The fatherhood-sonship relations in the Gospel of John reveal a subsidiary dynamic that is to be stressed in the measure in which we search today not only for new theological-exegetical languages but at the same time for new ways to understand the truth of the Gospel and its personal, communitarian and ecclesial consequences. The paper studies diachronically the concept of subsidiarity and the integration and use the Catholic Church has made of it. Then it goes on to examine the different relations found in the Fourth Gospel and why they can be adequately identified as subsidiary. It finally poses some questions pertinent to the future of the individuals, the communities and the Church as a whole.