Marriage and Parenthood,The Catholic Ideal-May 17

INTRODUCTION

A MAN thinks he is very clever if he can make an aeroplane. Thousands of other men think he is a genius if he can fly over the Alps, even though at the end of the journey he break his neck. But these are paltry trifles compared with the work of training a soul for the kingdom of God. Such a task needs the genius of the Catholic Church.

Amongst her many helps for this purpose not the least important is the Sacrament of marriage. The ideal which she holds before the world and the power which she gives for the realizing of luch ideal stand out as the chief hope for the salvation of modern society. On every side we see influences at work which tend to break up the family and consequently to break up society. The icrease of divorce, the falling off in the birth­ rate, the spread of the white slave traffic, - these are a few of the more obvious symptoms which follow upon a low ideal of the marriage bond.

That there is something wrong is admitted on all hands, as is proved by the attempts to mend matters. The Divorce Commission at present sit­ting in London is an evidence of such unrest. The formation of the Eugenics Education Society is another. In these movements, however, the Cath­olic student detects a lack of the knowledge of foundation principles. Most of the remedies pro­posed are a tinkering with the symptom rather than a treatment of the root cause.

Here and there, however, the value of the Cath­olic ideal asserts itself. Thus, for instance, in the evidence before the Divorce Commission, Sir John Bigham, then President of the Divorce Court, said: "My experience shows me that members of the Roman Catholic Church seldom come to our court, and I attribute that fact to the great influence of their priesthood, and to the respect which is inculcated amongst Roman Catholics for the marriage vow."

Another witness, Dr. Glynn Whittle, of Liver­pool, bore magnificent testimony to the fidelity of the Catholic poor. Speaking as he did in favor of divorce, there was a double weight in his words. He said he had questioned countless poor women, victims of habitual cruelty, as to whether they would avail themselves of divorce if they could get it. The answers had been most impres­sive. Protestants said "Yes"; Roman Catholics said "No." He could not recall a single Protes­tant exception.

What is the cause of this grand steadfastness amongst Catholics and of weak changeableness amongst their Protestant neighbors? A member of the Council of the Eugenics Society shall make answer. Writing in a London journal [Daily Dispatch, Nov 11, 1910] he says: "Marriage, like other natural and necessary rela­tions, is sacred. Only in Catholicism is it a Sacra­ment; in scientific sociology the term is meaning­less....Protestantism will have none of it. The Reformation, in this as in other points a revolt from Catholicism, expressly declared that marriage is not a Sacrament, that it is essentially a secular matter."

For the present disastrous state of affairs, then, we have to thank the system which for three hun­dred years has proclaimed the denial that mar­riage is a Sacrament. But, as we have seen, the leaven of truth is still working. The preaching and the practice of the sacramental ideal with all its implications is to be the leaven of the whole mass. To promote and foster this ideal is the aim of the following pages.

It is also hoped that a re-statement of the Cath­olic ideal, in the face of modern ideals to the contrary, will tend to increase the happiness of Catholic family life. We cannot shut our eyes to the many failures. In all cases they are due either to ignorance of the ideal or to a refusal of its graces. They may be traced largely to the fact that false views of marriage and parenthood do make their way into Catholic homes.

These views concern the most intimate, the most delicate, and the most sacred marriage relationships. The protective modesty, so natural to a good con­science, has been carried too far, and false doc­trine has been able to make headway simply because the true was not present to resist it.

Now reticence in these matters is a very strong protection against temptation. But there is some knowledge which we must have. Some people require more, others can do with less. I acknowl­edge that I have found the greatest difficulty in deciding what must be left out of this book. What has been retained has been retained by advice of authority much more competent than myself. If knowledge in these matters is needful then that knowledge must be acquired and we must trust to grace to keep us from abusing it. No less an authority than St. Clement of Alexandria has said: "Be not ashamed to know what God was not ashamed to make."

Let it be admitted at once that isolated points of this doctrine may seem harsh and unkind to the individual. At the same time let it be remembered that the Church is an expert in human nature and that by her divine guidance she can see further than the individual. When under her direction the larger vision has been gained, when through painful experience the lesson has been learnt, then will Mother Church be discovered to be right after all. What a man loses as an individual, through keeping the Church's laws, he gains as a member of a world-wide society; what he loses in a portion of life he gains in the whole of life, yea a thousandfold in the life eternal.

The Church guards a divine ideal, - that is why she is always right. A nation's decadence consists not so much in the actual lowering of its moral life, as in the lowering of its ideal. If it preserves its ideal there is hope of its resurrec­tion. But if it calls good bad and bad good, then its doom is sealed.

I have to acknowledge my indebtedness to Dr. Gideon W. B. Marsh, Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine, and Vice-President of the Guild of Sts. Luke, Cosmas, and Damian, for valuable suggestions regarding the medical side of the sub­ject. I have tried to avoid all topics that do not involve moral principles. These must be sought elsewhere. Unfortunately many books, most ex­cellent from the medical and nursing point of view, contain directions, here and there, contrary to Catholic principles.

If they are to be used with­out harm, therefore, they must be read with cau­tion and duly corrected according to the reader's knowledge of the Catholic ideal. [emphasis added]

-THOMAS J. GERRARD.
NEW HALL, CHELMSFORD,
Feast of The Nativity, 1910.
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From Marriage and Parenthood, The Catholic Ideal
By the Rev. Thomas J. Gerrard
Author of "Cords of Adam," "The Wayfarer's Vision," ETC.
Copyright, 1911, by Joseph F. Wagner, New York.