Pontifical Approval

Pontifical Council for the Laity

Vatican

2050/87/S61/B3a.

Decree

On 23 February 1987, the Superior General of the Congregation of the Religious Sons of the Holy Family, Jesus, Mary and Joseph, presented to the Cardinal President of the Pontifical Council for the Laity the new Holy Family Association Statues for appropriate study with a request for final approval.

Endorsing the will of the Holy Father John Paul II, who “with the whole Church wishes to express veneration and love toward the Family which, thanks to the Son of God, became the domestic church on earth before He founded his Church on the apostles and on Peter,” and bearing in mind:

1. That the Holy Family Association was originally established by Pope Leo XIII with the apostolic brief Neminem Fugit, 6/14/1892, in order to spread the devotion of the Holy

Family so as to bring families ever closer to Jesus, Mary and Joseph;

2. That said Association has been repeatedly praised and recommended by all later Supreme

Pontiffs, and established in many dioceses;

3. That the Congregation of the Religious Sons of the Holy Family, Jesus, Mary and Joseph,

founded by Blessed Joseph Manyanet in order “to promote the honor and devotion of the

Holy Family so as to bring about the Christian formation of families through imitation of its

virtues,” and entrusted with the Secretariat of the Holy Family Association since 4/3/28,

have at their most recent General Chapter of 12/86 - 1/87, reaffirmed their resolve to

implement with increased spiritual and apostolic vitality its goals and activities with new

Statutes;

4. That the new formulation of the Association’s overall aim which is “to spread the devotion

and imitation of the Holy Family in a way that families might configure themselves with

such a Model through some form of consecration,” is in complete accord and harmony with

Pope Leo XIII’s original conception as well as with the teachings of Vatican II and of the

Pontifical magisterium;

5. And that the observations indicated by the Secretariat of State on behalf of His Holiness

John Paul II and by the Pontifical Council for the Family, both expressly consulted in these

matters, have been faithfully incorporated into the present text of new Statues;

this Pontifical Council for the Laity declares, by express mandate of the Holy Father, that the new Statues of the Holy Family Association are hereby approved in accordance with Can. 314 of the Code of Canon Law, and all norms relative to public associations for the faithful are now applicable to said Association (Canons 312-320).

Vatican City, 25 November 1987

Paul J. Cordes (Vice President)

Eduard Card. Pironio (President)