Marriage - Children

[PeteZaHut]

I know that the Church teaches that for people to get married, they must be open to the idea of having children. Are they supposed to have as many children as possible, or can they decide? What is the teaching on this?

 

[PhilotheaZ]

They should decide together, in a spirit of prayer, and recognizing that children are a gift from God that should not be refused without good reason. If they choose to space births, it should not be done selfishly.

Also, “each and every marriage act must remain open to the transmission of life” (Catechism #2367). No artificial means of pregnancy prevention may be used. Periodic continence (Natural Family Planning) may be used for good reasons.

For further information, see the Catechism of the Catholic Church #2366-2379 vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p3s2c2a6.htm , and the book Good News about Sex & Marriage by Christopher West amazon.com/Good-News-About-Sex-Marriage/dp/1569552142 .

 

[PrayHarder]

I liked what Fr. Corapi had to say on this issue. I couple once told him how they decided that they were only going to have two children. He responded by asking them if they ran that plan by God since He might have a different number in mind.

The lesson being is that you will be blessed with the appropriate number of children as God sees fit. That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t plan appropriately, but leave the actual number in God’s hands.