Marriage and RCIA

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Last week in the RCIA course I help out with, one of the Priests prepared a handout on Marriage. Part of it states “Very early in the history of the Church, religous leaders viewed the sexual dimension of Marriage as a neccesary evil, always tainted with sin. So marriage was often discouraged and only allowed for the procreation of children. Thus evolved the priorities of Marriage until the Second Vatican council,ie 1 procreation 2 raising little Catholics in the faith 3 fidelity to one another. A strange set of priorities, but think about it. Women were merely property of the men and they were just to satisfy the desires of the flesh and not much more. If the two people fell in love then that become an added bonus to Marriage.
In 1215 at the fourth Lateran Council Marriage officially became one of the seven Sacraments of the Church.Marriage became a source of Grace and therefore good unto itself. a big step from the above concept of a necessary evil.”
This doesn’t make sense to me and I am wondering if you feel the same?
 
Well, the priest is wrong on many counts here, not the least of which is that Marriage “became” a Sacrament at the same time that all the Sacraments were instituted by Christ, not in 1215.
 
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1ke:
Well, the priest is wrong on many counts here, not the least of which is that Marriage “became” a Sacrament at the same time that all the Sacraments were instituted by Christ, not in 1215.
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Perhaps “regulated and codified” might be a better description than “became a Sacrament in 1215.” Marriage predates Jesus by many years and became a sacrament during his lifetime. When it was generally recognized as a sacrament by the Church might be a whole different matter. Remember your Baltimore Cathechism definition of a Sacrament, “an outward sign instituted by Christ…” so by definition it had to have been a Sacrament from the time of Christ. As for the sexual angle, it is true that sexual relations even to conceive a child was not particularly encouraged. To have any pleasure in the act was considered at least a venial sin, or so I have been told. I don’t think I have ever seen any documentation that would back that statement up, but perhaps its in Augustines prolific writings.
 
It seems to me that this is one of those cases where so many folks said it was a sin people thought it was Church teaching when it never was. For instance, back in the day, so many people (like nuns in Catholic school) would say that the left had was the hand of the devil, and that you weren’t supposed to use it. This was never something that the Church taught, but so many people, especially people with “authority” like nuns and priests, believed it and said it that people picked up the idea that it was an official teaching. The idea that pleasure in sex is wrong was probably a similar thing - your average priest probably got this idea from somewhere and ended up saying to to folks and it stuck.
 
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Lazerlike42:
It seems to me that this is one of those cases where so many folks said it was a sin people thought it was Church teaching when it never was. For instance, back in the day, so many people (like nuns in Catholic school) would say that the left had was the hand of the devil, and that you weren’t supposed to use it. This was never something that the Church taught, but so many people, especially people with “authority” like nuns and priests, believed it and said it that people picked up the idea that it was an official teaching. The idea that pleasure in sex is wrong was probably a similar thing - your average priest probably got this idea from somewhere and ended up saying to to folks and it stuck.
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Right on! I went to Catholic school for 12 years. So much of what I “learned” was wrong, wrong, wrong, !! I have had to re-learn my religion over the year and unfortunately, there are many who have left the church because of these silly teachings and have not returned. When I got married to my childrens father I was told by the priest that I could not “refuse” my husband for ANY reason, even if it meant death to me. Of course my husband enjoyed that part of being Catholic. I think all Catholics should have to attend religious Education classes from time to time to ask questions, talk about things that bother them and learn the TRUTH form well informed ministers of the church.

Love and jpeace,

Mom of 5
 
Robin Hood,

Back in New Testament times, people expected Jesus to come back at any moment and so there was no need to look to producing a “next generation.” And as Paul said, the single person concentrates on pleasing God; the married person concentrates on pleasing his spouse.
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