GENITORI. -
I. DEFINITION
Parents, from the Latin genitor, are those who generated us into life. St. Thomas calls them: "the particular principle of our being, as God is the universal principle" (Sum. Theol., 2ᵃ-2ᵃᶜ, q. 112, a.5). For just as God created men, so parents procreated their children; just as God preserves creatures in their being and directs them to their end by his Providence, so parents guard their children with their care and by their counsels and examples govern them and direct them to their end. The relations of parents toward their children belong to the natural law, since the domestic society is anterior to any other form of society. It follows as a consequence that any interference of the State tending to arrogate to itself the task of educating children is unlawful and arbitrary.
The principles of the supporters of this opinion are well known. Parents, they say, very rarely have the possibility of instilling in their children that education and those directives which are necessary for the common good of the society in which one day they will have to live and work. On the other hand the State has requirements of unity of defense to which all must bring their own contribution. It is therefore up to the State to subject the various tendencies of parents to its own requirements, which are in the last analysis those of the community. Whoever reasons thus forgets that if the State has the right and the duty to intervene and to contribute to the education of citizens and even to take the place of parents when they are unable to do so, it cannot in any case modify or abrogate the dictates of the natural law, since it is engraved in the heart of every man by God himself. The opposite error, but equally dangerous, is that of those who, rejecting the authority of the State in the education of offspring, maintain however that not even parents have such a right, but since children are entirely independent of any authority, they alone have the right to choose the kind of education that most pleases them. Of these and other errors concerning the rights and duties of parents Pius XI speaks at length in the encyclical Divini illius Magistri of Dec. 31, 1929, and gives their refutation.
II. DUTIES OF PARENTS
1. Love
Besides being a general duty of charity, the love of children is also a specific duty of piety. It embraces three things: to will the good of the children, to do them good, and to keep them far from evil, whether physical or spiritual.
The obligation of love belongs to the natural law. Through instinct it is manifested even in animals. The watchful care with which animals surround their offspring is well known. The same tendency is manifested, even more evidently, in men. To such a degree that parents who forget or trample upon this fundamental duty of theirs are considered monsters. Children, on the other hand, at least up to a certain age, are incapable of providing for themselves: they therefore have the right to be cared for, helped, and defended. To the right of the children there necessarily corresponds the duty of the parents. Let it be added that children are an integral part of the parents, born of their union; the same blood flows in them, they inherit their good or bad tendencies, they are a prolongation of their life and of their love. They therefore deserve to be loved as one loves a part of one's own being. This love must be: affective and effective, internal and external, natural and supernatural.
a) Affective and internal. So that they sincerely seek and will the good of their children, whether bodily or spiritual, for the present and for the future. Those therefore sin gravely who hate or curse or wish evil upon their children, who offend them with gravely insulting words. In the latter case, however, in practice they are very often excused from grave sin, because they do it in the impulse of anger. This love of children must, however, be regulated. It must therefore be neither exaggerated, so as to make idols of the children, granting them everything, or not correcting them when they do wrong; nor partial, so as to love one child more than another, even if the latter be more deserving; nor egoistic, that is, it must not be a self-interested love. b) Effective and external. That is, parents must not only will the good of their children, but must also procure it according to their means. Those parents therefore sin who do not give their children what is necessary for their physical as well as their spiritual health, or who, when able, do not ward off an evil that threatens them. c) Natural and supernatural. Natural, because children are a part of themselves; supernatural, because parents are cooperators with God in procreating and sanctifying their children.
2) Education. - It is the first good that parents must procure for their children. This too is an obligation of the natural law. "Nature," says St. Thomas, "tends not only to the procreation of the child, but also to its development and progress, so as to lead it to the state of the perfect man" (Sum. Theol., 3rd part, q. 41, a. 1). Education must be above all spiritual; without, however, neglecting the bodily. It is further necessary that education be virile, congruous and proportioned both to the disposition of the individual children and to their future condition. Finally, it must be Christian, that is, ordered to the supernatural end.
Bodily education includes: the duty of protecting the life of the child from the moment of its conception; the duty of giving it the necessary food and of procuring that its body develop healthy and robust. Spiritual education embraces the duty of instruction, both religious and civil, of good example, of vigilance and of correction. Of the first duty there forms part the grave obligation for parents to have their children baptized as soon as possible. A notable delay of Baptism, without a legitimate cause, constitutes grave sin. Likewise the obligation to teach children the first truths of the faith from early childhood.
No less grave is the obligation to give children an adequate culture. To this end parents must consult the tastes and aptitudes of the children, so as not to run the risk of making them misfits. Nor must they fail to study their vocation without letting themselves be guided by considerations of interest and by dreams of grandeur. Vigilance consists in preventing evil or in stifling it at the root. Parents must keep their children far from everything that could harm their soul, such as companions, books, shows, schools, etc.
The duty of education is grave in itself or "ex genere suo," as St. Alphonsus says (Theol. moralis, ed. L. Gaudé, I, Rome 1905, I, III, n. 336, p. 604). The CIC (can. 1113) calls it most grave; Pius XI, in the encyclical Rappresentanti in terra, implores pastors of souls not to neglect any means of recalling parents to "their most grave duties." St. Thomas goes so far as to say "that parents are not permitted to enter religion without having provided, in one way or another, for the education of their children" (Sum. Theol., 2nd-2nd part, q. 189, a. 6). A grave obligation for parents is therefore that of sending their children to those schools in which there is no danger for their religious education. Can. 1374 of the CIC in this regard is very severe.
From what has been said thus far one may conclude that parents must prepare themselves for their duties as educators. They must therefore: a) know and consider who the child is. He is not merely flesh of their flesh, but a creature endowed with a soul and a supernatural life, destined for an eternal end, a deposit of which they will have to render account to God. b) Take care to know and to use all those human resources of psychology and pedagogy that can facilitate their task. c) Rely on Grace. The work they must accomplish is in some way divine. Only spiritual means can therefore prove adequate. Prayer will give parents the supernatural understanding of the deepest needs of their children and the means to satisfy them. It will create in the children that confidence toward their parents so necessary lest the efforts of the latter be in vain.
Civil legislation is also severe with regard to the duties of parents toward their children. Parents who violate the obligations of family assistance, or who abuse the means of correction and discipline, or who become guilty of maltreatment of children, are punished with various penalties, which increase proportionally when a grave or most grave personal injury or death results to the child (Cod. pen. it., artt. 570, 571, 572).