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Pope Pius XI's Casti Connubii
Pope Pius XI
- "4....We follow the footsteps of Our predecessor, Leo XIII, of happy memory, whose
Encyclical Arcanum,[1] [was] 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....
- "37....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....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....
- "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...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....
- "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....
- "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....
- "56....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 [']....
- "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....
- "85. The advocates of the neo-paganism of today have learned nothing from the
sad state of affairs, but instead, day by day, more and more vehemently, they
continue by legislation to attack the indissolubility of the marriage bond,
proclaiming that the lawfulness of divorce must be recognized, and that the
antiquated laws should give place to a new and more humane legislation....
- "86. Others, taking a step further, simply state that marriage, being a
private contract, is, like other private contracts, to be left to the consent
and good pleasure of both parties, and so can be dissolved for any reason
whatsoever.
- "87. Opposed to all these reckless opinions, Venerable Brethren, stands the
unalterable law of God, fully confirmed by Christ, a law that can never be
deprived of its force by the decrees of men, the ideas of a people or the will
of any legislator: 'What God hath joined together, let no man put
asunder'....
- "88. Let that solemn pronouncement of the Council of Trent be recalled to mind
in which, under the stigma of anathema, it condemned these errors: 'If
anyone should say that on account of heresy or the hardships of cohabitation or
a deliberate abuse of one party by the other the marriage tie may be loosened,
let him be anathema;'[66] and again: 'If anyone should say that the
Church errs in having taught or in teaching that, according to the teaching of
the Gospel and the Apostles, the bond of marriage cannot be loosed because of
the sin of adultery of either party; or that neither party, even though he be
innocent, having given no cause for the sin of adultery, can contract another
marriage during the lifetime of the other; and that he commits adultery who
marries another after putting away his adulterous wife, and likewise that she
commits adultery who puts away her husband and marries another: let him be
anathemae.'[67]
- "89. If therefore the Church has not erred and does not err in teaching this,
and consequently it is certain that the bond of marriage cannot be loosed even
on account of the sin of adultery, it is evident that all the other weaker
excuses that can be, and are usually brought forward, are of no value
whatsoever. And the objections brought against the firmness of the marriage bond
are easily answered....Now
all those arguments that are brought forward to prove the indissolubility of the
marriage tie, arguments which have already been touched upon, can equally be
applied to excluding not only the necessity of divorce, but even the power to
grant it; while for all the advantages that can be put forward for the former,
there can be adduced as many disadvantages and evils which are a formidable
menace to the whole of human society.
- "90. To revert again to the expression of Our predecessor, it is hardly
necessary to point out what an amount of good is involved in the absolute
indissolubility of wedlock and what a train of evils follows upon divorce....
- "103.... in order that no falsification or corruption of the
divine law but a true genuine knowledge of it may enlighten the minds of men and
guide their conduct, it is necessary that a filial and humble obedience towards
the Church should be combined with devotedness to God and the desire of
submitting to Him....
- "104. Wherefore, let the faithful also be on their guard against the overrated
independence of private judgment and that false autonomy of human reason. For it
is quite foreign to everyone bearing the name of a Christian to trust his own
mental powers with such pride as to agree only with those things which he can
examine from their inner nature, and to imagine that the Church, sent by God to
teach and guide all nations, is not conversant with present affairs and
circumstances; or even that they must obey only in those matters which she has
decreed by solemn definition as though her other decisions might be presumed to
be false or putting forward insufficient motive for truth and honesty. Quite to
the contrary, a characteristic of all true followers of Christ, lettered or
unlettered, is to suffer themselves to be guided and led in all things that
touch upon faith or morals by the Holy Church of God through its Supreme Pastor
the Roman Pontiff, who is himself guided by Jesus Christ Our Lord.
- "105. Consequently, since everything must be referred to the law and mind of
God, in order to bring about the universal and permanent restoration of
marriage, it is indeed of the utmost importance that the faithful should be well
instructed concerning matrimony....
- "106....by every fitting means, oppose error by truth, vice by the excellent dignity of
chastity, the slavery of covetousness by the liberty of the sons of God,[81]
that disastrous ease in obtaining divorce by an enduring love in the bond of
marriage and by the inviolate pledge of fidelity given even to death....
- "112. All these things, however, Venerable Brethren, depend in large measure
on the due preparation remote and proximate, of the parties for marriage. For it
cannot be denied that the basis of a happy wedlock, and the ruin of an unhappy
one, is prepared and set in the souls of boys and girls during the period of
childhood and adolescence. There is danger that those who before marriage sought
in all things what is theirs, who indulged even their impure desires, will be in
the married state what they were before, that they will reap that which they
have sown;[86] indeed, within the home there will be sadness, lamentation,
mutual contempt, strifes, estrangements, weariness of common life, and, worst of
all, such parties will find themselves left alone with their own unconquered
passions....
- "116. Now since it is no rare thing to find that the perfect observance of
God's commands and conjugal integrity encounter difficulties by reason of the
fact that the man and wife are in straitened circumstances, their necessities
must be relieved as far as possible.
- "117....in the State such economic and social methods should be
adopted as will enable every head of a family to earn as much as, according to
his station in life, is necessary for himself, his wife, and for the rearing of
his children, for 'the laborer is worthy of his hire.'[91] To deny
this, or to make light of what is equitable, is a grave injustice and is placed
among the greatest sins by Holy Writ;[92] nor is it lawful to fix such a scanty
wage as will be insufficient for the upkeep of the family in the circumstances
in which it is placed" (Pope Pius XI, Casti Connubii, 12/31/1930).
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