The Fourth Commandment
Honor your father and your mother.
successes and failures. Sometimes the relationship between parent and
child can be broken. Nevertheless, honor, or respect, must always be
of obeying this commandment. “Respecting this commandment provides,
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along with spiritual fruits, temporal fruits of peace and prosperity.
Conversely, failure to observe it brings great harm to communities and
to individuals.”
In its section on the fourth commandment, the Catechism speaks at
length about the family, including the duties of children – “Obedience
toward parents ceases with the emancipation of the children; not so respect,
which is always owed to them.” (CCC 2217) – and the duties of
parents – “Parents must regard their children as children of God and
respect them as human persons.” (CCC 2222)
It also expands this idea of honor and respect to the greater society and
includes sections on the duties of civil authorities – “Political authorities
are obliged to respect the fundamental rights of the human person.”
(CCC 2237) – and the duties of citizens – “It is the duty of citizens to
contribute along with the civil authorities to the good of society in a
spirit of truth, justice, solidarity and freedom.” (CCC 2239)
The fourth commandment is a call to give honor and respect to all those
in authority, beginning with the bedrock of society, the family.
For further study:
CCC 2196-2257