From the bulletin of October 24, 2021
Now we return to the document from Pope Pius XI on marriage. Last we left off, the Pope reiterated the standard teaching of the Church against abortion and artificial contraception. From this point, the pope moves onto the related topic of eugenics. Eugenics is supposed to be the science of healthy breeding, but in practice it turns out as a crime against human nature. Some doctors and scientists wanted to help the human race become healthier, so they tried to regulate who could have children with whom and some even went so far as to kill unhealthy offspring. This practice was somewhat common in the ancient pagan world people began arguing in favor of similar practices in the U.S. and Europe around the time Pope Pius XI wrote this encyclical. Rather infamously, the Nazi party picked up on this philosophy and applied it violently. Obviously, the Church condemns that. Human dignity goes beyond having healthy genes and human rights outweigh the supposed “benefit” of organized breeding of human beings. People have the natural right to marry and reproduce, even if they aren’t genetically perfect.
He then turns back to the particular focus of marriage, this time to address the concept of the “emancipation” of woman. Certain cultural and intellectual trends were pushing for a false idea of equality between man and wife. By this, they mean a woman who is married should not be “burdened” by the traditional responsibilities of a married woman. She should be “free” to pursue business and hobbies and public affairs even if that means neglecting her responsibilities to her husband and children. Some were arguing that women should be able to act completely independently of her husband in all her own affairs. This is not true. It isn’t because woman have to be slaves – that’s certainly not true – but it is because the very nature of marriage requires mutual submission and commitment. It makes no sense to vow to spend your life with another and then claim that “freedom” allows you to ignore their needs and wishes and act however you want. It isn’t that a woman can’t ever do anything other than raise children and care for her husband, it is simply that she can never neglect or set aside those responsibilities in favor of something else. Many a woman has and many still do find a way to keep up their responsibilities and participate in other things.
The pope even points out that as “social and economic conditions of the married woman must in some way be altered on account of the changes in” society, “it is part of the office of the public authority to adapt the civil rights of the wife to modern needs and requirements.” So, as culture chanes, there can be some adaptations in the expectations of a married woman, so long as these changes keep “in view what the natural disposition and temperament of the female sex, good morality, and the welfare of the family demands.” It also requires that “the essential order of the domestic society remain intact, founded as it is on something higher than human authority and wisdom, namely on the authority and wisdom of God.” In other words, whatever cultural adaptations develop, they have to acknowledge that marriage and family, because it was founded by God, has a higher priority.
Pope Pius XI even points out that this exaggerated liberty (do whatever I want) is no real emancipation but actually ends up reducing women to “the old state of slavery” and become “the mere instrument of men.” As we look back on the recent decades in our own culture, I think it’s pretty clear that an over-emphasis on the wrong idea of freedom has made life pretty bad for women in a lot of ways. Women are objectified constantly, their unique gifts are ignored by jobs and companies who expect them to perform as if pregnancy and motherhood weren’t important, and abortion and contraception actually make it easier for men to use and abandon women. Next week, we’ll pick up with what the pope considered to be threats to the sacramentality of marriage.