55: Parental Dignity
Chapter 55, "Parental Dignity," introduces the Fourth Commandment, which shifts focus from direct duties to God to our indirect relations through His creatures, particularly parents as representatives of divine authority and authors of our being. This commandment mandates respect, love, obedience, and assistance towards parents, and by extension, all legitimate superiors, with failure to do so constituting a sin. The text laments the contemporary devaluation of parental dignity due to societal trends, stressing that parental authority precedes and, within bounds, transcends that of Church and State, reflecting a quasi-divine function of procreation that connects humanity directly to God's creative power and demands profound honor.
For the full audiobook can be obtained here. The contents of this volume appeared originally in The Catholic Transcript, of Hartford, Connecticut, in weekly installments, from February, 1901, to February, 1903.
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