Youcat commented through CCC – Question n. 419.

YOUCAT Question n. 419 - How many children should a Christian married couple have?

(Youcat answer) A Christian married couple has as many children as God gives them and as they can take responsibility for.

A deepening through CCC

(CCC 2373) Sacred Scripture and the Church's traditional practice see in large families a sign of God's blessing and the parents' generosity (Cf. GS 50 § 2). 

Reflecting and meditating 

(Youcat comment) All children whom God sends are a grace and a great blessing. That does not mean that a Christian couple is not supposed to consider how many children they can raise responsibly, given the health of each spouse and their economic or social situation. When a child comes “nevertheless”, that child should be welcomed with joy and willingness and accepted with great love. By trusting in God, many Christian couples find the courage to have a large family.

(CCC Comment)

(CCC 2378) 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 idea to which an alleged "right to a child" would lead. In this area, only the child possesses genuine rights: the right "to be the fruit of the specific act of the conjugal love of his parents," and "the right to be respected as a person from the moment of his conception"  (CDF, Donum vitae II, 8).

(The next question is: May a Christian married couple regulate the number of children they have?)

Youcat commented through CCC – Question n. 418.

YOUCAT Question n. 418 - What is the significance of the child in a marriage?

(Youcat answer) A child is a creature and a gift of God, which comes to earth through the love of his parents.

A deepening through CCC

(CCC 2378) 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 idea to which an alleged "right to a child" would lead. In this area, only the child possesses genuine rights: the right "to be the fruit of the specific act of the conjugal love of his parents," and "the right to be respected as a person from the moment of his conception"  (CDF, Donum vitae II, 8).   

Reflecting and meditating 

(Youcat comment) True love does not desire a couple to be self-contained. Love opens up in the child. A child that has been conceived and born is not something “made”, nor is he the sum of his paternal and maternal genes. He is a completely new and unique creature of God, equipped with his own soul. The child therefore does not belong to the parents and is not their property. 

(CCC Comment)

(CCC 2398) Fecundity is a good, a gift and an end of marriage. By giving life, spouses participate in God's fatherhood.

(The next question is: How many children should a Christian married couple have?)

Youcat commented through CCC – Question n. 417 – Part III.

YOUCAT Question n. 417 – Part III. What significance does the sexual encounter have within marriage?

(Youcat answer - repeated) According to God’s will, husband and wife should encounter each other in bodily union so as to be united ever more deeply with one another in love and to allow children to proceed from their love.

A deepening through CCC  

(CCC 2366) 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 the spouses, but springs from the very heart of that mutual giving, as its fruit and fulfillment. So the Church, which "is on the side of life" (FC 30) teaches that "each and every marriage act must remain open per se to the transmission of life" (HV 11). "This particular doctrine, expounded on numerous occasions by the Magisterium, is based on the inseparable connection, established by God, which man on his own initiative may not break, between the unitive significance and the procreative significance which are both inherent to the marriage act" (HV 12; cf. Pius XI, encyclical, Casti connubii).    

Reflecting and meditating 

(Youcat comment) In Christianity, the body, pleasure, and erotic joy enjoy a high status: “Christianity … believes that matter is good, that God Himself once took on a human body, that some kind of body is going to be given to us even in Heaven and is going to be an essential part of our happiness, our beauty and our energy. Christianity has glorified marriage more than any other religion: and nearly all the greatest love poetry in the world has been produced by Christians. If anyone says that sex, in itself, is bad, Christianity contradicts him at once” (C. S. Lewis). Pleasure, of course, is not an end in itself. When the pleasure of a couple becomes self-enclosed and is not open to the new life that could result from it, it no longer corresponds to the nature of love.

(CCC Comment)

(CCC 2367) Called to give life, spouses share in the creative power and fatherhood of God (Cf. Eph 3:14; Mt 23:9). "Married couples should regard it as their proper mission to transmit human life and to educate their children; they should realize that they are thereby cooperating with the love of God the Creator and are, in a certain sense, its interpreters. They will fulfill this duty with a sense of human and Christian responsibility" (GS 50 § 2).

(The next question is: What is the significance of the child in a marriage?)

Youcat commented through CCC – Question n. 417 – Part II.

YOUCAT Question n. 417 – Part II. What significance does the sexual encounter have within marriage?

(Youcat answer - repeated) According to God’s will, husband and wife should encounter each other in bodily union so as to be united ever more deeply with one another in love and to allow children to proceed from their love.

A deepening through CCC

(CCC 2364) The married couple forms "the intimate partnership of life and love established by the Creator and governed by his laws; it is rooted in the conjugal covenant, that is, in their irrevocable personal consent" (GS 48 § 1). Both give themselves definitively and totally to one another. They are no longer two; from now on they form one flesh. The covenant they freely contracted imposes on the spouses the obligation to preserve it as unique and indissoluble (Cf. CIC, can. 1056). "What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder" (Mk 10:9; cf. Mt 19:1-12; 1 Cor 7:10-11).      

Reflecting and meditating 

(Youcat comment) In Christianity, the body, pleasure, and erotic joy enjoy a high status: “Christianity … believes that matter is good, that God Himself once took on a human body, that some kind of body is going to be given to us even in Heaven and is going to be an essential part of our happiness, our beauty and our energy. Christianity has glorified marriage more than any other religion: and nearly all the greatest love poetry in the world has been produced by Christians. If anyone says that sex, in itself, is bad, Christianity contradicts him at once” (C. S. Lewis). Pleasure, of course, is not an end in itself. When the pleasure of a couple becomes self-enclosed and is not open to the new life that could result from it, it no longer corresponds to the nature of love.

(CCC Comment)

(CCC 2365) Fidelity expresses constancy in keeping one's given word. God is faithful. The Sacrament of Matrimony enables man and woman to enter into Christ's fidelity for his Church. Through conjugal chastity, they bear witness to this mystery before the world. St. John Chrysostom suggests that young husbands should say to their wives: I have taken you in my arms, and I love you, and I prefer you to my life itself. For the present life is nothing, and my most ardent dream is to spend it with you in such a way that we may be assured of not being separated in the life reserved for us.... I place your love above all things, and nothing would be more bitter or painful to me than to be of a different mind than you (St. John Chrysostom, Hom. in Eph. 20, 8: PG 62, 146-147). 

(This question: What significance does the sexual encounter have within marriage? is continued)

Youcat commented through CCC – Question n. 417 – Part I.

YOUCAT Question n. 417 – Part I. What significance does the sexual encounter have within marriage?

(Youcat answer) According to God’s will, husband and wife should encounter each other in bodily union so as to be united ever more deeply with one another in love and to allow children to proceed from their love.

A deepening through CCC

(CCC 2362) "The acts in marriage by which the intimate and chaste union of the spouses takes place are noble and honorable; the truly human performance of these acts fosters the self-giving they signify and enriches the spouses in joy and gratitude"  (GS 49 § 2). Sexuality is a source of joy and pleasure: The Creator himself… established that in the [generative] function, spouses should experience pleasure and enjoyment of body and spirit. Therefore, the spouses do nothing evil in seeking this pleasure and enjoyment. They accept what the Creator has intended for them. At the same time, spouses should know how to keep themselves within the limits of just moderation (Pius XII, Discourse, October 29, 1951).   

Reflecting and meditating 

(Youcat comment) In Christianity, the body, pleasure, and erotic joy enjoy a high status: “Christianity … believes that matter is good, that God Himself once took on a human body, that some kind of body is going to be given to us even in Heaven and is going to be an essential part of our happiness, our beauty and our energy. Christianity has glorified marriage more than any other religion: and nearly all the greatest love poetry in the world has been produced by Christians. If anyone says that sex, in itself, is bad, Christianity contradicts him at once” (C. S. Lewis). Pleasure, of course, is not an end in itself. When the pleasure of a couple becomes self-enclosed and is not open to the new life that could result from it, it no longer corresponds to the nature of love.

(CCC Comment)

(CCC 2363) The spouses' union achieves the twofold end of marriage: the good of the spouses themselves and the transmission of life. These two meanings or values of marriage cannot be separated without altering the couple's spiritual life and compromising the goods of marriage and the future of the family. The conjugal love of man and woman thus stands under the twofold obligation of fidelity and fecundity.       

(This question: What significance does the sexual encounter have within marriage? is continued)