Not only did the pope confirm the Church’s perennial teaching about contraception, he offered a sobering reminder to all of us that it is precisely because of our “human tendency to rationalize our private [choices] that Christ established a teaching Church. It is the Church, and not private judgment, that has been entrusted with revelation regarding faith and morals.”80
Casti Connubii
Casti Connubii is the second in a trilogy of three major encyclicals on marriage and family life, used to “restate and strengthen the Church’s teaching.”81 The first was Pope Leo XIII’s 1880 encyclical, Arcanum, on Christian marriage; the second was Pope Pius XI’s 1930 encyclical on chaste marriage, Casti Connubii; and the third was Pope Paul VI’s 1968 definitive teaching on contraception and human life, Humanae Vitae. All of these documents were written to counter a perceived threat to marriage. “In each of these encyclicals, the Church not only restates its perennial teaching on marriage and family, but also develops aspects of the theology of marriage that had not been fully articulated before.”82
What Is Marriage?
We remember from our review of Pope Leo XIII’s encyclical Arcanum that he put it in its proper context by asking the question, “What did God intend?” In a similar way, Pope Pius XI began Casti Connubii by symbolically asking, “What is marriage?” It is a fair question, particularly in our day and age. Today, the true meaning of marriage frequently gets lost between the wedding invitations and the parties, so the Church wants to make sure that we know the answer to this question.
Casti Connubii reaffirms the main points found in Arcanum, particularly pertaining to the sacramental nature of marriage and the evils of divorce. Just by asking the question, “What is marriage?” Pius XI expanded his teaching into some other areas. Drawing from the teachings of Saint Augustine, there are three precepts of marriage: the begetting and education of children, the fidelity of the spouses, and the graces of the sacrament.
The encyclical begins by reminding us that marriage is “of its very nature”83 a divine institution. God instituted marriage, but no one is obliged to marry. However, once a couple does enter matrimony, they do it on God’s terms, not their own.84 In other words, “a man and a woman can enter into the married state — but they have no freedom as to what that state is. They can do well or ill. But they can’t change what the plan is.”85 According to Pope Pius: “This freedom … 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.”86
Contrary to popular opinion, the “main union of marriage is not the physical. It is, rather, the spiritual union of the hearts and minds of the married couple.”87 The fact that marriage goes far beyond the physical relationship of the partners is what separates us from the animals. No union on earth is as intimate as marriage. We see this particularly in times of need, when there is a real demand upon the spiritual resources of the couple, which can only come from a depth of understanding between the husband and wife.
If a marriage is based on passion alone, the risk for failure is great. As we can well appreciate, our passions burn out, and our physical bodies change as the years go by. Spiritual qualities are more enduring than the physical, and it is upon these spiritual qualities that an enduring union must be founded:
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.88
Christian marriage is a partnership between a husband and wife, with God as the third partner. It should be rooted in unselfish love, which is exactly how God loves us. Since procreation and education of children is the first precept of marriage, married couples are, in fact, co-creators of the universe. Together with God, they keep the human race in existence. Failing in marriage, therefore, means failing God, our partner.
Because marriage was designed specifically for the creation of children, their education must also be the priority in any marriage. We are all created to know, love, and serve God, and parents have the responsibility to help their children along this path. From the beginning, parents must help develop deep faith and virtue in their children:
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.”89
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 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.90
To have a marriage that embraces children (the first precept of marriage), there must be fidelity and dedication of the spouses to each other (the second precept). Real fidelity is centered in an abiding “union of mind and heart.”91 Hence, “if internal union is protected, there will never be any reason for worry about external fidelity.”92
In other words, if a husband and wife strive to be faithful to each other through their thoughts and actions, there is very little chance that either will be unfaithful. (On this point, Pope Pius discouraged both husband and wife from spending too much time with other people of the opposite sex.)
Fidelity is the fruit of mutual love, which is one of the blessings of a Christian marriage. This kind of love puts the needs and cares of the other person first. When a husband loves his wife, he seeks what is good for her, and a wife should do the same for her husband. And the greatest goods are not physical, but spiritual:
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. 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.93
The mutual love of the spouses should prevent either party from dominating the other, for true love is always seeking the good of both:
“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