Catechism index

2366 III. The Love of Husband and Wife Fecundity is a gift, an end of marriage, for conjugal love naturally tends to be fruitful. A child does not come from outside as something added on to the mutual love of …
2367 III. The Love of Husband and Wife Called to give life, spouses share in the creative power and fatherhood of God. 153 "Married couples should regard it as their proper mission to transmit human life and to educate their …
2368 III. The Love of Husband and Wife A particular aspect of this responsibility concerns the regulation of procreation. For just reasons, spouses may wish to space the births of their children. It is their duty to make certain that …
2369 III. The Love of Husband and Wife "By safeguarding both these essential aspects, the unitive and the procreative, the conjugal act preserves in its fullness the sense of true mutual love and its orientation toward man's exalted vocation to …
2370 III. The Love of Husband and Wife Periodic continence, that is, the methods of birth regulation based on self-observation and the use of infertile periods, is in conformity with the objective criteria of morality. 157 These methods respect the …
2371 III. The Love of Husband and Wife "Let all be convinced that human life and the duty of transmitting it are not limited by the horizons of this life only: their true evaluation and full significance can be understood …
2372 III. The Love of Husband and Wife The state has a responsibility for its citizens' well-being. In this capacity it is legitimate for it to intervene to orient the demography of the population. This can be done by means …
2373 III. The Love of Husband and Wife Sacred Scripture and the Church's traditional practice see in large families a sign of God's blessing and the parents' generosity. 162
2374 III. The Love of Husband and Wife Couples who discover that they are sterile suffer greatly. "What will you give me," asks Abraham of God, "for I continue childless?" 163 and Rachel cries to her husband Jacob, "Give me …
2375 III. The Love of Husband and Wife Research aimed at reducing human sterility is to be encouraged, on condition that it is placed "at the service of the human person, of his inalienable rights, and his true and integral …
2376 III. The Love of Husband and Wife Techniques that entail the dissociation of husband and wife, by the intrusion of a person other than the couple (donation of sperm or ovum, surrogate uterus), are gravely immoral. These techniques (heterologous …
2377 III. The Love of Husband and Wife Techniques involving only the married couple (homologous artificial insemination and fertilization) are perhaps less reprehensible, yet remain morally unacceptable. They dissociate the sexual act from the procreative act. the act which brings …
2378 III. The Love of Husband and Wife A child is not something owed to one, but is a gift. the "supreme gift of marriage" is a human person. A child may not be considered a piece of property, an …
2379 III. The Love of Husband and Wife The Gospel shows that physical sterility is not an absolute evil. Spouses who still suffer from infertility after exhausting legitimate medical procedures should unite themselves with the Lord's Cross, the source of …
2380 IV. Offenses Against the Dignity of Marriage Adultery refers to marital infidelity. When two partners, of whom at least one is married to another party, have sexual relations - even transient ones - they commit adultery. Christ condemns even …
2381 IV. Offenses Against the Dignity of Marriage Adultery is an injustice. He who commits adultery fails in his commitment. He does injury to the sign of the covenant which the marriage bond is, transgresses the rights of the other …
2382 IV. Offenses Against the Dignity of Marriage The Lord Jesus insisted on the original intention of the Creator who willed that marriage be indissoluble. 173 He abrogates the accommodations that had slipped into the old Law. 174 Between the …
2383 IV. Offenses Against the Dignity of Marriage The separation of spouses while maintaining the marriage bond can be legitimate in certain cases provided for by canon law. 176 If civil divorce remains the only possible way of ensuring certain …
2384 IV. Offenses Against the Dignity of Marriage Divorce is a grave offense against the natural law. It claims to break the contract, to which the spouses freely consented, to live with each other till death. Divorce does injury to …
2385 If a husband, separated from his wife, approaches another woman, he is an adulterer because he makes that woman commit adultery, and the woman who lives with him is an adulteress, because she has drawn another's husband to herself. 177 Divorce is immoral also because it introduces disorder into the family and into society. This disorder brings grave harm to the deserted spouse, to children traumatized by the separation of their parents …