Casti Connubii

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Casti Connubii was a papal encyclical promulgated by Pope Pius XI on December 31, 1930. It stressed the sanctity of marriage, prohibited Roman Catholics from using any form of artificial birth control, and reaffirmed the prohibition on abortion. It also explained the authority of Church doctrine on moral matters, and advocated the cooperation of civil governments with the Church.

Contents

[edit] Topics

[edit] Sanctity of marriage

Early Catholic doctrine considered complete sexual abstinence to be the most holy state for humans, with marriage allowed only for those without the fortitude required by an abstinent life. This encyclical, however, stresses that marriage is a sacrament, equal in stature to remaining virginal and unmarried.

Casti Connubii speaks out against the eugenics laws, popular at that time, that forbade those deemed 'unfit' from marrying and having children:

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.

The encyclical also affirms the Church's opposition to adultery and divorce, and support of wives as homemakers (in opposition to the feminist movement's suggestion that women have careers).

[edit] Birth control

Prior to this encyclical, it was believed by some Catholics that the only licit reason for sexual intercourse was an attempt to create children.[1] At the time, there was no official church position on any non-procreative purposes of intercourse. Casti Connubii does repeat several times that the conjugal act is intrinsically tied with procreation:

. . . 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.

However, Casti Connubii also acknowledges the unitive aspect of intercourse as licit:

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.

The 'natural reasons of time or of certain defects' are universally accepted as meaning menopause and infertility. This paragraph thus means menopausal and infertile couples may morally engage in intercourse, even though there is no possibility of children resulting from the act.

The 'natural reasons of time' is interpreted by some to also mean the infertile portion of a woman's menstrual cycle.[2] The practice of avoiding pregnancy by abstaining from sexual relations when the woman is fertile (natural family planning) was first addressed in rulings by the Sacred Penitentiary in 1853 and 1880, which declared the practice moral.[3] However, a few Catholic theologians continued to hold that such practices were equivalent to contraception and thus immoral, and some historians consider two 1951 speeches by Pope Pius XII[4] to be the first explicit Church acceptance of natural family planning.[1] The modern Church's view of contraception was explored further in the 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae by Pope Paul VI, and by Pope John Paul II's lecture series later entitled Theology of the Body.

[edit] Abortion

This encyclical repeats the Church's condemnation of abortion in all circumstances. It also draws a connection between contracepting couples and couples that have abortions:

. . .those wicked parents who seek to remain childless, and failing in this, are not ashamed to put their offspring to death.

[edit] Impact

Casti Connubii is most noted for its anti-contraception position. Unlike major Protestant denominations, the Roman Catholic Church has continued its opposition to artificial birth control. This encyclical, along with Humanae Vitae, has come to represent that stance.

[edit] Further reading

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Yalom, Marilyn (2001). A History of the Wife, First edition, New York: HarperCollins, pp. 297-8, 307. ISBN 0-06-019338-7. 
  2. ^ Kippley, John; Sheila Kippley (1996). The Art of Natural Family Planning, 4th Edition, Cincinnati, OH: The Couple to Couple League, 231. ISBN 0-926412-13-2. 
  3. ^ Pivarunas, Mark. A. (2002-02-18). On the Question of Natural Family Planning. Religious Congregation of Mary Immaculate Queen (CMRI). Retrieved on 2007-06-03.
    Harrison, Brian W. (January 2003). "Is Natural Family Planning a 'Heresy'?". Living Tradition (103). Roman Theological Forum. 
  4. ^ Moral Questions Affecting Married Life: Addresses given October 29, 1951 to the Italian Catholic Union of midwives and November 26, 1951 to the National Congress of the Family Front and the Association of Large Families, National Catholic Welfare Conference, Washington, DC.