (such as
schools and non-governmental organizations) to uphold the above principle.
The Family and Sexuality
Principle
Sexuality exists for the expression of love between
husband and wife and for the procreation of children in the covenant of
marriage. Marriage between a man and a woman forms the moral
context for sexual union. The
complementary natures of men and women, both physically and psychologically,
are evident throughout the course of human history and in every society. Deviations from natural sexual behavior
cannot truly satisfy the human spirit.
Culture, society, and government should encourage standards of sexual
morality that support and enhance family life.
Actions
-
Give unique recognition to the societal benefits of
the complementary relationship of man and woman in marriage.
-
Take appropriate actions to assist homosexuals in
programs of voluntary rehabilitation.
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Encourage media and other institutions (such as
schools and non-governmental organizations) to recognize and encourage the
unique importance of traditional marriage.
The Family, Life and Bioethical Issues
Principle
Every human person has intrinsic value throughout the
continuum of life from fertilization until natural death. Every
human life is a gift to the person, the family and society. Loving families cherish and serve all their
members, including the weak, aged and handicapped. Taking innocent human life through abortion and euthanasia is a
direct attack on human life and dignity.
Respect for human life demands the life-protecting options of adoption
and palliative care. The destruction of
embryonic human beings, lethal human embryo experimentation and abortifacients
also involve the wrongful taking of human life.
Actions
-
Protect and respect through public policy the inherent
dignity of human life.
-
Prohibit by law all forms of artificial manipulation
of human life that threaten human dignity, including cloning, in vitro
fertilization, abortion, and embryo experimentation.
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Encourage media and other institutions (such as
schools and non-governmental organizations) to uphold the above principle.
The Family and Population
Principle
Procreation is the key to the survival of the human
race. An increasing number of countries are experiencing
below population birth rates due to misguided population-control programs that
promote contraception, abortion, delayed marriages, and the abandonment of the
institution of marriage. Demographic
growth is an indication of the expansion of human resources that represents
challenges and opportunities, not burdens (poverty, hunger, and disease have
other causes, including a lack of good will and misuse of governmental
resources). These problems can be solved
by education, creative social policies, economic development and promotion of
family integrity regardless of geographical boundaries, cultural practices and
religious affiliation.
Actions
-
Make individuals aware of the positive social
consequences of parenthood within marriage.
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Provide incentives by the state and educational
institutions to promote marriage and support the natural family and pro-life
policies aimed at reversing the declining fertility rate.
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In countries with below replacement birthrates,
encourage an increase in population to provide a broad foundation to help
support the expanded elderly population.
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Allocate public resources to encourage responsible
married-couple families to have children.
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Craft an economic system that allows women to stay
home and to bear the number of children
they desire.
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Affirm that environmental improvement can be
compatible with population growth.
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Encourage media and other institutions (such as
schools and non-governmental organizations) to uphold the above principle.
The Family and Education
Principle
Parents possess the primary authority and
responsibility to direct the upbringing and education of their children, except
in clear cases of abuse and neglect. By its nature, education is not only technical and
practical but also moral and spiritual.
The family is the child’s first school with parents their first and most
important teachers. The state usurps
the parental role when it monopolizes and mandates the educational system and
deprives parents of their intrinsic authority over their children’s education. School curricula should not undermine the
right of parents to teach their children moral and spiritual values. Parents have a duty to their children and to
society to provide their children an adequate education. Parents should be free to spend their
resources for education, including tax money, on the schools of their choice,
such as sending them to a religious school or educating their children
themselves in the home.
Actions
-
Structure state policy to respect the natural
authority and primary responsibility of parents over the education of their
children.
-
Craft policies that are responsive to parents who need
assistance in fulfilling this duty.
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Encourage media and other institutions (such as
schools and non-governmental organizations) to uphold the above principle.
The Family, Economy and Development
Principle
The natural family is the fundamental unit in society
for economic growth and development. Promoting the dignity of families and
respecting their rights are necessary conditions for a healthy and stable
society. A nation cannot create true
wealth if its policies lead to family disintegration. Policies that promote responsible government, sustain economic
growth, care for the environment, and promote cultural harmony also support need
of the family. The advancement of
economic, social, technological and political growth is necessary, but not
sufficient for, true human development.
Actions
-
Formulate and implement public programs which include
the family perspective within all government entities.
-
Require evaluations of the impact of public policies
on the natural family.
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Empower families to break the cycle of poverty.
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Include the health and stability of the family as an
indicator of development.
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Facilitate work conditions that allow both men and
women to fulfill their respective family responsibilities.
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Encourage media and other institutions (such as
schools and non-governmental organizations) to uphold the above principle.
The Family and Government
Principle
Government should protect and support the natural
family and not usurp the vital roles that it plays in society. Government
policies should not create pressure for mothers to enter the workplace when
they would prefer to care for their families full time. Government should secure an orderly, lawful,
and just society that allows families freely and responsibly to:
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Marry and bear children
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Pursue meaningful work
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Provide for their
material and health needs
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Direct the education and
upbringing of their children
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Participate in charitable,
civic and recreational activities
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Care for elderly family
members
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Provide security for
their present and future generations, and
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Practice their religion.
Actions
-
Formulate public policies that allow mothers the
choice to remain at home and care for their children.
-
Make the health of the family the primary focus of
international agencies.
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Encourage international agencies to embrace the family
perspective.
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Re-examine international laws and policies that may
harm the well-being of the natural family.
-
Encourage Heads of State and other high governmental
officials to issue proclamations affirming the natural family.
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Identify or create international mechanisms to foster
cooperation in the interests of the natural family.
-
Promote public policies with a clear family
perspective.
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Encourage the media and other institutions (such as
schools and non-governmental organizations) to uphold the above principle.
The Family and Religion
Principle
As the primary educators, parents have
the right to teach their religious and moral beliefs to their children and to
raise them according to their religious precepts. Based
on and consistent with the human right to religious liberty, families have the
right to believe, practice and express their religious views. Religious institutions should not
accommodate cultural trends that undermine the created nature of the
family. Religious institutions have the
crucial cultural-leadership role of affirming that:
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The natural human family
is established in creation
-
The family is essential
to a good society, and
-
Life and sexuality are
gifts from the creator to be enjoyed, respectfully and wholesomely.
Actions
-
Recognize that the state, its agencies, the media or other
entities should not undermine the parents’ role in teaching their
children a belief system and raising them accordingly.
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Encourage media and other institutions (such as
schools and non-governmental organizations) to uphold the above principle.
Call to Respect the Family
We exhort all persons, families, social entities,
governments, and international organizations throughout the world to adopt the
family perspective to craft and pursue realistic targets for action, and to
respect and uphold the institution of the natural human family for the good of
present and future generations, in accordance with the principles and
recommended guidelines of the Declaration adopted at the third World Congress
of Families in Mexico City.