what is procreation in marriage

I agree with you that same-sex couples seek the social involvement, inclusion, and status that marriage represents. In every society, we find something like the following type of relationship: men and women committed to sharing their lives together, on the bodily, emotional, and spiritual levels of their being, in the kind of community that would be fulfilled by procreating and rearing children together. THAT seems to be an under-appreciation for the sacrament, seeing it as something bad. The Introduction to his Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma is online. Arthur Vermeesch as the natural methods improved became negative and saw them as a lesser evil for onanists. P3: Children benefit when their parent's relationship is stable. Intimacy doesn’t ensure such a commitment, and many such committed and loving relationships may not actually be all that intimate. Dear father Joseph, Why sexual intimacy should be privileged over these other sorts of intimacy and strong relationships, even despite its frequently volatile character in comparison to these other bonds and the pressures that can accompany it, is not entirely clear to me. Further, the decisions of the Roman Congregations (Holy Office, Bible Commission) are not infallible. Pope Francis in Amoris laetitia has suggested that one need not emphasis much or at all the objective superiority of virginity or celibacy, (See my comments here: https://www.pathsoflove.com/blog/2016/08/theologians-appeal-for-clarification-of-apparent-errors-in-amoris-laetitia-marriage-and-virginity/ ) but does not deny such a superiority. But they also see virginity as a better good. For most of us in my part of the world, food comes from the local supermarket. This would explain the disgusting positions of Saints like Bernardine of Sienna and Bridget of Sweden on such issues. Siblings, cohabiting friends, comrades or boon companions have in many cultures formed relationships whose strength and intimacy eclipse most marriages, and such relationships continue to exist within our society. 32. Marriage is primarily a legal arrangement, concerned with economics, not procreation. Some of St. Augustine's other writings do give the impression that average married couples in his parish were "sinning venially" quite often in this way. Fathers, Saints, Popes, and laity have been wrong on various moral questions…..but not at the infallible level of the Magisterium….but many things are not at that level. 1) Moreover, he says that intercourse which happens to be sterile (as opposed to intercourse intentionally sterile) is not a sin, and this includes not only cases where the spouses do not know that the intercourse is sterile, but also the cases where they know it (Summa Contra Gentiles 3, 122). Phil, I more or less agree with you. Unitive can be found with a microscope in some saints of that time…strangely enough….a Carthusian whose name escapes me. The marital act must remain intrinsically directed towards procreation, and this intrinsic order of the act to procreation must be respected by those who choose to engage in martial intercourse, but the marital act need not lead concretely lead (even in terms of probability) to the procreation of children. If the married couple agree to be continent, it helps them to pray; if they agree with reverence to have sexual relations it leads them to beget children.’ —St. Couples who forego those relations are exceptional, and usually only do so under careful spiritual direction. You may or may not have seen that I am currently responding to questions on the subject of same-sex marriage here.   “Consequently there are only two ways in which married persons can come together without any sin at all, namely in order to have offspring, and in order to pay the debt, otherwise it is always at least a venial sin.”. Personal background: I am married, but that marriage only lasted a bit longer than a year before we separated partially due to my desire to live in accord with the Church's teachings, and we're going to have to start annulment proceedings soon. When our claims, our rights, and our entitlement takes priority in such a manner, we lose sight of the natural giftedness of the relationship between parent and child and the receptive openness and hospitality that the parent must maintain towards their child’s existence, however gifted or limited they might be, whatever characteristics they might possess, whatever they end up doing with their lives. Even though the child in a particular context might do well, a greater willingness to use reproductive technologies and to support unconventional child-rearing situations has consequences that extend beyond individual children to affect our perception and treatment of children and the unborn more generally. This is the complete opposite of the traditional position systematized by St. Augustine. Here's the problem for honest theologians:  if the Church knew that since the early centuries including Augustine's time, there were natural cycles….how can it claim the hermeneutic of continuity in this area when it took them til the 19th century to explicitly encourage the still non clarified scientific version of those theories. "There are three forms of the virtue of chastity: the first is that of spouses, the second that of widows, and the third that of virgins. This article, for example (http://www.jknirp.com/aug3.htm): "For example, in sermon 9 (which may come from the later years of his life), Augustine spoke of "daily sins" that were virtually unavoidable because of human weakness. But there is no marriage where motherhood is not in view; therefore neither is there a wife. The article talks about the institutions without One of the areas that I’m really not sure about is the idea that gay marriage undermines the institution of marriage or contributes to its ‘de-institutionalization’. The early fathers of the Church became increasingly conservative in their interpretation of human sexuality. Who give alms, but not very lavishly. And ‘family planning’ is a term Margaret Sanger or the like came up with, and the aim of such ‘family planners’ is really no family. However, it would be good to hear your opinions on a few of these issues. Rather, coitus between a man and a woman has a unique and superior objective value and significance, irrespective of the level of the feelings and intentions vested in it by the participants. A husband and wife who love one another will be more naturally drawn by the fact that they love and desire on another than thinking "oh, it's time to have another child, let's go get this done". Does that make sense? Naturally, the position that I am articulating here entails a firm rejection of the fashionable assumption that all sex is equal and univocal (sex is sex is sex…), deriving its meaning and value purely from private intentionalities. And so the sexual intercourse of an infertile couple, no less than that of a fertile couple, unites them biologically: they mate, even though, in the case of the infertile couple, procreation will not result. Marriage has historically tended to function as a social norm for all persons within a society, its norms shaping the behaviour of married and unmarried. The form of the institution of marriage protects the unity of biological (genetic and gestational), social, and legal parenthood. Is, for example, a strong and persistent interior desire to raise a family an obstacle to devoting oneself to the life of virginity and thereby fruitfully living such a life, even if one is capable of living chastely in the single state? However, as we will see in chapter two, the range of considerations which Augustine addresses in his theology of marriage is wider than that of many contemporary accounts. I quite deliberately said "full clarity regarding the infertile periods of women" was not available, as a certain degree of knowledge was possessed. Augustine seemed to think that the choice to engage in intercourse was per se sinful if not chosen with procreative intent, whereas more recent theologians would say there may be some venial sin in how it is done (too much focus on self or on pleasure). Procreative intercourse is the means by which virtually all persons are conceived into the world, and the sexual union between husbands and wives is the source of our most powerful social bonds, bonds such as the one that you and I share. In effect, intercourse is still forbidden for approximately half the year. The question that same-sex marriage advocates need to address is that of the culture-wide effect of changing the parameters of marriage in the manner that same-sex marriage would require. Nor must procreation be on their minds at all (since the focus of the act is loving the other spouse). “If a man intends by the marriage act to prevent fornication in his wife, it is no sin, because this is a kind of payment of the debt that comes under the good of “faith.” But if he intends to avoid fornication in himself, then there is a certain superfluity, and accordingly there is a venial sin, nor was the sacrament instituted for that purpose, except by indulgence, which regards venial sins.”, Aquinas. A social institution that provides for the formation of these bonds in a responsible and committed environment ensures that most children will be provided for within the realm of primary moral duty and concern (the duty and concern that we bear to our immediate relatives), rather than having to throw themselves upon the broader charity of society, where, without an immediately responsible party, it is far less likely that the duties towards them will be assumed. There is no real moral difference as to whether or not their bodies can, in fact, conceive. Similarly, NT Wright has his “For Everyone” commentaries (written as Tom Wright). Consequence of failing to follow a vocation, Every Saint is unique: Catherine of Siena on the special virtue of each person, Francis on the special virtues of particular saints, http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P85.HTM, http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p3s2c2a6.htm, https://www.pathsoflove.com/blog/2016/08/theologians-appeal-for-clarification-of-apparent-errors-in-amoris-laetitia-marriage-and-virginity/. I am now asking Our Lady, the most pure Virgin, and my incomparable Mother, to save me from retrospective scrupulosity that would perhaps ruin my peace in Christ and lead me to despair. You have to multiply the respective failure rates. I greatly appreciated his argument, but also felt the force of Gilbert Meilaender’s criticism in First Things that it is a positive development that Eros can now play a larger role in most marriages. But in saying that I can see by your article that the ‘institution’ has been eroded.

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