Natural Law and Family Share Common Ground

By Clare MacDonnell
^{HERALD Staff Writer}

What does natural law have to do with the family?

According to the 30^th annual international Wanderer Forum held in Washington on September 5-7, the two are inseparable.

Without natural law there would be no family, since man naturally forms families, which form societies. The Wanderer Forum, with its hosts of professional speakers and student delegates from colleges across the nation, brought to light the fact that if society is to regain a sense of morality and justice, there has to be an awakening to the concept of natural law and the family as the basis of society.

Discussing the relationship between natural law and the family were such speakers as Father Hugh Barbour, OPraem, prior of St. Michael’s Abbey in Silverado, Calif.; Joanna Bogle, author, columnist and commentator on marriage and the family from London, England; Father Kenneth Baker, S J, President of Catholic Views Broadcasting in Fairfield, N.J.; Randy Engel, author and founder of U.S. Coalition for Life in Media, Pa.; and Dr. Casey Fallon of Skancateles, N.Y., a student at Thomas Aquinas College in Santa Paula, Calif.

Many perspectives of the family came form a wide spectrum of laity and clergy and were a valuable witness to the centrality of the family in the future of Catholicism. If education in the faith, positive role models and strong morality are not learned in the family, then the Church and society will suffer.

The importance of the family, as a fundamental aspect of natural law which rules all men, was exhorted throughout the conference. Appeals were made to the documents of St. Thomas Aquinas, Aristotle and numerous other philosophers, which uphold that the only way to unite people to a common and traditional morality is through an understanding of natural law.

An especially unique and welcomed perspective came from banquet speaker Dr. Jeffrey B. Satinover of Weston, Conn., who addressed a room full of Catholics as a member of the Jewish faith. His expertise in natural law and the family, as well as his sense of humor, were greatly appreciated by the audience.

He noted that the common ground between Jews and Catholics is natural law, which can be found in the Old Testament, and also the strong commitment to the family for which both faiths are especially known. Satinover spoke of the family as the support and model of the state.

"When the family becomes disordered in certain ways the state becomes disordered in complementary ways," Satinover said. Thus, he concluded that if Jews and Catholics have been the traditional defenders of the family which is the basis of society, then we must work together to restore the state by building strong families.

We must also heed the call of evangelism to restore the notion of natural law because many in the world are currently frustrated because they do not recognize their natural yearning for a relationship with the divine and are destroying the moral order as a result.

"The longing for God is still alive in people and it is our duty to recognize it in people and help them place it properly," Satinover said.

The forum was sponsored by the Wanderer Forum Foundation, which seeks to "help restore orthodoxy to the Catholic Church in the United States and Canada," though forums, publications, student affiliates and specialized research projects.

For information contact National Wanderer Forum, P.O. Box 689, Santa Paula, Calif. 93061-0689, phone 805/933-8222.

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