In this FRESHImage Presents, Tony Crescio discusses what it means for the Church to teach that the Christian family is the “domestic church.” He begins by examining the sociological findings of Christian Smith and Amy Adamczyk in Handing Down the Faith, which reveals several obstacles in our own time and place to truly understanding and living these teachings of the Church. Tony then goes on to discuss how the family can rightly be understood as the “domestic church” and how when it is, parenting becomes a clear path to holiness for all parents, traveled above all by practicing the works of mercy within the home.
Music written and performed by Stephanie Wise
Works Cited
Christian Smith and Amy Adamczyk, Handing Down the Faith: How Parents Pass Their Religion on to the Next Generation
Jana Bennett, Water is Thicker Than Blood: An Augustinian Theology of Marriage and Singleness
Marc Cardinal Oullet, Mystery and Sacrament of Love: A Theology of Marriage and the Family for the New Evangelization
Pope St. John Paul II, Familiaris Consortio
Pope St. Paul VI, Humanae Vitae
Pope St. Paul VI, Evangelii Nuntiandi
Pope St. John XXIII, Mater et Magistra
Augustine of Hippo, Marriage and Desire
Augustine of Hippo, Holy Virginity
Second Vatican Council, Gavissimum Educationis
Second Vatican Council, Lumen Gentium
Tony Crescio is the founder of FRESHImage Ministries. He holds an MTS from the University of Notre Dame and is currently a PhD candidate in Christian Theology at Saint Louis University. His research focuses on the intersection between moral and sacramental theology. His dissertation is entitled, Presencing the Divine: Augustine, the Eucharist and the Ethics of Exemplarity.
Tony’s academic publications can be found here.