Familiaris Consortio (Latin roughly translated as "of family partnership", but titled in English On the Christian Family in the Modern World) is a postsynodal Apostolic Exhortation written by Pope John Paul II and promulgated on November 22, 1981. It describes the official position of the Roman Catholic Church concerning the meaning and role of marriage and the family, and outlines challenges towards realizing that ideal. It defines marriage "as a personal union in which the spouses reciprocally give and receive."