Familial Child Abuse
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Contact Us
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luisa-depooaustindiocese.orgSecretariat Dir. Life, Charity and Justice | Director of Life, Marriage and Family -
Hannah Haddadhannah-haddadaustindiocese.orgAssociate Director of Life, Marriage, and Family
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Families are the basic structure of our society, the 'domestic church', and the source of intentional and passed-along knowledge of life and faith. According to the National Children's Alliance, 77% of children are victimized by their parents. When children are abused by their parents or other family members they experience a uniquely painful wound. As children, we are made to rely on and learn from our parents. This is a beautiful gift of parenthood but can also cause dramatic harm to a child's physical, emotional, and spiritual state. As a Church, we must continue to strengthen marriage and parenting skills to prevent and mitigate child abuse.
Please find below resources about child abuse, local counseling centers for survivors of child abuse, and resources to help grow parenting skills and marriage strength to prevent abuse. -
Child Abuse Education
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Marriage Enrichment Resources
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The family is the original cell of social life. It is the natural society in which husband and wife are called to give themselves in love and in the gift of life. Authority, stability, and a life of relationships within the family constitute the foundations for freedom, security, and fraternity within society. The family is the community in which, from childhood, one can learn moral values, begin to honor God, and make good use of freedom. Family life is an initiation into life in society...Parents have the first responsibility for the education of their children. They bear witness to this responsibility first by creating a home where tenderness, forgiveness, respect, fidelity, and disinterested service are the rule. The home is well suited for education in the virtues. This requires an apprenticeship in self-denial, sound judgment, and self-mastery - the preconditions of all true freedom. Parents should teach their children to subordinate the "material and instinctual dimensions to interior and spiritual ones." Parents have a grave responsibility to give good example to their children...
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