

































 
 

Sustainability of the Human Family for the Realization 
of World Peace 

  
 

Uche Emoefe EKIUGBO (Ph.D) 
Department of Social Studies Education, College of Arts and Social Science Education, 

 Bamidele Olumilua University of Education, Science and Technology,  
Ikere-Ekiti, Ekiti State, Nigeria.  Phone No:  +2348137230258. 

 
& 
 

Philip Osarobu ISANBOR 
Department of Philosophy,  St. Albert Institute, Fayit, Kagoma, Kaduna State, Nigeria 

(An Affiliate of the University of Jos, Nigeria)    
Email: osarobuisanbor@gmail.com,   Phone: +234(0)816-308-9299 

 

Abstract 

Over the times, the thrust concerns of integral humanism have been driven within and along the 
values of the human family. For so many ecclesiological thinkers and theologians like John 
Paul II and Benedict XVI, the sustainability of the universe depends on the values place on the 
human family. Such social philosophy recognised that the human family is a common home for 
common and authentic development. It is a platform that places humanity as an end, not a 
means for the content of progress and advancement. After-all, humanity is conceived as the 
measure of all things. Humanity determines what should be called development. With such 
social and developmental conviction, humanities are expected to take more seriously the 
respects, promotion and protection of their families as the cradle of civilization and as a 
community of peace. Here, the paper philosophically revisits Benedict XVI’s 2008 Message for 
the World Day of Peace, by assessing its ethics of living for the realization of integral human 
development. Only through the valuation of the family can true peace, since the foundation of 
the human family is in God. The paper is also concerned about the trends of human civilization 
and development that should commonly adopted, along the dictates of natural law, in order to 
safeguard the human family from the effects of misguided and erotic world policies and 
programmes, that may even lead it into extinction in possible future, if human freedom and 
powers of legislations and innovations are not properly checkmated.   

Keywords: Integral Human Development, World Day of Peace, Benedict XVI, Human Family, Human Rights 

 

Introduction 
 The courses to safeguard humankind from any agency of its extinction and the mission to 
redeem it from any social conditioning of self-enslavement are always in the mind of every 
meaningful societal organization, and the religious communities are an exception, especially, those 
which have the service for integral humanism in the evangelic agenda, necessarily towards the 
realization of social order and justice.  According to Benedict XVI (2008, no. 14): 

Humanity today is unfortunately experiencing great division and sharp 
conflicts which cast dark shadow on its future. Vast areas of the world are 
caught up in situations of increasing tension, while the danger of an 
increase in the number of countries possessing nuclear weapons causes 
well-founded apprehension in every responsible person. 

 So especially, in the course of pontificate, in 1968, Pope Paul VI initiated the undying gesture 
for the appeal for global ethics, justice and peace in the name of Messages for the World Day of 

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Peace, which he delivered on the first day of the year. From the record, every succeeded pope has 
ecclesiologically taken up the quests for the realization of the culture of peace by delivering the 
message for peace development and formulation every year of the pontificate.  According to 
Benedict XVI, the Messages for the World Day of Peace were “born of a providential intuition of 
Paul VI and carried forward with great conviction by my beloved and venerable predecessor John 
Paul II, the celebration of this Day of Peace has made it possible for the church, over the course of 
the years, to present in these Messages an instructive body of teaching regarding this fundamental 
human good” (Benedict XVI, 2008, no. 15). And the initiative has been faithfully honoured and 
carried out, and better still, promoted by every successor of the pontificate.  

Therefore, we aimed at revisiting Benedict XVI’s 2008 Message for the World Day of 
Peace, with the title: The Human Family: A Community of Peace, posits that the attainment of 
integral humanism should be on the comprehensive valuation of human family, when fully admitted 
and respected, especially in social and political policies making, to be the solution to many world 
problems, if not all. The religious communities appear to be in troubled waters of globalised human 
world, where what happened in an obscured human settlement is known easily in the rest parts of 
the world, negatively or positively. In it, Benedict XVI recognises that “humanity is one great 
family” and what alters such recognition of human authenticity, subjectivity and personality is 
practically inviting possible extinction of human race from the face of the earth, principally due to 
the courses of the alienation of peace and justice in the minds of many person and groups.  
 
Statements of the Problem 

The Messages for the World Day of Peace readily substantiates the courses of integral 
humanism through the institutionalization of the culture of peace, just like all social encyclicals. 
The messages constantly directed that the thrusts for integral humanism must be aimed at not only 
compelling the State and other structures that seem oppressive to respond to the needs of the 
citizens. They also direct and admonish at clarifying the roles of peace and justice the citizens must 
play in struggling for the rights of the human persons (Vasumu, Iwu & Ugwu, 2013). Such 
understanding of the human persons as beings of experience is to situate the understanding of world 
through rational positioning of natural processes of events, and allow the human persons to have 
confidence in themselves, knowing that they are at the centre of world’s knowledge and 
development.   

Secular humanism as a way of living advocates for the idea of human beings as persons of 
development and experience able to create their own future, specifically without reference to the 
influences and workings of God in human dealings and affairs. The humanistic thought of 
development simply values the human rationality over God’s rationality. And such conviction has 
been based on empirical evidence or ability of the powers of human innovation and creativities in 
modern and contemporary times. It has gone along to deny God’s authority in the rising power of 
human ingenuity. But, the strength of integral humanism is on the involvement and recognition of 
the indispensable presence of God in human dealings and affairs. Integral humanism is godly and 
humane, owing to the fact that humans as persons do not create themselves, and at such, any act of 
development demands the involvement of God since the human persons are not merely 
materialistic.      

The issues of development have been long situated with the understanding of human 
persons. Such issues of development depend heavily on the ability of human persons to understand 
their very selves, especially, most properly and adequately. It is all on human ability to change the 
world through the understanding and proper applications of the contents of lived experiences. This 
understanding is on the substantiation of the essentiality of human persons in the faces of societal 
factors that are limiting the directedness of their authenticity, and most probably, the subjectivity in 
the objectivity of persons in terms of their creative and innovative capacities and capabilities.  

The organic unit of the valuation of human family is logically positioned, and “it produces a 
systematic body of knowledge. In different cultural contexts and at different times, this process has 
yielded results which have produced genuine systems of thought” (John Paul II 1998, no. 4), owing 
to the understanding of ethics of living built on the interplay of faith and reason. Both faith and 
reason recognise the values of human rights. Within the contemporary societal agitations of rights 

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and the demands of privileges, John Paul II exacts that the indispensable nature of the human 
family for the sustainability of the whole universe cannot be pushed away from the paths of 
relevance. It post that the human society is best understood by the referential consideration of the 
human family in which creation is greatly and fully expressed such philosophy notes the part of the 
sustainability of creation depends on the sustainability of the human family. It recognizes that 
secular humanism with the trends of many agitations right and liberties and the oppositions, the 
components of the human family face the risk of extinction and alienation.  

The above social conviction of John Paul II was the seat of Benedict XVI’s concern for the 
sustainability of the human family through charity in truth. Benedict XVI understands that, so 
consciously, the current trend of human quest of innovative relevance and creative odour-ness has 
been pushing the dilemmatic recognitions of social and unethical challenges and policies against the 
dignity of the human family, such as: legalization of abortion and other forms of infanticides, 
promotion of euthanasia, diplomacy of cloning, culturing of artificial birth controls and 
reproductive methods, policies of wars and armament, rapidity of industrial and chemical 
environmental pollutions, culture of human experimentation and organ harvesting, etc. He projects 
that, if contemporarily not checkmated; will indispensably lead the world into, first, chaotic 
embrace of unfriendly history, thereafter, extinction. Contemporary society has been conscious of 
the effects of moral relativism in the enthroned emotivist culture, the wrangling pavilion of 
homosexuality and other moral unseated sexual orientations, the band of social acclamation of 
misguided cosmetic surgeries, the rooted sanctuary of vainglory-ness in cybercrime and cyber-
ritualism, and the likes. With these, it is obvious that there are questions humanities have to answer 
for themselves.  
 
Hinge of Benedict XVI’s 2008 Message for the World Day of Peace 

Thereby, it is highly evaluated by many contemporary theological philosophers that the 
valuation of social concerns of the Benedict XVI’s 2008 Message for the World Day of Peace 
heavily hinged on the respect of human family in our contemporary troublesome and confused 
human society.  The questions here are: what is peace in relation to the sustainability of the human 
family? Can there be the world without the human family? How can the human family be the 
community of peace in order to sustain the world? For Benedict XVI (2013, no. 3): 

The attainment of peace depends above all on recognizing that we are, in 
God, one human family. This family is structured, as the Encyclical Pacem 
in Terris taught, by interpersonal relations and institutions supported and 
animated by a communitarian “we”, which entails an internal and external 
moral order in which, in accordance with truth and justice, reciprocal rights 
and mutual duties are sincerely recognized. Peace is an order enlivened and 
integrated by love, in such a way that we feel the needs of others as our own, 
share our goods with others and work throughout the world for greater 
communion in spiritual values. It is an order achieved in freedom, that is, in 
a way consistent with the dignity of persons who, by their very nature as 
rational beings, take responsibility for their own actions. 
 

Evidently, Benedict XVI’s Messages for the World Day of Peace were developed along 
socio-philosophical tradition for the human person through the Mission of Theology and his efforts 
are based on social consciousness in safeguarding human family through the realization of integral 
humanism in charity of truth. There is a sense of clarity to be expressed in truth because there is a 
community of persons, always for the sake of social order, justice and peace.  According to 
Benedict XVI (2008, no. 3); 

The family is the foundation of society, for the reason too; because it 
enables its members in decisive ways to experience peace. It follows that 
the human community cannot do without the service provided by the 
family. Where can young people gradually learn to savour the genuine 
“taste” of peace better than the original “nest” when nature prepares for 
them? The language of the family is a language of peace. In the inflation 

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of its speech, society cannot cease to refer to that “grammar” which all 
children learn from the looks and the actions of their mothers and fathers, 
even before they learn from their words. 

The quest for peace in our world of greed, selfishness and avarice remains a missionary task 
that is philosophically orchestrated to work towards the redemption of humankind. Every human 
sense or model of development must be on the valuation of human family, based on the 
achievement of social order, peace, justice, godly freedom and the respect for human rights, 
considering the sustenance of human society (Omoregbe, 2011). The understanding of the natural 
order of human affairs and actions is evaluated on the use of human reasoning in knowing what is 
good and then do it, and what is bad and then avoid it.  

Within the quest for social peace and justice, the sustainability of the environment cannot be 
distant from the development of the human family. The advocacies of ecological continence, 
disarmament, vibrant environment impact assessment, environmental diplomacies and laws are for 
the sustainability of the human family.  The absence of human family presupposes the absence of 
governments, education, economic diplomacies and social order. The sustainability of the human 
family presupposes the existence of lives on which every development depends. According to 
Benedict XVI (2008); “the natural family as an intimate communion of life and love, based on 
marriage between a man and a woman, constitutes the primary place of humanization for the person 
and society” (no. 2). It needs a peaceful and safe environment for proper development, and 
ultimately, for salvific ending with the creator of the universe.  

With this definition and conception of the family, based on the dictates and understanding of 
natural law, Benedict XVI did not considered other forms of family originated from the 
contemporary sexual cultures and orientations, this is very understandable and tolerable because his 
socio-ecclesiological institution only recognised the marital union of a man and a woman to form a 
family. That is family in the mind of God. “The family is therefore rightly defined as the first 
natural society, a divine institution that stands at the foundation of life of the human person as a 
prototype of every social order” (Benedict XVI, 2008, no. 2). The family is naturally instituted as a 
home of peace and social order, and that should respect what happen in the society because the 
family is the foundation of the society.  

Benedict XVI’s 2008 Message for the World Day of Peace on the values of the human 
family for the realization of world peace, is a philosophy of social reconstruction, centred on the 
holistic liberation of the humanity and the return of humanity to the God in wholeness. Benedict 
XVI’s social philosophy recognises this purpose as presented in the Messages for the World Day of 
Peace alongside with the tradition of the modern pontificates. The social’s concern for integral 
humanism in ‘charity of truth’ or ‘truth in charity’ is situated in the Mission of Theology in which 
Benedict XVI’s 2008 Message for the World Day of Peace interferes in societal matters regarding 
peace-building, peace-making and peace-keeping. No peace is possible outside the valuation of the 
human family. For the sustainability of the human family brings social order and justice.  

Benedict XVI, just on the foundation laid by John Paul II, reacts to social problems by the 
projection of the social teaching principles as solutions when honestly adapted, all to the obedience 
to the natural law principles. Benedict XVI’s 2008 Message for the World Day of Peace recognises 
that only in conceptual contextualization can the human individual as a person, and as a member of 
the human family, will be easily understood in all forms of socialization for the realization of 
integral humanism. Such socialization is situated within the placement of common good, justice and 
peace as product of human morality, and recognises that only when the human rights are holistically 
respected, promoted and protected, the society will be a home indeed. It ultimately recognises that 
if the whole humanity values its rights and dignity as ontologically and evidently vested on it by 
natural law, the possibility of integral humanism is vastly realistic.  
 
Human Family in Contemporary Conflict-Driven Landscaping 

Understandably, to be conceptually situated in considering its pragmatic social relevance 
and placement, Benedict XVI’s 2008 message for the World Day of Peace is hinged of the societal 
values of some ecclesiologico-social encyclicals, such as Paul VI’s Populorum Progressio and John 
Paul II’s Sollicitudo rei socialis. It is also born from the encounter of the demands of the gospel 

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with the problems arising from the society. Over the time, it has developed and still developing in 
functional changing circumstances of history and for social reconstructing and reengineering of the 
human society.  

The term “messages” is grounded on gospel hermeneutical tradition of constant teaching of 
the people, especially in the exercise of religious liberty and tolerance and in the services to 
humanity. It is about the liberation of the totality of the human person through the institutions of 
common good and solidarity (Benedict XVI 2008, no. 7).  It is about the holistic liberation of 
wholeness of human beingness. This is because; Benedict XVI’s 2008 Message for the World Day 
of Peace is situated in human society and must make its present felt in it.  

The ethics of Messages for the World Day of Peace is always reacting to the dehumanising 
situations which humanity is subjecting itself to, especially against the sense of morality and faith. 
Such social reactions based on theological principles, is to socially integrate human persons in their 
society, irrespective of their colour, race and beliefs. More especially, Benedict XVI’s 2008 
Message for the World Day of Peace has been understood to have directed the attention of the 
world to the rescue of the falling human society through the morality of the human family. It is by 
sustaining the human family that the world as a whole is sustained. This is about moral 
theologisation of human social affairs in relation to their peace development through the theology 
of the human family. According to Ebenezer Oloidi, “the understanding of moral theology can be 
better appreciated in the line of a branch of philosophy called ethics or moral philosophy. It is 
argued that the basic content of the Biblical Ten Commandments is found in natural ethics” (Oloidi, 
2018, 90).  

Benedict XVI’s Messages for the World Day of Peace with morals and faith, projects to 
classify human conditions in truth.  Such is the sense of social re-engineering that is on the quest 
for integral humanism, considering the indispensable calls for a social economic balance, based on 
the thoughts of Paul VI’s Populorum progressio, John Paul II’s Centisimus annus, Sollicitudo rei 
Socialis, Benedict XVI’s Caritas in Veritate, and Francis’ Laudato si. For instance, in Centisimus 
Annus, John Paul II (1991: no. 38) posits that:  

Man receives from God his essential dignity with it the capacity to transcend 
every social order so as to move toward truth and goodness. But he is also 
conditioned by the social structure in which he lives, by the education he has 
received and by his environment. These elements can either help or hinder 
his living in accordance with the truth the decisions which create a human 
environment can give rise to specific structure of sin which impede the full 
realization of close who are in any way oppressed by them. To destroy such 
structures and replace them with more authentic forms of living in 
community is a task which demands courage and patience. 
 

According to Benedict XVI’s Mission of Theology, the philosophy of integral humanism 
examines the ethical ontology of the Trinity – the theological exegesis of Imago Trinitatis. It is 
about the understanding of the world through the unity of the human persons. This conception of 
integral humanism recognizes the social imports of the human family are best functional on the 
indispensable relationships of the persons of the Trinity. With the presence of God in human 
dealings and affairs, the human family is to be sustained in all forces of contemporary social and 
political uncertainties. It is expected that humanities resolve to value the relationship which 
eternally exists amongst the Divine and Humans, in order to establish peace unendingly and 
undyingly. According to Benedict XVI (2008, no. 6): 

The family community, in order to proper, needs the generous consent of all 
its members. This realization also needs to become a shared conviction on 
the part of all those called to form the common human family. We need to 
say our own “yes” to this vocation which God has inscribed on our very 
nature. We do not live alongside one another purely by chance, all of us are 
progressing along a common path as men and women, and thus as brothers 
and sisters.  

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Here, we try to awaken the contemporary social consciousness for the promotion, protection 
and respect of human family through its philosophical cum theological traditions, a possible course 
for integral humanism. We explicate the purposeful linkage of messages for the World Day of 
Peace  in evaluating the challenges of the human family in contemporary humanity, and thereby, 
maintaining her terrestrial exactness of integral humanism. Then, we look at the ethics of Messages 
for the World Day of Peace as they explicate its notion and conception of the development of 
humanity by its adoption of integral humanistic paradigm, and emphasis on the morality of the 
human family. This is because, our contemporary trends of development have seen to lost touch for 
holistic valuation of human person, on their extreme materialistic vest of the human person, a one-
sided tradition for development to the detriment for the wholeness of the human family. No wonder, 
as Oredipe (2013, 69) posits that:  

No doubt, a better understanding of humanity is necessary at the present 
time. We need the courage to risk a new visioning and thinking of what it 
means to be human who brings together in a fitting, unified society, what 
should be called meaningful with many dimensions of being human.  

It exemplifies that; to be human is to be authentic and integral, a vision for healthy human 
civilization. Hence, it will be taking the real valuation of the human family to understand the real 
thrust for integral humanism, supposedly, to be visible in every nation’s policy of developmental 
quest.  
 
Ethics for the Social Developmental Concerns of the Human Family  

The ethics of the Messages for the World Day of Peace is directed to protect and promote 
the values of the human family, by considering the ontological importance of human actions. The 
issue of peace, justice and development in human society demands the assessments of some human 
activities that hinder the realisation of it, even a little quantum of it (Isanbor, 2013). We witness 
today a shift from solidarity to self-centredness, a frightening erosion of values that reduces the 
ability of the human family to respond to its vocation. Human family faces many formidable 
challenges such as selfishness, materialism, infidelity, to mention but these (CBCN 2015, no. 5). 
So, the assessments of some factors or human activities seem to be very necessary in this 
circumstance. This is because; the society is made up of groups of individuals cooperating in the 
pursuits of several of their major interests, invariably including self-maintenance and self-
perpetuation. The concept of society includes continuity, complex associational relationship, and a 
composition including representatives of fundamental human types, specifically men, women, and 
children. Human society should be very well prepared to pay a great price to define the 
meaningfulness of the human personhood with considerable clarity of faith and precision of reason 
(Oredipe 2013, 85). All these arrangements should not be hindered by human freedom but manage 
them for the sustainability of human race.  

More straightforwardly, the concerns for any developmental approach should be universally 
humanistic and not limited to the protection of human species alone. It is also transcendentally 
realistic, because the human family needs to be redeemed base on the composite nature – the body 
and the soul. This projection is to save humankind from self-destruction, self- abnegation and self-
alienation. This latter classification of its relevance brings the complementarily of ecclesiological 
concerns in order to vest some realistic interests on human family by projecting integral humanism, 
especially within the domiciliary of peace, justice and common good (see, NADRE 2014; Vatican 
II 1965, no. 26). This concern is hinged the contemporary trends on: bridging the gap between the 
poor and the rich; unethical biotechnology; consumerism; international debt; false migration; 
diplomatic oppression and abnegation; religious violence; armament; injustice for women and 
gender imbalance; racism; violation of human rights; the population explosion; refugees; 
environmental pollution; and the likes. This classification brings the ontological status of humanity 
to the fore, as some theistic existentialists will always interject these factors against the realization 
of integral humanism.  

The concern for integral humanism does not see that all human projects to be done in 
exercise of its freedom, but been determined by spiritual, metaphysical, theological, environmental 
and psychological factors that considers that human family is beyond mortality and physicality. The 

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universality of human personhood exemplifies the indispensable nature of it as a nation. “A nation 
is itself a family of families, a community of persons who share common core values, and the 
family is the nucleus of the community of persons that a nation is” (CBCN, 2015, no. 3). The all-
roundedness of the human family in the created world shows the universality of the commonness of 
human beings, and this indicates the universality of the doctrine or principle of common good. The 
universal common good is a complex value. It includes a series of demands that ranged across 
cultures in order to impose itself on humankind because of what humanity is by nature and of what 
it ought to become by its calling.  

Here, the ethics of the Messages for the World Day of Peace claims that the religious and 
supernatural salvations of humankind demand that a certain sociological diversity be preserved 
among the nations of the world even at the natural level. That mankind must be a family containing 
its own diversity, not only because it is called to be a true human family, rather, it is true “divine 
family” through integral intersubjectivity of actions. Also, the rapid growth of civilization is 
determined on how men wish to be governed and earn their living, together with the management of 
human problems arising from rapid scientific and technological developments which call for 
continuous re-examination by societal man in the natural law philosophy. As a matter of fact, the 
whole issue of development and its enduring principles are centred on the promotion and protection 
of the human family. The human family remains the cradle of civil society, and it is in great 
measure within the circle of family life that the destiny of states is fostered. This measure for the 
realisation of this destiny has been hampered by many forces against human life, for which human 
family is established by natural and divine orders. The value of life should be the determinant factor 
for every policy and principle.  

Therefore, human family must be granted and accorded the needed respect and right in order 
to obtain integral humanism, and avoid aberrations of human life, rights and dignity. Benedict 
XVI’s 2008 Message for the World Day of Peace within his Mission of Theology recognises many 
obstacles to the respect of families, and for example, today, the various forms of the erosion of 
marriage values, such as free unions and "trial marriage", and even pseudo-marriages between 
people of the same sex, are instead an expression of anarchic and pseudo freedom that are wrongly 
made to pass as true human liberation. Though, there are many human sexual orientations towards 
the attainment of happiness, but, they must not be outside the dictates of the natural law. The proper 
ethics for human family brings the culture of holistic development of the individual where the 
wholeness of the individual is respected, promoted and protected. This is the thrust of the practices 
and advocacies for integral humanism which are hinged on the liberation, salvation and proper 
socialisation of the complete nature of the individual, that is, the redemption of the material and 
metaphysical components of the human personhood.  

A society built on human family scale is the best guarantee against drifting off course into 
individualism or collectivism, because within human family, the human person is always at the 
centre of attention as an end and never as a means (PCJP, CSDC 2005, no. 215). Hence, due 
attention must obviously be given to responsible procreation, which among other things has a 
positive contribution to make integral humanism realizable in our word so bedevilled with 
erroneous ideologies. The ethics of the Messages for the World Day of Peace urge humanity to 
have full respect for its values in the exercise of its sexuality (Benedict XVI 2009, no. 44). With 
this, human society works to eliminate the effects of individualism and materialism that do not 
promote cultural symbiosis needed. In the promotion of peace and justice, it is the duty of the State 
to protect the interest of the human family. It is an anteriority of development and remains an 
indispensable part to the State which is composed of human families, the State, therefore, enjoys a 
subsidiarity function in relation with human family. It exists to help the family and enable its 
members to develop themselves and fulfil their obligations under the laws of their nature and their 
God.  

More importantly, a humanistic value system calls for a breach of our present notion of 
development, and a re-prioritising of our developmental efforts. Development has to be integral or 
‘holistic’ (Ehusani, 1991: 243). In the mind of the messages for the World Day of Peace, cultural 
morality calls for proper maintenance of natural order that will not rob human dignity of its 
meaning and purpose, hopefully and philosophically, through: aesthetic value of creation; 

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avoidance of industrial pollution and gratifying consumerism; elimination of wars and other types 
of conflicts; simplicity and moderation of individual freedom via spirit of sacrifice; respect for life 
and its rights; and education in and for ecological and social responsibilities; for the attainment of 
integral humanism. The advocacy of “New Solidarity” and spirit of common good, and also, for the 
establishment of communitarian ethics call on strength of  religious and cultural morality: that 
everything must be done to make everyone conscious of the right to culture and the duty it has of 
developing itself culturally and of helping others.  

Though, the subjectivity of individual conception of the use of human freedom, even to its 
own detriment is controlled by the universal application or the objectivity of the sense of morality. 
But, according to John Paul II, when stating the relationship between human work and freedom, 
will state that “man fulfils himself by using his intelligence and freedom. In so doing he utilises the 
things of this world as objects and instruments and makes them his own” (1991, no. 43).  
Man’s very conscience in the exercise of his own freedom becomes the truth that defines his 
authenticity and subjectivity. The truth about moral good, as that truth is declared in the law of 
reason is practically and recognised by the judgment of conscience (Ede 2010: 85). Such 
consciousness for integral humanism brings out this untiring zeal in safeguarding the human life 
and rights through religion and culture which it has established is an aberration. Both religion and 
culture have to be very truthful and pragmatic toward this purpose of morality of rights. This is 
because, all human activity takes place within a certain culture and interacts with culture. For an 
adequate formation of a culture, the involvement of the whole man is required, whereby he 
exercises his creativity, intelligence, and knowledge of the world and of people. 
 
Evaluative Conclusion 

From the foregoing, we have seen the indispensable nature of the human family, and which 
has been the interest on the ethics of the Messages for the World Day of Peace, it envisages that the 
whole issues of integral humanism and its enduring principles are centred on the promotion and 
protection of the human family. The human family remains the cradle of civil society, and it is in 
great measure within the circle of life that the destiny of states is fostered. This measure for the 
realisation of this destiny has been hampered by many forces against human life, for which human 
family is established by natural and divine orders. It sees morality as the pivot of protection of the 
human family (Barga 2015: 20). Morality is about value and security of life. Moreover, the truth 
about the dignity of the human person, discerned in the interrelation of faith and reason, is crucially 
requisite for educational and economic initiatives in our technological society (Oredipe 2013: 80).  

As a matter of fact, we recognised that science has becomes a culture or religion, and must 
be tamed by morality. The contemporary conditions demand that human family designs the culture 
to exercise its freedom in order to understanding its essence in existence as a rational entity. Like 
when one say the religion and culture are not natural, but only their initiators are natural to the 
realities that surround them. In the face of this contemporary experience comes a social, moral and 
ethical responsibility to re-think the fundamental significance of the human person as a basis of a 
sound and authentic civilization, for the human person is the key to any society that is to be formed 
genuinely in the truth (Oredipe 2013: 81).  The personality of humanity is associated with moral 
norms which its nature put before it to regulate its actions and motives. The importance of morality 
in the activities of humanity cannot be quantified in determination of its level of development. 
According to Benedict XVI (2008, no. 3): 

Indeed, in the healthy family life we experience some of the fundamental 
elements of peace: justice and love between brothers and sisters, the role of 
authority expressed by parents, loving concern for the members who are 
weaker because of youth, sickness and old age, mutual help in the necessities 
of life, readiness to accept others and, if necessary, to forgive them. For this 
reason, the family is the first and indispensable teacher of peace.   

No one develops properly outside the human family, and at such, the human family 
becomes socially indispensable in the life of the individual as an agent of development. Following 
the undertones of the previous Messages for the World Day of Peace, Benedict XVI advices 
humanities to embrace the courses of peace through the valuation of the human family, by saying: 

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I invite every man and woman to have a more lively sense of belonging to 
the one human family, and to strive  to make human coexistence increasingly 
reflect this conviction, which is essential for the establishment of true and 
lasting peace (2008, no. 15). 

  More conclusively, it has not been elusive to assert that human family is the hub of the 
society in any phase and era of development. For this, human family is to contend with the 
contemporary challenges as evident in the culture of moral relativism and nihilism, a wave that it is 
making humanity to lose some of its ontologico-existential values. It should be noted that this 
culture presents a wave for the mismanagement of human rights, against the cooperate existence of 
humanity. Hence, this contemporary relativistic and nihilistic culture which human society is 
experiencing may be to strengthen metaphysics of the human person, more particularly, to be alive 
to its social and religious responsibilities, in helping to reform the conscience towards IHD.  It 
should do this, by first, be itself, morally re-institutionalised and more evangelically zest, in 
upholding the ethical principles which placed values on the human family, which the sole 
continuity of human society. It suffices to always maintain such conception of human family, and it 
should be met to remain the central thrust of Benedict XVI’s 2008 Message for the World Day of 
Peace, a concern towards the contemporary realization of integral humanism, and it deserves to be 
constantly revisited in order to manage human freedom towards development and growth. 
 
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