Charter of the Rights of the Family

The Charter of the Rights of the Family is a document issued by the Holy See on October 22, 1983, setting out the position of the Vatican on the rights owed to the family as a social institution. Its preamble holds that rights carry a fundamental social dimension expressed above all through the family, describes the family as founded on marriage and open to children, and asserts that the family exists prior to the state or any other community, as a natural society with its own inalienable rights. The charter was addressed to all persons, institutions and authorities concerned with the place of the family in the modern world, and it remains a reference document in Catholic social teaching on family policy.