Marriage and Family in Catholic Religion - Essay Example

Vatican II: Marriage & Family In what is regarded as an important milestone in the history of the Church, the Second Vatican Council proclaimed the “Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World” on December 8, 1965. The proclamation incorporates updates in the Church’s outlook according to the “signs of the times” {the original vision of Pope John XXIII} in the process of its gospel mission (Hill et al.). Before the Second Vatican Council, the Catholic perception of marriage was linked to the reasons for its existence. The foremost reason was to give birth to offspring by the reproduction process, and educate those offspring. The second reason was the mutual help both partners could give each other in the relationship. The third reason was that it provided legal cover for the couple to indulge in sex and release their carnal cravings. The husband was considered the head of the family, while the wife was looked upon as the nucleus, or heart of the family (Hill et al.). Pope Pius XI instigated a more personalized approach to marriage by the Church when in 1930 he wrote that the love shared between a husband and wife should occupy the greatest position in a marriage. Some European theologians added weight to the subject by proposing a more individualistic approach to marriage that stressed on human worthiness and the crucial importance of love in it. These developments laid the groundwork for the Second Vatican Council’s historical announcement (Hill et al.). The opening statement of the Second Vatican Council’s decree, “the joys and hopes, the grief and anguish of the people of our time, especially of those who are poor or afflicted, are the joys and hopes, the grief and anguish of the followers of Christ as well,” confirms the Church’s dedication to the people of the world and its determination to serve their needs. This statement is followed by a reference to the family, noting that nurturing healthy marriages and families is crucial to achieving personal and social well being (Hill et al.). The Second Vatican Council’s most dramatic proclamation was the Church as the “People of God.” Given the fact that the Church was earlier not identified with the laity but associated solely with the clergy and men and women religious, the proclamation departed from the traditional practice of viewing marriage as being a state of life for those who did not have vocations, admitting instead that married life was a genuine vocation in its own right. Vatican II added emphasis on the worthiness and respect of marriage by proclaiming that families were really “Church”: “In what might be regarded as the domestic Church, the parents are to be the first preachers of the faith for their children by word and example.” Vatican II designates the family as the Church’s most private and personal experience, the place where the virtues of love, forgiveness and loyalty should be fostered, the family Church whose members are expected to represent the tangible form of Jesus Christ in day-to-day life (Hill et al.). Vatican II goes on to state that God’s solemn dedication of love and loyalty to his people through Jesus Christ “now encounters Christian spouses through the Sacrament of Marriage,” thus elevating married couples to the status of true “ministers” of the Sacrament, and a sign of the real presence of Christ in the world. Married couples committed to the Sacrament of marriage must realize that their love and commitment to one another should be valued above everything else, especially in the present bustling world that focuses on material wealth and possessions at the expense of spiritual values: false ideologies that pose threats to the permanence and sexual faithfulness that epitomize marriage (Hill et al.). The deeper meaning allocated to marriage by Vatican II has spawned a number of new developments as well as prompted changes in existing models of marriage as a result of married couples’ discovery of a new “couple power” in ministry (Hill et al.). The first new development includes married couples taking up counseling to engaged persons preparing for marriage, organizing retreats and evening programs to counsel married persons on how to add strength and vitality to their marriages, and helping to serve the destitute in areas like homeless shelters and soup kitchens. In the second new development, diocesan offices have begun offering counseling services to married couples and families. The third new development involves programs such as Worldwide Marriage Encounters and Retrouvaille that target troubled marriages, providing advice on better communication and other ways to give a healthy elasticity to the marriage relationship (Hill et al.). The first change in existing models of marriage includes marriages increasingly opting to treat the couple as equal partners who take equal responsibilities relating to household chores, looking after children, commit to family investment after discussion, exploring various vacation destinations that have attractions to both partners, and other matters affecting the family (Hill et al.). The second change is that, taking a cue from Jesus who called his followers “friends” and not “servants” (John 15:15), married couples have developed friendship as an integral part of their relationship, looking upon their partner as their best friend in addition to a spouse (Hill et al.). The third change is that there has been a change in the role of women. Their views are now accepted and respected by the Church as well as their families. They have become much more self-reliant and have more freedom to pursue their careers because their husbands share the tasks of household chores and childcare (Hill et al.). The fourth change is that interfaith marriages gained acceptance from the Church. Before Vatican II, the Church frowned on Catholics marrying non-Catholics, and if such a marriage eventually did take place, required the non-Catholic spouse to pledge that the children would be raised as Catholics. Vatican II did away with those restrictions, allowing interfaith marriages to be legally conducted in the presence of ministers from both religions, not needing the non-Catholic spouse to pledge that the children would be raised as Catholics, an d encouraging both partners to gain information about each other’s religious faith and religious performances (Hill et al.). The fifth change involved an expansion in parameters where the Church granted annulment (an official declaration that the marriage never happened and that the partners have the freedom to marry again). Cases requiring annulment became subject to a more broad-minded and deeper examination of the reasons involved before decisions were finally taken (Hill et al.). The benefit associated with the Vatican II decree is that it has drawn world attention to morality. In the modern world, especially in developed nations, the concept of morality has been taking an increasing amount of battering. The sanctity of marriage has been challenged to a great extent; what represents a sacred relationship between a man and a woman is losing its value. Divorce has become commonplace. People are living together without being married. Preserving one’s virginity until the marriage night seems like a long forgotten dream. A whole new group of deviations has cropped up, such as openly accepted homosexuality, homosexuals living together, countries enacting laws allowing homosexuals to get married and enjoy the same rights as hetrosexual married couples and single parents deciding to raise children on their own. The Church has been trying to put an end to these myriad deviations and get the world to re-focus on the sanctity of marriage. By emphasizing the value of marriage, by drawing married couples into the fight against immorality, and by acknowledging that the family is a “domestic church” that can do much to inculcate moral attitudes in children and guide them along the correct moral path, Vatican II has in fact joined the real Church with the “domestic churches” (families) into one joint fight against immorality. In this context, the Vatican II decree is perceived as a deterrent to a world sinking more and more into the swamp of immoral chaos. There are several drawbacks associated with the Vatican II decree. The first drawback is that the issue of birth control was not given a deeper understanding. In actual fact, a large number of artificial birth control methods have surfaced in a struggle to combat increasing population growth that is endangering the world. Vatican II is too vague about how to succeed in reaching an optimal population and then proceed to keep it at replacement level, which includes having just two children in a family. While repeating the Church’s earlier position that it prohibits artificial birth control methods, Vatican II solutions are for couples to “stop having children,” and adjusting “sexual intercourse and responsible conception” by following natural family planning that envisages engaging in sex only during the non-fertile days in the wife’s reproductive cycles. Given the intensity of the population problem that is threatened to overwhelm mankind, the Vatican II suggestions are very weak and inadequate, not proportionate to the weight of the problem at all (Szebenyi). The second drawback is that abortion is not given a deeper understanding. Vatican II repeats the Church’s earlier stance of being totally opposed to abortion, considering it equal to murder (Hill et al.). Given that the Church’s position is morally correct (even though the rapidly increasing number of abortions taking part all over the world silently opposes this stance), it is felt that Vatican II should have considered exceptions to the rule such as pregnancy arising out of rape, or a poor pregnant woman forced to abort her child following the untimely death of her husband (the unborn child being perceived as an additional burden to the already poor family finances exacerbated by the death of the family’s breadwinner). The third drawback concerns divorce. Vatican II confirmed the Church’s position of prohibiting divorce and remarriage. Although Pope John Paul II wrote in “The Role of the Christian Family in the Modern World” (Familiaris Consortio) that divorced persons must be helped by Catholics so that their efforts, aided by the Church’s prayers, would ensure that such persons “do not consider themselves as separated from the Church,” the basic opposition stance of the Church continued unabated. In addition, although the scope of annulment was expanded, the existing rule continued whereby a Catholic who divorced and remarried was excommunicated by the Church {this matter was redressed only later in 1977, when Pope Paul VI erased the excommunication rule once and for all} (Hill et al.). The fourth drawback is that Vatican II does not delve deeper into the subject of homosexuality, a form of sexual orientation that is not recognized by the Church. In recent times, there has been a massive increase in persons freely admitting that they are homosexual, homosexuals and lesbians openly living together as couples, and in the latest development, even legally getting married and adopting children. Vatican II does not address this problem at all – it should have, given one simple fact: homosexuals are not made; people are born with the homosexual trait, a fact that points to God’s design in their sexual orientation. In conclusion it must be said that the merits of Vatican II have not proven as effective as was hoped to be, and its drawbacks continue to gain prominence as time goes by. This is not so surprising given the fact that 42 years have elapsed since Vatican II, and there have been a lot of changes during that period. There is an urgent need for the Church to convene the Third Vatican Council to proclaim amendments to its existing outlook to keep in touch with the changing times. References used: Hill, Marie & Brenan. “Marriage & Family Life: The Domestic Church.” Americancatholic.org. 2004. 10 Apr. 2007. Szebenyi, Andrew. “The Family & Vatican II: Reflections.” Le Moyne College. 2004. 10 Apr. 2007. Read More