SUMMARY: The present work is a short synthesis of the catechesis within the family that current legislation emphasises as fundamental in various canons. These canons are dispersed throughout the Code, since it contains no specific title on the theme of catechesis within the family. In the first part, we explain the meaning of catechesis within the family and its importance in the evangelisation that the Church is committed to sustain and renew through her pastors. The second part presents the family as the agent of catechesis within the environment of the small «domestic church», in which the principal Christian and human values should grow and mature. In the third section we present the essential practical means that the Code offers for the realisation of this type of catechesis. Finally, we consider Christian spouses as the driving force in parochial service, stressing that their Christian witness should not be reduced to the sphere of the home but necessarily ought to transcend this and be made concrete in the multiple services that spouses can offer to the whole parochial Christian community.