By Kevin Aldrich
Catholic Stand.com
This is the final column in a six-part series on
Humanae Vitae, Pope Paul VI’s profound and heroic 1968 encyclical. The series’ introduction is
here. The question of “responsible parenthood” as the Church defines it is taken up
here. Questions about the unitive and procreative meanings of sex and why they should not be separated are discussed
here. Questions of conscience are taken up
here. How NFP and contraception are radically different is discussed
here.
In this column, we will turn to the question of whether American Catholic spouses should aim for large families.
AS MANY AS THEY CAN HAVE?
As we have seen, the Church does not teach that married couples have a moral obligation to produce as many children as they can. In our modern age, she encourages responsible parenthood. This can mean limiting family size using moral means.
Certainly in many places in the third world it is not hard to imagine couples who can have good reasons, grave reasons, to limit their family size. These reasons can include poverty, disease, lack of access to education, severely inadequate housing, obligations to already living family members, and so on.
However, the Church is also always on the side of generosity and fertility. After all, God did say, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth” (Gn 1:28). As the Vatican II Constitution Gaudium et Spes puts it, “Children are really the supreme gift of marriage and contribute very substantially to the welfare of their parents” (§50). Being prolife and optimistic, the Church views children as a great blessing to herself, the spouses, their families, their communities, and the world.
Kevin lives with his wife and seven children in Springfield, IL. He writes screenplays, TV pilots, novels, non-fiction books and articles, and English and religion curricula. He homiletic lectionary-based blog is http://www.doctrinalhomilyoutlines.com/. His blog for aspiring writers is http://www.thecatholicimage.com/.
