Responsibility of parents
Love and Marriage
View of the Church
Man has to find out for himself how he can best correspond to the commonly valid norms in his concrete situation. After a conscious consideration of the decrees of the Church and verification of all circumstances, even a Catholic Christian can come to a responsible decision which differs from the view of the Church.
Responsibility of parents
It is natural that marriage and family have to do with new life and with children. The Church retains the principle that having a child can be justified only in marriage and that it should not be the result of a coincidental sexual encounter. Only in the continuous love of parents can a child find the security needed to grow into a mature human being. Moreover, for Christians the close connection between love and procreation corresponds to the creative will of God.
Married couples themselves have to make Christian and humanely responsible decisions regarding the number of their children. They have to consider their own well-being, the welfare of their off springs and the material and spiritual situation of the times and of their lives. (Second Vatican Council, the Church in the World of Today, No. 50 ff.)
But sexual relationship in a marriage is also rich in meaning and good if, after serious consideration, procreation is not intended or effected. "Marriage is not only established to produce children. The personal spousal community requires this expression of love between married partners. Faithfulness and the welfare of children can suffer should the intimacy of life be abandoned. (The Church in the World of Today, No. 47 ff.)
Abortion
It is the conviction of the Church that killing of germinating life in the womb can never be allowed. From conception onward, new life must be protected like every human life. Fertilization starts the process of bringing into existence a new human being. For a Christian, forced intervention is a serious sin. No one who has based his life on Christian principles should be tempted to believe that abortion is less reprehensible if it is not considered an offense against the civil law.
The value of life has priority above all economic, social or psychological afflictions which could burden the mother, father or family. This shows that the question of abortion is predominantly a social problem. When women decide to have an abortion, people around them usually have to accept part of the blame if these women feel left alone, overburdened financially, without adequate sex education and counseling, when they see only narrow-mindedness and hear nothing else than a moralistic "I-told-you-so".
