Again, nothing here that goes against what I said before, sooo…
But for a change of pace, here’s something that’s actually relevant.
Pope Pius XII, Sacra Virginitas, no. 32:
This doctrine of the excellence of virginity and of celibacy and of their superiority over the married state was, as We have already said, revealed by our Divine Redeemer and by the Apostle of the Gentiles; so too, it was solemnly defined as a dogma of divine faith by the holy council of Trent,[57] and explained in the same way by all the holy Fathers and Doctors of the Church. Finally, We and Our Predecessors have often expounded it and earnestly advocated it whenever occasion offered. But recent attacks on this traditional doctrine of the Church, the danger they constitute, and the harm they do to the souls of the faithful lead Us, in fulfillment of the duties of Our charge, to take up the matter once again in this Encyclical Letter, and to reprove these errors which are so often propounded under a specious appearance of truth.
vatican.va/holy_father/pius_xii/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xii_enc_25031954_sacra-virginitas_en.html
Again: You can say quite rightly that a fish is higher than a bug, but that doesn’t mean a bug can become a fish by recognizing that the fish is higher on the ladder or that God did not ordain that there be far more bugs in the world than fish. If you want to make the most beautiful furniture, perhaps you choose myrtle, but if you want to make a bat or an ax handle or a canoe paddle, what you want is ash. The beautiful furniture ought to be more highly prized than the bat, it is made of the rarer and finer substance, but sometimes a bat or an ax handle or a canoe paddle is what you need.
What the Pope is saying is not that the married have failed to reach their highest calling! No! He is saying that those who are fitted to do it will reach their highest state if they accept the call to be virgins for the sake of the Kingdom. There is also a special dignity in those who have committed themselves to celibacy for the sake of the Kingdom, and it ought to be recognized. Absolutely, I hope no one here would deny that priests, religious, and consecrated virgins should be shown heightened respect due the high calling they have accepted. Children should be taught both that it is a great thing to accept that calling and that those who accept it should be shown a particular respect, and I hope those who have been given that calling will not think it proud to accept that respect. The respect is not an implication that they never sin or are better than anyone else or that they ought to be proud of themselves, but a respect due to the high state to which they have been called.
The quibble you are hearing is that this truth does not mean when one is teaching children about the states of life that it ought to ever be implied that the married life ought to be denigrated in any way in comparison to the states of life which include consecrated virginity within their essence. Ax handles and canoe paddles made of ash have their place in God’s plan, and we are grateful for them, just as much as we need the altars and furnishings for our churches which have been wrought from the most noble of woods. We need them. Marriage, too, has its integral and irreplaceable place in God’s plan. It is not an “also ran” state in life, but a state in life which has lead many to sanctity and even canonization. Sometimes the furniture in the church is saved because a fireman had an ax with a reliable handle.
It is in no way opposed to the teaching you cited to say that it can be planned by God that the greatest sanctity that
a particular person might obtain could be realized only in the married state, a level of sanctity that God would not be pleased to bring out of them in a convent or a monastery because God fashioned them as a soul entirely suited for sanctity, but ill-suited to that high vocation. That is the important distinction to make.
If you are myrtle wood, be willing to be used as myrtle wood ought to be used; it is better that an altar be fashioned of ash than that a piece of myrtle be put to a lower use. If you are made of the stuff best made into an ax handle, though, and not the stuff of which altars are made, then that is OK. God did not make a mistake in how He fashioned you. Be a reliable ax handle or a good canoe paddle or a durable bat. That is good, too, that is all we are saying.
