Catholic Models of Marriage
I like that Lawler kept his model list small. Sometimes, in an effort to capture all the elements of a particular construct, one devises too many models that can get confusing and somewhat verbose. I get why marriage as a procreation institution was the prominent model for the Church. Understand that marriage, especially prior to the Church and even in the early Church, was seen as a contract and economic necessity that had very little to do with the emotion of love and more to do with the economics of procreation (i.e.-progeny to run the family business, social security for the parents, means of keeping wealth in the family). As men and women started to fall in love prior to marriage and there was more autonomy …show more content…
My wife and I, before we were married, took the prerequisite Pre-Cana class, but we saw it more as a check in the block so that we could get married in our parish, more so than going into it trying to understand what it meant to be a truly Christian married couple. That’s not to say that really understanding the principles of indissolubility, fidelity, and what is expected of me as a Catholic husband would have scared me off, but I’ve been married going on 10 years and I still don’t believe that marriage should be a sacrament. It was obvious that the Church did a poor job, and in its defense I was probably a poor student, when it came to teaching why marriage, more specifically why my marriage, is considered a …show more content…
Nor, as we have learned about models, are they supposed to. Marriage is of course, an amalgamation of all the five dimensions that Browning points out. I do not believe it is fair to compare Browning’s model to that of Lawler since Lawler’s model was Catholic specific. Browning attempts to capture a more complete marriage model regardless of religion or lack thereof. It is clear that procreation is a major factor for the Catholic Church with respect to marriage and any model that does not include that principle will never fit into the thoughts and beliefs of Church leaders, including Popes St. Joh Paul II and Francis. Yet, as a husband of a family that has no children, it gets a bit frustrating to constantly have the “procreation card” thrown in my face. Though the Church states that mutual love and respect has equal importance to that of procreation, for me, there is still a lingering stench in the air as if my wife and I are somehow inadequate in our married relationship become we do not have kids. I almost feel like I have to explain to the world why she and I do not have kids and hope that the Church will understand and take pity on us. That is a crappy way to
I like that Lawler kept his model list small. Sometimes, in an effort to capture all the elements of a particular construct, one devises too many models that can get confusing and somewhat verbose. I get why marriage as a procreation institution was the prominent model for the Church. Understand that marriage, especially prior to the Church and even in the early Church, was seen as a contract and economic necessity that had very little to do with the emotion of love and more to do with the economics of procreation (i.e.-progeny to run the family business, social security for the parents, means of keeping wealth in the family). As men and women started to fall in love prior to marriage and there was more autonomy …show more content…
My wife and I, before we were married, took the prerequisite Pre-Cana class, but we saw it more as a check in the block so that we could get married in our parish, more so than going into it trying to understand what it meant to be a truly Christian married couple. That’s not to say that really understanding the principles of indissolubility, fidelity, and what is expected of me as a Catholic husband would have scared me off, but I’ve been married going on 10 years and I still don’t believe that marriage should be a sacrament. It was obvious that the Church did a poor job, and in its defense I was probably a poor student, when it came to teaching why marriage, more specifically why my marriage, is considered a …show more content…
Nor, as we have learned about models, are they supposed to. Marriage is of course, an amalgamation of all the five dimensions that Browning points out. I do not believe it is fair to compare Browning’s model to that of Lawler since Lawler’s model was Catholic specific. Browning attempts to capture a more complete marriage model regardless of religion or lack thereof. It is clear that procreation is a major factor for the Catholic Church with respect to marriage and any model that does not include that principle will never fit into the thoughts and beliefs of Church leaders, including Popes St. Joh Paul II and Francis. Yet, as a husband of a family that has no children, it gets a bit frustrating to constantly have the “procreation card” thrown in my face. Though the Church states that mutual love and respect has equal importance to that of procreation, for me, there is still a lingering stench in the air as if my wife and I are somehow inadequate in our married relationship become we do not have kids. I almost feel like I have to explain to the world why she and I do not have kids and hope that the Church will understand and take pity on us. That is a crappy way to