Family planning in Fiji, 1966.

Date:
[1966]
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: Family planning in Fiji, 1966. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    rejecting parenthood as the primary purpose of marriage and is condemned Ъу the Church. This is a point which is seldom appre¬ ciated. The Canon Law of the Church states that the primary purpose of marriage is the procreation and education of children. This indicates that the whole care of the child until it reaches an independent adult life is part of the primary purpose of matri¬ mony, If parents are to fulfill this primary purpose properly the size of their responsibility must he kept within their ability to discharge it. This again reinforces the argument against allowing the пшпЪег of children to increase without control. I should, perhaps, at this point mention that when speaking primary purpose of marriage, I do not want it to he imagined that the Church considers that this is the only reason for the Sacrament of Matrimony. Man and woman are designed Ъу God to love one another, Hushand and wife are a help to one another; their mutual love sustains them; in their companionship they find comfort; not only are they supported hut their person¬ alities are developed by the love they give one another. All these things are subserved by marriage and in their development sexual intercourse is necessary; it is the most complete expression of conjugal love, it holds husband and wife together, it increases their devotion to one another. It would be quite wrong therefore to consider that the only purpose of sexual intercourse is to pro¬ create children and the Church does not teach this. It will be seen therefore that the Catholic Church recommends that parents shoTild only bring into the world the number of children that they can look after properly. In view, however, of the great importance that the Church attaches to the giving of new life and the creation of new eternal souls, this limiting of families is considered a thing to be used with caution. It would be wrong for instance for a newly married couple to refuse to have children merely so that the wife could continue to work. It would be wrong to keep one's family imnecessarily small so that the parents could lead a life of luxury. But to keep one's family to the size that enables one to maintain a decent standard of living and to bring one's children up to the educational level that is ex¬ pected of their class of society is not only acceptable - it is praiseworthy. Similarly families can be limited because of health reasons - for example the illness of the mother - or genetic rea¬ sons if, for instance, a hereditary disease is carried by either parent, or even for social reasons because one is expected to main¬ tain a certain standai'd or because one cannot obtain a house. The Church teaches that only parents can know how many children they should have and that, when they have had the position explained to them as has been outlined, it is up to them, and to them alone, to decide the size of their family. It is entirely a matter for their own consciences. This principle was clearly laid down by the second Vatican Council, Having established that the size of the family may be regulated by Catholics we must now consider the methods they may use to do this. To explain the Church's argments I must first