The Pontifical Council for the Family has responded to the numerous attacks on the most basic building block of society: the family. "The Church cannot fail to shed light on this reality in its discernment of the 'signs of the times'," when the number of people in de facto unions is growing as never before, and the list of countries where laws are passed to the detriment of marriage and the family is ever increasing. This document reaffirms the central place in God's plan for man's happiness of a stable union in marriage and of the family.