Casti Connubii
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Casti Connubii was a papal encyclical promulgated by Pope Pius XI in 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.
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[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 (Yalom 297-8, 307). 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 also held to mean the infertile portion of a woman's menstrual cycle. Though this interpretation has generated some controversy in the Catholic Church, it was supported by two 1951 speeches by Pope Pius XII (English translation entitled Moral Questions Affecting Married Life) and by the release of Humanae Vitae by Pope Paul VI in 1968 - nearly forty years after Casti Connubii. The use of natural family planning – that is, limiting sexual relations to the infertile phase of a woman's menstrual cycle – is considered moral by Catholic theologians where sufficient reason exists to avoid or postpone pregnancy.
[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] References
- Casti Connubii
- Yalom, Marilyln. A History of the Wife. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2001. ISBN 0-06-019338-7
- The following two speeches by Pope Pius XII were published in an English-language pamphlet entitled Moral Questions Affecting Married Life. They were also published in Papal Teachings: Matrimony, ed. Benedictine Monks of Solesmes (Boston: St. Paul Editions, 1963) and in Acta Apostolicae Sedis 43 (1951).
- Allocution to midwives. 29 October 1951.
- Discourse to the Union of the Family (Fronte della famiglia) and to the Associations of Numerous Families. 27 November 1951.
