(17) The family has a right to be protected and promoted by society, as many Constitutions in force in States around the whole world recognize.[21][21]  This is a recognition in justice of the essential function which the family based on marriage represents for society.  A duty of society, which is not only moral but civil too, corresponds to this original right of the family.  The right of the family based on marriage to be protected and promoted by society and the State must be recognized by laws.  This is a question that affects the common good.  With clear argumentation, Saint Thomas Aquinas rejects the idea that moral law and civil law can be in opposition: they are different but not in opposition; both are distinguished from one another, but they are not disassociated from one another; between them there is neither unanimity nor contradiction.[22][22]  As John Paul II stated: “It is important that all who are called to guide the destiny of nations recognize and strengthen the institution of marriage; in fact, marriage has a particular juridical status that recognizes the rights and duties of the spouses to one another and to their children, and families play an essential role in society, whose permanence they guarantee.  The family fosters the socialization of the young and helps curb the phenomena of violence by transmitting values and the experience of brotherhood and solidarity which it allows to become a reality each day.  In the search for justified solutions in modern society, the family cannot be put on the same level as mere associations or unions, and the latter cannot enjoy the particular rights exclusively connected with the protection of the conjugal commitment and the family based on marriage, a stable community of life and love, the result of the total and faithful gift of the spouses, open to life”.[23][23]