Do any Church documents prior to Vatican II mention Marriage as a specific call or vocation?

[DL82]

Is the idea of married life as a vocation or call to be discerned something new that came out of Vatican II, Humana Vitae and the Theology of the Body?

A friend of mine is of the view that, traditionally, priesthood and religious life were seen as a specific call, and those without that call were ordinarily expected to marry, because that was just what lay people did.

Is this an accurate understanding of the way the Church used to think about these issues?

To make the question more specific, is it right to say “I feel torn between two calls, a calling to religious life and a calling to married life” or is it right to say “I might have a calling to religious life, but then again I might not, in which case I ought to marry”? The difference is very important, because it has a bearing on whether someone who might have a call to religious life or priesthood can ever be justified in discerning the married life first instead.

 

[Genesis315]

It is true that we all have the natural call to marriage (we are all built for it and to desire it), but some have a supernatural calling to celibacy, by which they sacrifice the good of marriage in this life and anticipate the Kingdom when none will marry. If you are called to religious life, you ordinarily should also feel drawn to marriage (the problem we had with the scandals were with men who had no interest in marriage). That’s why the calling to celibacy is a sacrifice.

Likewise, not everyone is even drawn to the celibate life at all (which means they are called to marry), and not everyone who does feel drawn to celibacy ultimately discerns it to be their vocation (which again means they are called to marry).

I could be wrong, but I don’t think you’ll find any magisterial documentation at any time that says marriage is not a holy sacrament or not a service offered to God or that discernment is not involved in the choice to marry. If it is God’s will for you, how could it be anything other than a calling?

No matter how you cut it or explain, you have to discern between celibacy and marriage. I don’t think it’s possible to discern one without taking the other into account, at least implicitly. The choice to marry involves a choice not to be celibate and the choice to be celibate involves the choice of not to marry.