ENCYCLICAL
LETTER OF POPE PIUS XI ON CHRISTIAN MARRIAGE
Casti Connubii
Issued on December
31, 1930
To the Venerable Brethren, Patriarchs, Primates,
Archbishops, Bishops and other Local Ordinaries
enjoying Peace and Communion with the Apostolic
See.
Venerable Brethren and Beloved Children, Health
and Apostolic Benediction.
1. How great is the dignity
of chaste wedlock, Venerable Brethren, may be
judged best from this that Christ Our Lord,
Son of the Eternal Father, having assumed the
nature of fallen man, not only, with His loving
desire of compassing the redemption of our race,
ordained it in an especial manner as the principle
and foundation of domestic society and therefore
of all human intercourse, but also raised it
to the rank of a truly and great sacrament of
the New Law, restored it to the original purity
of its divine institution, and accordingly entrusted
all its discipline and care to His spouse the
Church.
2. In order, however, that
amongst men of every nation and every age the
desired fruits may be obtained from this renewal
of matrimony, it is necessary, first of all,
that men's minds be illuminated with the true
doctrine of Christ regarding it; and secondly,
that Christian spouses, the weakness of their
wills strengthened by the internal grace of
God, shape all their ways of thinking and of
acting in conformity with that pure law of Christ
so as to obtain true peace and happiness for
themselves and for their families.
3. Yet not only do We, looking
with paternal eye on the universal world from
this Apostolic See as from a watch-tower, but
you, also, Venerable Brethren, see, and seeing
deeply grieve with Us that a great number of
men, forgetful of that divine work of redemption,
either entirely ignore or shamelessly deny the
great sanctity of Christian wedlock, or relying
on the false principles of a new and utterly
perverse morality, too often trample it under
foot. And since these most pernicious errors
and depraved morals have begun to spread even
amongst the faithful and are gradually gaining
ground, in Our office as Christ's Vicar upon
earth and Supreme Shepherd and Teacher We consider
it Our duty to raise Our voice to keep the flock
committed to Our care from poisoned pastures
and, as far as in Us lies, to preserve it from
harm.
4. We have decided therefore
to speak to you, Venerable Brethren, and through
you to the whole Church of Christ and indeed
to the whole human race, on the nature and dignity
of Christian marriage, on the advantages and
benefits which accrue from it to the family
and to human society itself, on the errors contrary
to this most important point of the Gospel teaching,
on the vices opposed to conjugal union, and
lastly on the principal remedies to be applied.
In so doing We follow the footsteps of Our predecessor,
Leo XIII, of happy memory, whose Encyclical
Arcanum,[1] published fifty years ago, We hereby
confirm and make Our own, and while We wish
to expound more fully certain points called
for by the circumstances of our times, nevertheless
We declare that, far from being obsolete, it
retains its full force at the present day.
5. And to begin with that
same Encyclical, which is wholly concerned in
vindicating the divine institution of matrimony,
its sacramental dignity, and its perpetual stability,
let it be repeated as an immutable and inviolable
fundamental doctrine that matrimony was not
instituted or restored by man but by God; not
by man were the laws made to strengthen and
confirm and elevate it but by God, the Author
of nature, and by Christ Our Lord by Whom nature
was redeemed, and hence these laws cannot be
subject to any human decrees or to any contrary
pact even of the spouses themselves. This is
the doctrine of Holy Scripture;[2] this is the
constant tradition of the Universal Church;
this the solemn definition of the sacred Council
of Trent, which declares and establishes from
the words of Holy Writ itself that God is the
Author of the perpetual stability of the marriage
bond, its unity and its firmness.[3]
6. Yet although matrimony
is of its very nature of divine institution,
the human will, too, enters into it and performs
a most noble part. For each individual marriage,
inasmuch as it is a conjugal union of a particular
man and woman, arises only from the free consent
of each of the spouses; and this free act of
the will, by which each party hands over and
accepts those rights proper to the state of
marriage,[4] is so necessary to constitute true
marriage that it cannot be supplied by any human
power.[5] This freedom, however, regards only
the question whether the contracting parties
really wish to enter upon matrimony or to marry
this particular person; but the nature of matrimony
is entirely independent of the free will of
man, so that if one has once contracted matrimony
he is thereby subject to its divinely made laws
and its essential properties. For the Angelic
Doctor, writing on conjugal honor and on the
offspring which is the fruit of marriage, says:
"These things are so contained in matrimony
by the marriage pact itself that, if anything
to the contrary were expressed in the consent
which makes the marriage, it would not be a
true marriage."[6]
7. By matrimony, therefore,
the souls of the contracting parties are joined
and knit together more directly and more intimately
than are their bodies, and that not by any passing
affection of sense of spirit, but by a deliberate
and firm act of the will; and from this union
of souls by God's decree, a sacred and inviolable
bond arises. Hence the nature of this contract,
which is proper and peculiar to it alone, makes
it entirely different both from the union of
animals entered into by the blind instinct of
nature alone in which neither reason nor free
will plays a part, and also from the haphazard
unions of men, which are far removed from all
true and honorable unions of will and enjoy
none of the rights of family life.
8. From this it is clear that
legitimately constituted authority has the right
and therefore the duty to restrict, to prevent,
and to punish those base unions which are opposed
to reason and to nature; but since it is a matter
which flows from human nature itself, no less
certain is the teaching of Our predecessor,
Leo XIII of happy memory:[7] "In choosing
a state of life there is no doubt but that it
is in the power and discretion of each one to
prefer one or the other: either to embrace the
counsel of virginity given by Jesus Christ,
or to bind himself in the bonds of matrimony.
To take away from man the natural and primeval
right of marriage, to circumscribe in any way
the principal ends of marriage laid down in
the beginning by God Himself in the words 'Increase
and multiply,'[8] is beyond the power of any
human law."
9. Therefore the sacred partnership
of true marriage is constituted both by the
will of God and the will of man. From God comes
the very institution of marriage, the ends for
which it was instituted, the laws that govern
it, the blessings that flow from it; while man,
through generous surrender of his own person
made to another for the whole span of life,
becomes, with the help and cooperation of God,
the author of each particular marriage, with
the duties and blessings annexed thereto from
divine institution.
10. Now when We come to explain,
Venerable Brethren, what are the blessings that
God has attached to true matrimony, and how
great they are, there occur to Us the words
of that illustrious Doctor of the Church whom
We commemorated recently in Our Encyclical Ad
salutem on the occasion of the fifteenth centenary
of his death:[9] "These," says St.
Augustine, "are all the blessings of matrimony
on account of which matrimony itself is a blessing;
offspring, conjugal faith and the sacrament."[10]
And how under these three heads is contained
a splendid summary of the whole doctrine of
Christian marriage, the holy Doctor himself
expressly declares when he said: "By conjugal
faith it is provided that there should be no
carnal intercourse outside the marriage bond
with another man or woman; with regard to offspring,
that children should be begotten of love, tenderly
cared for and educated in a religious atmosphere;
finally, in its sacramental aspect that the
marriage bond should not be broken and that
a husband or wife, if separated, should not
be joined to another even for the sake of offspring.
This we regard as the law of marriage by which
the fruitfulness of nature is adorned and the
evil of incontinence is restrained."[11]
11. Thus amongst the blessings
of marriage, the child holds the first place.
And indeed the Creator of the human race Himself,
Who in His goodness wishes to use men as His
helpers in the propagation of life, taught this
when, instituting marriage in Paradise, He said
to our first parents, and through them to all
future spouses: "Increase and multiply,
and fill the earth."[12] As St. Augustine
admirably deduces from the words of the holy
Apostle Saint Paul to Timothy[13] when he says:
"The Apostle himself is therefore a witness
that marriage is for the sake of generation:
'I wish,' he says, 'young girls to marry.' And,
as if someone said to him, 'Why?,' he immediately
adds: 'To bear children, to be mothers of families'."[14]
12. How great a boon of God
this is, and how great a blessing of matrimony
is clear from a consideration of man's dignity
and of his sublime end. For man surpasses all
other visible creatures by the superiority of
his rational nature alone. Besides, God wishes
men to be born not only that they should live
and fill the earth, but much more that they
may be worshippers of God, that they may know
Him and love Him and finally enjoy Him for ever
in heaven; and this end, since man is raised
by God in a marvelous way to the supernatural
order, surpasses all that eye hath seen, and
ear heard, and all that hath entered into the
heart of man.[15] From which it is easily seen
how great a gift of divine goodness and how
remarkable a fruit of marriage are children
born by the omnipotent power of God through
the cooperation of those bound in wedlock.
13. But Christian parents
must also understand that they are destined
not only to propagate and preserve the human
race on earth, indeed not only to educate any
kind of worshippers of the true God, but children
who are to become members of the Church of Christ,
to raise up fellow-citizens of the Saints, and
members of God's household,[16] that the worshippers
of God and Our Savior may daily increase.
14. For although Christian
spouses even if sanctified themselves cannot
transmit sanctification to their progeny, nay,
although the very natural process of generating
life has become the way of death by which original
sin is passed on to posterity, nevertheless,
they share to some extent in the blessings of
that primeval marriage of Paradise, since it
is theirs to offer their offspring to the Church
in order that by this most fruitful Mother of
the children of God they may be regenerated
through the laver of Baptism unto supernatural
justice and finally be made living members of
Christ, partakers of immortal life, and heirs
of that eternal glory to which we all aspire
from our inmost heart.
15. If a true Christian mother
weigh well these things, she will indeed understand
with a sense of deep consolation that of her
the words of Our Savior were spoken: "A
woman . . . when she hath brought forth the
child remembereth no more the anguish, for joy
that a man is born into the world";[17]
and proving herself superior to all the pains
and cares and solicitudes of her maternal office
with a more just and holy joy than that of the
Roman matron, the mother of the Gracchi, she
will rejoice in the Lord crowned as it were
with the glory of her offspring. Both husband
and wife, however, receiving these children
with joy and gratitude from the hand of God,
will regard them as a talent committed to their
charge by God, not only to be employed for their
own advantage or for that of an earthly commonwealth,
but to be restored to God with interest on the
day of reckoning.
16. The blessing of offspring,
however, is not completed by the mere begetting
of them, but something else must be added, namely
the proper education of the offspring. For the
most wise God would have failed to make sufficient
provision for children that had been born, and
so for the whole human race, if He had not given
to those to whom He had entrusted the power
and right to beget them, the power also and
the right to educate them. For no one can fail
to see that children are incapable of providing
wholly for themselves, even in matters pertaining
to their natural life, and much less in those
pertaining to the supernatural, but require
for many years to be helped, instructed, and
educated by others. Now it is certain that both
by the law of nature and of God this right and
duty of educating their offspring belongs in
the first place to those who began the work
of nature by giving them birth, and they are
indeed forbidden to leave unfinished this work
and so expose it to certain ruin. But in matrimony
provision has been made in the best possible
way for this education of children that is so
necessary, for, since the parents are bound
together by an indissoluble bond, the care and
mutual help of each is always at hand.
17. Since, however, We have
spoken fully elsewhere on the Christian education
of youth,[18] let Us sum it all up by quoting
once more the words of St. Augustine: "As
regards the offspring it is provided that they
should be begotten lovingly and educated religiously,"[19]--and
this is also expressed succinctly in the Code
of Canon Law--"The primary end of marriage
is the procreation and the education of children."[20]
18. Nor must We omit to remark,
in fine, that since the duty entrusted to parents
for the good of their children is of such high
dignity and of such great importance, every
use of the faculty given by God for the procreation
of new life is the right and the privilege of
the married state alone, by the law of God and
of nature, and must be confined absolutely within
the sacred limits of that state.
19. The second blessing of
matrimony which We said was mentioned by St.
Augustine, is the blessing of conjugal honor
which consists in the mutual fidelity of the
spouses in fulfilling the marriage contract,
so that what belongs to one of the parties by
reason of this contract sanctioned by divine
law, may not be denied to him or permitted to
any third person; nor may there be conceded
to one of the parties anything which, being
contrary to the rights and laws of God and entirely
opposed to matrimonial faith, can never be conceded.
20. Wherefore, conjugal faith,
or honor, demands in the first place the complete
unity of matrimony which the Creator Himself
laid down in the beginning when He wished it
to be not otherwise than between one man and
one woman. And although afterwards this primeval
law was relaxed to some extent by God, the Supreme
Legislator, there is no doubt that the law of
the Gospel fully restored that original and
perfect unity, and abrogated all dispensations
as the words of Christ and the constant teaching
and action of the Church show plainly. With
reason, therefore, does the Sacred Council of
Trent solemnly declare: "Christ Our Lord
very clearly taught that in this bond two persons
only are to be united and joined together when
He said: 'Therefore they are no longer two,
but one flesh'."[21]
21. Nor did Christ Our Lord
wish only to condemn any form of polygamy or
polyandry, as they are called, whether successive
or simultaneous, and every other external dishonorable
act, but, in order that the sacred bonds of
marriage may be guarded absolutely inviolate,
He forbade also even willful thoughts and desires
of such like things: "But I say to you,
that whosoever shall look on a woman to lust
after her hath already committed adultery with
her in his heart."[22] Which words of Christ
Our Lord cannot be annulled even by the consent
of one of the partners of marriage for they
express a law of God and of nature which no
will of man can break or bend.[23]
22. Nay, that mutual familiar
intercourse between the spouses themselves,
if the blessing of conjugal faith is to shine
with becoming splendor, must be distinguished
by chastity so that husband and wife bear themselves
in all things with the law of God and of nature,
and endeavor always to follow the will of their
most wise and holy Creator with the greatest
reverence toward the work of God.
23. This conjugal faith, however,
which is most aptly called by St. Augustine
the "faith of chastity" blooms more
freely, more beautifully and more nobly, when
it is rooted in that more excellent soil, the
love of husband and wife which pervades all
the duties of married life and holds pride of
place in Christian marriage. For matrimonial
faith demands that husband and wife be joined
in an especially holy and pure love, not as
adulterers love each other, but as Christ loved
the Church. This precept the Apostle laid down
when he said: "Husbands, love your wives
as Christ also loved the Church,"[24] that
Church which of a truth He embraced with a boundless
love not for the sake of His own advantage,
but seeking only the good of His Spouse.[25]
The love, then, of which We are speaking is
not that based on the passing lust of the moment
nor does it consist in pleasing words only,
but in the deep attachment of the heart which
is expressed in action, since love is proved
by deeds.[26] This outward expression of love
in the home demands not only mutual help but
must go further; must have as its primary purpose
that man and wife help each other day by day
in forming and perfecting themselves in the
interior life, so that through their partnership
in life they may advance ever more and more
in virtue, and above all that they may grow
in true love toward God and their neighbor,
on which indeed "dependeth the whole Law
and the Prophets."[27] For all men of every
condition, in whatever honorable walk of life
they may be, can and ought to imitate that most
perfect example of holiness placed before man
by God, namely Christ Our Lord, and by God's
grace to arrive at the summit of perfection,
as is proved by the example set us of many saints.
24. This mutual molding of
husband and wife, this determined effort to
perfect each other, can in a very real sense,
as the Roman Catechism teaches, be said to be
the chief reason and purpose of matrimony, provided
matrimony be looked at not in the restricted
sense as instituted for the proper conception
and education of the child, but more widely
as the blending of life as a whole and the mutual
interchange and sharing thereof.
25. By this same love it is
necessary that all the other rights and duties
of the marriage state be regulated as the words
of the Apostle: "Let the husband render
the debt to the wife, and the wife also in like
manner to the husband,"[28] express not
only a law of justice but of charity.
26. Domestic society being
confirmed, therefore, by this bond of love,
there should flourish in it that "order
of love," as St. Augustine calls it. This
order includes both the primacy of the husband
with regard to the wife and children, the ready
subjection of the wife and her willing obedience,
which the Apostle commends in these words: "Let
women be subject to their husbands as to the
Lord, because the husband is the head of the
wife, and Christ is the head of the Church."[29]
27. This subjection, however,
does not deny or take away the liberty which
fully belongs to the woman both in view of her
dignity as a human person, and in view of her
most noble office as wife and mother and companion;
nor does it bid her obey her husband's every
request if not in harmony with right reason
or with the dignity due to wife; nor, in fine,
does it imply that the wife should be put on
a level with those persons who in law are called
minors, to whom it is customary to allow free
exercise of their rights on account of their
lack of mature judgment, or of their ignorance
of human affairs. But it forbids that exaggerated
liberty which cares not for the good of the
family; it forbids that in this body which is
the family, the heart be separated from the
head to the great detriment of the whole body
and the proximate danger of ruin. For if the
man is the head, the woman is the heart, and
as he occupies the chief place in ruling, so
she may and ought to claim for herself the chief
place in love.
28. Again, this subjection
of wife to husband in its degree and manner
may vary according to the different conditions
of persons, place and time. In fact, if the
husband neglect his duty, it falls to the wife
to take his place in directing the family. But
the structure of the family and its fundamental
law, established and confirmed by God, must
always and everywhere be maintained intact .
29. With great wisdom Our
predecessor Leo XIII, of happy memory, in the
Encyclical on Christian marriage which We have
already mentioned, speaking of this order to
be maintained between man and wife, teaches:
"The man is the ruler of the family, and
the head of the woman; but because she is flesh
of his flesh and bone of his bone, let her be
subject and obedient to the man, not as a servant
but as a companion, so that nothing be lacking
of honor or of dignity in the obedience which
she pays. Let divine charity be the constant
guide of their mutual relations, both in him
who rules and in her who obeys, since each bears
the image, the one of Christ, the other of the
Church."[30]
30. These, then, are the elements
which compose the blessing of conjugal faith:
unity, chastity, charity, honorable noble obedience,
which are at the same time an enumeration of
the benefits which are bestowed on husband and
wife in their married state, benefits by which
the peace, the dignity and the happiness of
matrimony are securely preserved and fostered.
Wherefore it is not surprising that this conjugal
faith has always been counted amongst the most
priceless and special blessings of matrimony.
31. But this accumulation
of benefits is completed and, as it were, crowned
by that blessing of Christian marriage which
in the words of St. Augustine we have called
the sacrament, by which is denoted both the
indissolubility of the bond and the raising
and hallowing of the contract by Christ Himself,
whereby He made it an efficacious sign of grace.
32. In the first place Christ
Himself lays stress on the indissolubility and
firmness of the marriage bond when He says:
"What God hath joined together let no man
put asunder,"[31] and: "Everyone that
putteth away his wife and marrieth another committeth
adultery, and he that marrieth her that is put
away from her husband committeth adultery."[32]
33. And St. Augustine clearly
places what he calls the blessing of matrimony
in this indissolubility when he says: "In
the sacrament it is provided that the marriage
bond should not be broken, and that a husband
or wife, if separated, should not be joined
to another even for the sake of offspring."[33]
34. And this inviolable stability,
although not in the same perfect measure in
every case, belongs to every true marriage,
for the word of the Lord: "What God hath
joined together let no man put asunder,"
must of necessity include all true marriages
without exception, since it was spoken of the
marriage of our first parents, the prototype
of every future marriage. Therefore although
before Christ the sublimeness and the severity
of the primeval law was so tempered that Moses
permitted to the chosen people of God on account
of the hardness of their hearts that a bill
of divorce might be given in certain circumstances,
nevertheless, Christ, by virtue of His supreme
legislative power, recalled this concession
of greater liberty and restored the primeval
law in its integrity by those words which must
never be forgotten, "What God hath joined
together let no man put asunder." Wherefore,
Our predecessor Pius VI of happy memory, writing
to the Bishop of Agria, most wisely said: "Hence
it is clear that marriage even in the state
of nature, and certainly long before it was
raised to the dignity of a sacrament, was divinely
instituted in such a way that it should carry
with it a perpetual and indissoluble bond which
cannot therefore be dissolved by any civil law.
Therefore although the sacramental element may
be absent from a marriage as is the case among
unbelievers, still in such a marriage, inasmuch
as it is a true marriage there must remain and
indeed there does remain that perpetual bond
which by divine right is so bound up with matrimony
from its first institution that it is not subject
to any civil power. And so, whatever marriage
is said to be contracted, either it is so contracted
that it is really a true marriage, in which
case it carries with it that enduring bond which
by divine right is inherent in every true marriage;
or it is thought to be contracted without that
perpetual bond, and in that case there is no
marriage, but an illicit union opposed of its
very nature to the divine law, which therefore
cannot be entered into or maintained."[34]
35. And if this stability
seems to be open to exception, however rare
the exception may be, as in the case of certain
natural marriages between unbelievers, or amongst
Christians in the case of those marriages which
though valid have not been consummated, that
exception does not depend on the will of men
nor on that of any merely human power, but on
divine law, of which the only guardian and interpreter
is the Church of Christ. However, not even this
power can ever affect for any cause whatsoever
a Christian marriage which is valid and has
been consummated, for as it is plain that here
the marriage contract has its full completion,
so, by the will of God, there is also the greatest
firmness and indissolubility which may not be
destroyed by any human authority.
36. If we wish with all reverence
to inquire into the intimate reason of this
divine decree, Venerable Brethren, we shall
easily see it in the mystical signification
of Christian marriage which is fully and perfectly
verified in consummated marriage between Christians.
For, as the Apostle says in his Epistle to the
Ephesians,[35] the marriage of Christians recalls
that most perfect union which exists between
Christ and the Church: "Sacramentum hoc
magnum est, ego autem dico, in Christo et in
ecclesia;" which union, as long as Christ
shall live and the Church through Him, can never
be dissolved by any separation. And this St.
Augustine clearly declares in these words: "This
is safeguarded in Christ and the Church, which,
living with Christ who lives for ever may never
be divorced from Him. The observance of this
sacrament is such in the City of God . . . that
is, in the Church of Christ, that when for the
sake of begetting children, women marry or are
taken to wife, it is wrong to leave a wife that
is sterile in order to take another by whom
children may be hand. Anyone doing this is guilty
of adultery, just as if he married another,
guilty not by the law of the day, according
to which when one's partner is put away another
may be taken, which the Lord allowed in the
law of Moses because of the hardness of the
hearts of the people of Israel; but by the law
of the Gospel."[36]
37. Indeed, how many and how
important are the benefits which flow from the
indissolubility of matrimony cannot escape anyone
who gives even a brief consideration either
to the good of the married parties and the offspring
or to the welfare of human society. First of
all, both husband and wife possess a positive
guarantee of the endurance of this stability
which that generous yielding of their persons
and the intimate fellowship of their hearts
by their nature strongly require, since true
love never falls away.[37] Besides, a strong
bulwark is set up in defense of a loyal chastity
against incitements to infidelity, should any
be encountered either from within or from without;
any anxious fear lest in adversity or old age
the other spouse would prove unfaithful is precluded
and in its place there reigns a calm sense of
security. Moreover, the dignity of both man
and wife is maintained and mutual aid is most
satisfactorily assured, while through the indissoluble
bond, always enduring, the spouses are warned
continuously that not for the sake of perishable
things nor that they may serve their passions,
but that they may procure one for the other
high and lasting good have they entered into
the nuptial partnership, to be dissolved only
by death. In the training and education of children,
which must extend over a period of many years,
it plays a great part, since the grave and long
enduring burdens of this office are best borne
by the united efforts of the parents. Nor do
lesser benefits accrue to human society as a
whole. For experience has taught that unassailable
stability in matrimony is a fruitful source
of virtuous life and of habits of integrity.
Where this order of things obtains, the happiness
and well being of the nation is safely guarded;
what the families and individuals are, so also
is the State, for a body is determined by its
parts. Wherefore, both for the private good
of husband, wife and children, as likewise for
the public good of human society, they indeed
deserve well who strenuously defend the inviolable
stability of matrimony.
38. But considering the benefits
of the Sacrament, besides the firmness and indissolubility,
there are also much higher emoluments as the
word "sacrament" itself very aptly
indicates; for to Christians this is not a meaningless
and empty name. Christ the Lord, the Institutor
and "Perfecter" of the holy sacraments,[38]
by raising the matrimony of His faithful to
the dignity of a true sacrament of the New Law,
made it a sign and source of that peculiar internal
grace by which "it perfects natural love,
it confirms an indissoluble union, and sanctifies
both man and wife."[39]
39. And since the valid matrimonial
consent among the faithful was constituted by
Christ as a sign of grace, the sacramental nature
is so intimately bound up with Christian wedlock
that there can be no true marriage between baptized
persons "without it being by that very
fact a sacrament."[40]
40. By the very fact, therefore,
that the faithful with sincere mind give such
consent, they open up for themselves a treasure
of sacramental grace from which they draw supernatural
power for the fulfilling of their rights and
duties faithfully, holily, perseveringly even
unto death. Hence this sacrament not only increases
sanctifying grace, the permanent principle of
the supernatural life, in those who, as the
expression is, place no obstacle (obex) in its
way, but also adds particular gifts, dispositions,
seeds of grace, by elevating and perfecting
the natural powers. By these gifts the parties
are assisted not only in understanding, but
in knowing intimately, in adhering to firmly,
in willing effectively, and in successfully
putting into practice, those things which pertain
to the marriage state, its aims and duties,
giving them in fine right to the actual assistance
of grace, whensoever they need it for fulfilling
the duties of their state.
41. Nevertheless, since it
is a law of divine Providence in the supernatural
order that men do not reap the full fruit of
the Sacraments which they receive after acquiring
the use of reason unless they cooperate with
grace, the grace of matrimony will remain for
the most part an unused talent hidden in the
field unless the parties exercise these supernatural
powers and cultivate and develop the seeds of
grace they have received. If, however, doing
all that lies with their power, they cooperate
diligently, they will be able with ease to bear
the burdens of their state and to fulfill their
duties. By such a sacrament they will be strengthened,
sanctified and in a manner consecrated. For,
as St. Augustine teaches, just as by Baptism
and Holy Orders a man is set aside and assisted
either for the duties of Christian life or for
the priestly office and is never deprived of
their sacramental aid, almost in the same way
(although not by a sacramental character), the
faithful once joined by marriage ties can never
be deprived of the help and the binding force
of the sacrament. Indeed, as the Holy Doctor
adds, even those who commit adultery carry with
them that sacred yoke, although in this case
not as a title to the glory of grace but for
the ignominy of their guilty action, "as
the soul by apostasy, withdrawing as it were
from marriage with Christ, even though it may
have lost its faith, does not lose the sacrament
of Faith which it received at the laver of regeneration."[41]
42. These parties, let it
be noted, not fettered but adorned by the golden
bond of the sacrament, not hampered but assisted,
should strive with all their might to the end
that their wedlock, not only through the power
and symbolism of the sacrament, but also through
their spirit and manner of life, may be and
remain always the living image of that most
fruitful union of Christ with the Church, which
is to venerated as the sacred token of most
perfect love.
43. All of these things, Venerable
Brethren, you must consider carefully and ponder
over with a lively faith if you would see in
their true light the extraordinary benefits
on matrimony--offspring, conjugal faith, and
the sacrament. No one can fail to admire the
divine Wisdom, Holiness and Goodness which,
while respecting the dignity and happiness of
husband and wife, has provided so bountifully
for the conservation and propagation of the
human race by a single chaste and sacred fellowship
of nuptial union.
44. When we consider the great
excellence of chaste wedlock, Venerable Brethren,
it appears all the more regrettable that particularly
in our day we should witness this divine institution
often scorned and on every side degraded.
45. For now, alas, not secretly
nor under cover, but openly, with all sense
of shame put aside, now by word again by writings,
by theatrical productions of every kind, by
romantic fiction, by amorous and frivolous novels,
by cinematographs portraying in vivid scene,
in addresses broadcast by radio telephony, in
short by all the inventions of modern science,
the sanctity of marriage is trampled upon and
derided; divorce, adultery, all the basest vices
either are extolled or at least are depicted
in such colors as to appear to be free of all
reproach and infamy. Books are not lacking which
dare to pronounce themselves as scientific but
which in truth are merely coated with a veneer
of science in order that they may the more easily
insinuate their ideas. The doctrines defended
in these are offered for sale as the productions
of modern genius, of that genius namely, which,
anxious only for truth, is considered to have
emancipated itself from all those old-fashioned
and immature opinions of the ancients; and to
the number of these antiquated opinions they
relegate the traditional doctrine of Christian
marriage.
46. These thoughts are instilled
into men of every class, rich and poor, masters
and workers, lettered and unlettered, married
and single, the godly and godless, old and young,
but for these last, as easiest prey, the worst
snares are laid.
47. Not all the sponsors of
these new doctrines are carried to the extremes
of unbridled lust; there are those who, striving
as it were to ride a middle course, believe
nevertheless that something should be conceded
in our times as regards certain precepts of
the divine and natural law. But these likewise,
more or less wittingly, are emissaries of the
great enemy who is ever seeking to sow cockle
among the wheat.[42] We, therefore, whom the
Father has appointed over His field, We who
are bound by Our most holy office to take care
lest the good seed be choked by the weeds, believe
it fitting to apply to Ourselves the most grave
words of the Holy Ghost with which the Apostle
Paul exhorted his beloved Timothy: "Be
thou vigilant . . . Fulfill thy ministry . .
. Preach the word, be instant in season, out
of season, reprove, entreat, rebuke in all patience
and doctrine."[43]
48. And since, in order that
the deceits of the enemy may be avoided, it
is necessary first of all that they be laid
bare; since much is to be gained by denouncing
these fallacies for the sake of the unwary,
even though We prefer not to name these iniquities
"as becometh saints,"[44] yet for
the welfare of souls We cannot remain altogether
silent.
49. To begin at the very source
of these evils, their basic principle lies in
this, that matrimony is repeatedly declared
to be not instituted by the Author of nature
nor raised by Christ the Lord to the dignity
of a true sacrament, but invented by man. Some
confidently assert that they have found no evidence
of the existence of matrimony in nature or in
her laws, but regard it merely as the means
of producing life and of gratifying in one way
or another a vehement impulse; on the other
hand, others recognize that certain beginnings
or, as it were, seeds of true wedlock are found
in the nature of man since, unless men were
bound together by some form of permanent tie,
the dignity of husband and wife or the natural
end of propagating and rearing the offspring
would not receive satisfactory provision. At
the same time they maintain that in all beyond
this germinal idea matrimony, through various
concurrent causes, is invented solely by the
mind of man, established solely by his will.
50. How grievously all these
err and how shamelessly they leave the ways
of honesty is already evident from what we have
set forth here regarding the origin and nature
of wedlock, its purposes and the good inherent
in it. The evil of this teaching is plainly
seen from the consequences which its advocates
deduce from it, namely, that the laws, institutions
and customs by which wedlock is governed, since
they take their origin solely from the will
of man, are subject entirely to him, hence can
and must be founded, changed and abrogated according
to human caprice and the shifting circumstances
of human affairs; that the generative power
which is grounded in nature itself is more sacred
and has wider range than matrimony--hence it
may be exercised both outside as well as within
the confines of wedlock, and though the purpose
of matrimony be set aside, as though to suggest
that the license of a base fornicating woman
should enjoy the same rights as the chaste motherhood
of a lawfully wedded wife.
51. Armed with these principles,
some men go so far as to concoct new species
of unions, suited, as they say, to the present
temper of men and the times, which various new
forms of matrimony they presume to label "temporary,"
"experimental," and "companionate."
These offer all the indulgence of matrimony
and its rights without, however, the indissoluble
bond, and without offspring, unless later the
parties alter their cohabitation into a matrimony
in the full sense of the law.
52. Indeed there are some
who desire and insist that these practices be
legitimatized by the law or, at least, excused
by their general acceptance among the people.
They do not seem even to suspect that these
proposals partake of nothing of the modern "culture"
in which they glory so much, but are simply
hateful abominations which beyond all question
reduce our truly cultured nations to the barbarous
standards of savage peoples.
53. And now, Venerable Brethren,
we shall explain in detail the evils opposed
to each of the benefits of matrimony. First
consideration is due to the offspring, which
many have the boldness to call the disagreeable
burden of matrimony and which they say is to
be carefully avoided by married people not through
virtuous continence (which Christian law permits
in matrimony when both parties consent) but
by frustrating the marriage act. Some justify
this criminal abuse on the ground that they
are weary of children and wish to gratify their
desires without their consequent burden. Others
say that they cannot on the one hand remain
continent nor on the other can they have children
because of the difficulties whether on the part
of the mother or on the part of family circumstances.
54. But no reason, however
grave, may be put forward by which anything
intrinsically against nature may become conformable
to nature and morally good. Since, therefore,
the conjugal act is destined primarily by nature
for the begetting of children, those who in
exercising it deliberately frustrate its natural
power and purpose sin against nature and commit
a deed which is shameful and intrinsically vicious.
55. Small wonder, therefore,
if Holy Writ bears witness that the Divine Majesty
regards with greatest detestation this horrible
crime and at times has punished it with death.
As St. Augustine notes, "Intercourse even
with one's legitimate wife is unlawful and wicked
where the conception of the offspring is prevented.
Onan, the son of Juda, did this and the Lord
killed him for it."[45]
56. Since, therefore, openly
departing from the uninterrupted Christian tradition
some recently have judged it possible solemnly
to declare another doctrine regarding this question,
the Catholic Church, to whom God has entrusted
the defense of the integrity and purity of morals,
standing erect in the midst of the moral ruin
which surrounds her, in order that she may preserve
the chastity of the nuptial union from being
defiled by this foul stain, raises her voice
in token of her divine ambassadorship and through
Our mouth proclaims anew: any use whatsoever
of matrimony exercised in such a way that the
act is deliberately frustrated in its natural
power to generate life is an offense against
the law of God and of nature, and those who
indulge in such are branded with the guilt of
a grave sin.
57. We admonish, therefore,
priests who hear confessions and others who
have the care of souls, in virtue of Our supreme
authority and in Our solicitude for the salvation
of souls, not to allow the faithful entrusted
to them to err regarding this most grave law
of God; much more, that they keep themselves
immune from such false opinions, in no way conniving
in them. If any confessor or pastor of souls,
which may God forbid, lead the faithful entrusted
to him into these errors or should at least
confirm them by approval or by guilty silence,
let him be mindful of the fact that he must
render a strict account to God, the Supreme
Judge, for the betrayal of his sacred trust,
and let him take to himself the words of Christ:
"They are blind and leaders of the blind:
and if the blind lead the blind, both fall into
the pit.[46]
58. As regards the evil use
of matrimony, to pass over the arguments which
are shameful, not infrequently others that are
false and exaggerated are put forward. Holy
Mother Church very well understands and clearly
appreciates all that is said regarding the health
of the mother and the danger to her life. And
who would not grieve to think of these things?
Who is not filled with the greatest admiration
when he sees a mother risking her life with
heroic fortitude, that she may preserve the
life of the offspring which she has conceived?
God alone, all bountiful and all merciful as
He is, can reward her for the fulfillment of
the office allotted to her by nature, and will
assuredly repay her in a measure full to overflowing.[47]
59. Holy Church knows well
that not infrequently one of the parties is
sinned against rather than sinning, when for
a grave cause he or she reluctantly allows the
perversion of the right order. In such a case,
there is no sin, provided that, mindful of the
law of charity, he or she does not neglect to
seek to dissuade and to deter the partner from
sin. Nor are those considered as acting against
nature who in the married state use their right
in the proper manner although on account of
natural reasons either of time or of certain
defects, new life cannot be brought forth. For
in matrimony as well as in the use of the matrimonial
rights there are also secondary ends, such as
mutual aid, the cultivating of mutual love,
and the quieting of concupiscence which husband
and wife are not forbidden to consider so long
as they are subordinated to the primary end
and so long as the intrinsic nature of the act
is preserved.
60. We are deeply touched
by the sufferings of those parents who, in extreme
want, experience great difficulty in rearing
their children.
61. However, they should take
care lest the calamitous state of their external
affairs should be the occasion for a much more
calamitous error. No difficulty can arise that
justifies the putting aside of the law of God
which forbids all acts intrinsically evil. There
is no possible circumstance in which husband
and wife cannot, strengthened by the grace of
God, fulfill faithfully their duties and preserve
in wedlock their chastity unspotted. This truth
of Christian Faith is expressed by the teaching
of the Council of Trent. "Let no one be
so rash as to assert that which the Fathers
of the Council have placed under anathema, namely,
that there are precepts of God impossible for
the just to observe. God does not ask the impossible,
but by His commands, instructs you to do what
you are able, to pray for what you are not able
that He may help you."[48]
62. This same doctrine was
again solemnly repeated and confirmed by the
Church in the condemnation of the Jansenist
heresy which dared to utter this blasphemy against
the goodness of God: "Some precepts of
God are, when one considers the powers which
man possesses, impossible of fulfillment even
to the just who wish to keep the law and strive
to do so; grace is lacking whereby these laws
could be fulfilled."[49]
63. But another very grave
crime is to be noted, Venerable Brethren, which
regards the taking of the life of the offspring
hidden in the mother's womb. Some wish it to
be allowed and left to the will of the father
or the mother; others say it is unlawful unless
there are weighty reasons which they call by
the name of medical, social, or eugenic "indication."
Because this matter falls under the penal laws
of the state by which the destruction of the
offspring begotten but unborn is forbidden,
these people demand that the "indication,"
which in one form or another they defend, be
recognized as such by the public law and in
no way penalized. There are those, moreover,
who ask that the public authorities provide
aid for these death-dealing operations, a thing,
which, sad to say, everyone knows is of very
frequent occurrence in some places.
64. As to the "medical
and therapeutic indication" to which, using
their own words, we have made reference, Venerable
Brethren, however much we may pity the mother
whose health and even life is gravely imperiled
in the performance of the duty allotted to her
by nature, nevertheless what could ever be a
sufficient reason for excusing in any way the
direct murder of the innocent? This is precisely
what we are dealing with here. Whether inflicted
upon the mother or upon the child, it is against
the precept of God and the law of nature: "Thou
shalt not kill:"[50] The life of each is
equally sacred, and no one has the power, not
even the public authority, to destroy it. It
is of no use to appeal to the right of taking
away life for here it is a question of the innocent,
whereas that right has regard only to the guilty;
nor is there here question of defense by bloodshed
against an unjust aggressor (for who would call
an innocent child an unjust aggressor?); again
there is not question here of what is called
the "law of extreme necessity" which
could even extend to the direct killing of the
innocent. Upright and skillful doctors strive
most praiseworthily to guard and preserve the
lives of both mother and child; on the contrary,
those show themselves most unworthy of the noble
medical profession who encompass the death of
one or the other, through a pretense at practicing
medicine or through motives of misguided pity.
65. All of which agrees with
the stern words of the Bishop of Hippo in denouncing
those wicked parents who seek to remain childless,
and failing in this, are not ashamed to put
their offspring to death: "Sometimes this
lustful cruelty or cruel lust goes so far as
to seek to procure a baneful sterility, and
if this fails the fetus conceived in the womb
is in one way or another smothered or evacuated,
in the desire to destroy the offspring before
it has life, or if it already lives in the womb,
to kill it before it is born. If both man and
woman are party to such practices they are not
spouses at all; and if from the first they have
carried on thus they have come together not
for honest wedlock, but for impure gratification;
if both are not party to these deeds, I make
bold to say that either the one makes herself
a mistress of the husband, or the other simply
the paramour of his wife."[51]
66. What is asserted in favor
of the social and eugenic "indication"
may and must be accepted, provided lawful and
upright methods are employed within the proper
limits; but to wish to put forward reasons based
upon them for the killing of the innocent is
unthinkable and contrary to the divine precept
promulgated in the words of the Apostle: Evil
is not to be done that good may come of it.[52]
67. Those who hold the reins
of government should not forget that it is the
duty of public authority by appropriate laws
and sanctions to defend the lives of the innocent,
and this all the more so since those whose lives
are endangered and assailed cannot defend themselves.
Among whom we must mention in the first place
infants hidden in the mother's womb. And if
the public magistrates not only do not defend
them, but by their laws and ordinances betray
them to death at the hands of doctors or of
others, let them remember that God is the Judge
and Avenger of innocent blood which cried from
earth to Heaven.[53]
68. Finally, that pernicious
practice must be condemned which closely touches
upon the natural right of man to enter matrimony
but affects also in a real way the welfare of
the offspring. For there are some who over solicitous
for the cause of eugenics, not only give salutary
counsel for more certainly procuring the strength
and health of the future child--which, indeed,
is not contrary to right reason--but put eugenics
before aims of a higher order, and by public
authority wish to prevent from marrying all
those whom, even though naturally fit for marriage,
they consider, according to the norms and conjectures
of their investigations, would, through hereditary
transmission, bring forth defective offspring.
And more, they wish to legislate to deprive
these of that natural faculty by medical action
despite their unwillingness; and this they do
not propose as an infliction of grave punishment
under the authority of the state for a crime
committed, not to prevent future crimes by guilty
persons, but against every right and good they
wish the civil authority to arrogate to itself
a power over a faculty which it never had and
can never legitimately possess.
69. Those who act in this
way are at fault in losing sight of the fact
that the family is more sacred than the State
and that men are begotten not for the earth
and for time, but for Heaven and eternity. Although
often these individuals are to be dissuaded
from entering into matrimony, certainly it is
wrong to brand men with the stigma of crime
because they contract marriage, on the ground
that, despite the fact that they are in every
respect capable of matrimony, they will give
birth only to defective children, even though
they use all care and diligence.
70. Public magistrates have
no direct power over the bodies of their subjects;
therefore, where no crime has taken place and
there is no cause present for grave punishment,
they can never directly harm, or tamper with
the integrity of the body, either for the reasons
of eugenics or for any other reason. St. Thomas
teaches this when inquiring whether human judges
for the sake of preventing future evils can
inflict punishment, he admits that the power
indeed exists as regards certain other forms
of evil, but justly and properly denies it as
regards the maiming of the body. "No one
who is guiltless may be punished by a human
tribunal either by flogging to death, or mutilation,
or by beating."[54]
71. Furthermore, Christian
doctrine establishes, and the light of human
reason makes it most clear, that private individuals
have no other power over the members of their
bodies than that which pertains to their natural
ends; and they are not free to destroy or mutilate
their members, or in any other way render themselves
unfit for their natural functions, except when
no other provision can be made for the good
of the whole body.
72. We may now consider another
class of errors concerning conjugal faith. Every
sin committed as regards the offspring becomes
in some way a sin against conjugal faith, since
both these blessings are essentially connected.
However, we must mention briefly the sources
of error and vice corresponding to those virtues
which are demanded by conjugal faith, namely
the chaste honor existing between man and wife,
the due subjection of wife to husband, and the
true love which binds both parties together.
73. It follows therefore that
they are destroying mutual fidelity, who think
that the ideas and morality of our present time
concerning a certain harmful and false friendship
with a third party can be countenanced, and
who teach that a greater freedom of feeling
and action in such external relations should
be allowed to man and wife, particularly as
many (so they consider) are possessed of an
inborn sexual tendency which cannot be satisfied
within the narrow limits of monogamous marriage.
That rigid attitude which condemns all sensual
affections and actions with a third party they
imagine to be a narrowing of mind and heart,
something obsolete, or an abject form of jealousy,
and as a result they look upon whatever penal
laws are passed by the State for the preserving
of conjugal faith as void or to be abolished.
Such unworthy and idle opinions are condemned
by that noble instinct which is found in every
chaste husband and wife, and even by the light
of the testimony of nature alone,--a testimony
that is sanctioned and confirmed by the command
of God:"Thou shalt not commit adultry,"[55]
and the words of Christ: "Whosoever shall
look on a woman to lust after her hath already
committed adultery with her in his heart."[56]
The force of this divine precept can never be
weakened by any merely human custom, bad example
or pretext of human progress, for just as it
is the one and the same "Jesus Christ,
yesterday and to-day and the same for ever,"[57]
so it is the one and the same doctrine of Christ
that abides and of which no one jot or tittle
shall pass away till all is fulfilled.[58]
74. The same false teachers
who try to dim the luster of conjugal faith
and purity do not scruple to do away with the
honorable and trusting obedience which the woman
owes to the man. Many of them even go further
and assert that such a subjection of one party
to the other is unworthy of human dignity, that
the rights of husband and wife are equal; wherefore,
they boldly proclaim the emancipation of women
has been or ought to be effected. This emancipation
in their ideas must be threefold, in the ruling
of the domestic society, in the administration
of family affairs and in the rearing of the
children. It must be social, economic, physiological:--physiological,
that is to say, the woman is to be freed at
her own good pleasure from the burdensome duties
properly belonging to a wife as companion and
mother (We have already said that this is not
an emancipation but a crime); social, inasmuch
as the wife being freed from the cares of children
and family, should, to the neglect of these,
be able to follow her own bent and devote herself
to business and even public affairs; finally
economic, whereby the woman even without the
knowledge and against the wish of her husband
may be at liberty to conduct and administer
her own affairs, giving her attention chiefly
to these rather than to children, husband and
family.
75. This, however, is not
the true emancipation of woman, nor that rational
and exalted liberty which belongs to the noble
office of a Christian woman and wife; it is
rather the debasing of the womanly character
and the dignity of motherhood, and indeed of
the whole family, as a result of which the husband
suffers the loss of his wife, the children of
their mother, and the home and the whole family
of an ever watchful guardian. More than this,
this false liberty and unnatural equality with
the husband is to the detriment of the woman
herself, for if the woman descends from her
truly regal throne to which she has been raised
within the walls of the home by means of the
Gospel, she will soon be reduced to the old
state of slavery (if not in appearance, certainly
in reality) and become as amongst the pagans
the mere instrument of man.
76. This equality of rights
which is so much exaggerated and distorted,
must indeed be recognized in those rights which
belong to the dignity of the human soul and
which are proper to the marriage contract and
inseparably bound up with wedlock. In such things
undoubtedly both parties enjoy the same rights
and are bound by the same obligations; in other
things there must be a certain inequality and
due accommodation, which is demanded by the
good of the family and the right ordering and
unity and stab
