Finality and Marriage

131 Pages·1994·0.485 MB·English

by  Margaret Monahan Hogan

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Margaret Monahan Hogan
Marquette Studies in Philosophy
#1
Andrew Tallon, Editor
Copyright, 1993, Marquette University Press
Printed in the United States of America
ISBN 0-87462-600-5
Library of Congress Catalogue Card Number: 93-80654
I , T .
N HONOR OF MY HUSBAND OM

T C
ABLE OF ONTENTS
PREFACE................................................................................vii
FOREWORD ...........................................................................ix
INTRODUCTION.....................................................................1-6
CHAPTER ONE
THE PAST: THE RECOVERY OF THE TRADITION
Pope Pius XI: Casti connubii................................................7
Introduction........................................................................9
Marriage: Nature and Ends..................................................15
Response to Particular Problems..........................................13
Moral Context.....................................................................16
Consequences for Reproductive Finality..............................19
Pope Pius XII: Allocutions...................................................20-32
Introduction........................................................................20
The Nature and Ends of Marriage .......................................21
The Avoidance of Conception.............................................22
The Accomplishment of Conception...................................23
Mutilation in General..........................................................24
Sterilization as Mutilation....................................................28
Consequences for Reproductive Finality..............................30
CHAPTER TWO
THE PRESENT: THE RECOVERY OF THE TRADITION
Gaudium et spes....................................................................33-42
Introduction........................................................................33
Nature and Ends of Marriage...............................................34
Description and Assessment of Marital Love........................36
Procreative Ends of Marriage...............................................37
Limitation of Reproductive Finality.....................................40
Pontifical Commission Report.............................................42
Pope Paul VI: Humanae vitae ..............................................42-63
vi TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction........................................................................42
Marriage: Nature and Ends..................................................44
Description of Marital Ends.................................................45
Procreative Responsibility in Marriage.................................46
Doctrinal Principles.............................................................50
Consequences of Inseparability Principle .............................52
Consequences for Reproductive Finality..............................56
Summary.............................................................................59
Donum vitae.........................................................................63-80
Introduction........................................................................63
Principles.............................................................................64
Development/Application of Principles ...............................67
The Inseparability Principle.................................................68
Inseparability: A Problematic Claim ....................................72
Consequences for Reproductive Finality..............................74
Summary.............................................................................77
CHAPTER THREE
THE TRADITION: THE EMERGING POSITION
Shifting Profiles...................................................................81
A New Profile......................................................................84
The Emerging Position: An Intimate Personal Union..........85
Marriage: A Human Relationship........................................86
Marriage: A Union in the Tradition.....................................90-101
The Scriptures .....................................................................90
Foundational Philosophy.....................................................91
Recent Documents ..............................................................95
Contemporary Commentary................................................96
Marriage: Specific Type of Human Relationship .................101
Ends of Marital Union.........................................................103
Sets of Ends Within Marital Union .....................................105
Levels of Finality..................................................................105
Ends of Marriage as Levels of Finality..................................107
Consequences for Reproductive Finality..............................114
BIBLIOGRAPHY.......................................................................117-21
P
REFACE
This work is an exploration of moral philosophy within the ethical
institution of Roman Catholicism regarding its position on: (1) the
essential nature of marriage, (2) the several finalities to be accomplished
within marriage, (3) the role of conjugal intercourse, and (4) the
governance of the reproductive finality within marriage. This work
attempts to contribute to that ongoing discussion with an examination
of the position of the tradition as enunciated in the documents of the
tradition. It begins with a study of the documents of the immediate past.
These documents are Casti Connubii and the Allocutions of Pope Pius
XII. It continues with an examination of the position of the tradition as
found in the documents of the present. These documents are Gaudium
et spes, Humanae vitae, and Donum vitae. The work then delineates an
emerging position regarding the essential nature of marriage, the role of
conjugal intercourse as the sign with signifies and contains the reality
that is marriage, the ordering of the several finalities to be accomplished
in marriage, and the implications of this position on the regulation of
reproduction. The account of the emergent position provides the
framework for the examination of significant contemporary positions
within the tradition, a framework for the evaluation of the position of the
tradition, and a framework for resolving conflicts among the ends to be
accomplished within marriage.
In this new profile, marriage is characterized as a special kind of
human relationship. It is an intimate personal union which is to supply
the matrix of conditions for the perfection of the marriage, for procre-
ation, and for the perfection of the partners. Marriage has three ends:
(1) personal union — intrinsic necessary end
(2) procreation — intrinsic contingent end
(3) personalist — intrinsic contingent end.
These ends press for actualization on three distinct interrelated
levels: horizontal, vertical, and transcendental. Governance of the repro-
ductive finality is directed from within the marital matrix.
It is not the intention of this small work to serve as a catalogue of the
extensive secondary literature on marriage and its ends. References to the
secondary literature abound in larger tomes familiar to all who study the
viii PREFACE
question of marriage in the Catholic tradition. It is not the intention of
this work to engage all contemporary commentators on marriage. Its
dialogue is limited to a sampling of those who hold important opposing
views. It is not the intention of this work to approach such vexing
questions, as that of the role of the scholar within the tradition, that are
besetting contemporary Catholicism. The task of this work is to locate,
in a carefully delineated account of the nature of marriage, that higher
point of view — the Aufhebung, under which the opposing viewpoints
may be seen as partial viewpoints and within which meaningful conver-
sation may begin among the well intentioned and scholarly people on all
sides of the issue.
The conclusion of a book marks the occasion for an author to look
back with thanks to all who made the work possible. As a wife and
mother, gratitude must first be extended to my husband, Dr. Thomas P.
Hogan and my children, Mary Teresa, Thomas, Jr., Edward, Daniel,
Matthew, and Meg for their encouragement, their patient understand-
ing, and their joy in the completion of this work. As a daughter, gratitude
must be extended to my parents, Mr. and Mrs. Edward J. Monahan, who
considered the education of a daughter just as important as the education
of a son and whose life together provided my first glimpse of the reality
of the unity of marriage. As a scholar, gratitude must be extended to those
who nurtured that scholarship. They include Dr. Andrew Tallon, Dr.
Patrick Coffey, and Dr. Keith Algozin. Without their competent teach-
ing, and their gentle, cheerful encouragement, this work would never
have been brought to completion. As a member of the profession,
gratitude is to be extended to those colleagues who read and commented
on the text. They include Dr. J. Brian Benestad, whose familiarity with
the documents, in their original languages and in their English transla-
tions, enabled him to assess the fairness and objectivity of treatment of
the documents. Others scholars kind enough to read the text and offer
comment include Dr. Holly Wilson, Fr. John Treloar, and Dr. Harold
Baillie.
F
OREWORD
Richard A. McCormick, S.J.
Finality and Marriage is a book about the nature of marriage, its ends
and its act. Philosopher Margaret Monahan Hogan is convinced that
only when we accurately grasp the vetera (the essential elements of the
tradition) will we be prepared to move to the nova. This move is a
continuity. For this reason Hogan examines the notion of marriage and
its ends in the documents of recent tradition beginning with Casti
connubii. Hogan is no iconoclast. Her treatment is full, fair and respect-
ful.
She notes that in the last sixty years there has been a gradual but
perceptible development in official documents. What was suspect in the
thirties (e.g., Herbert Doms’ Vom Sinn und Zweck der Ehe) is contem-
porary orthodoxy. Concretely, Hogan traces the conceptual move of
Church documents from marriage as a procreative institution to mar-
riage as an intimate personal union. It is within this notion of marriage
that we must weigh the distinct ends of marriage (the union itself,
children, and the individual goods of the partners), hierarchize them and
articulate the claims they make upon us.
Hogan finds the demand of inseparability for the unitive and
procreative aspects of every act of sexual intercourse to be without
foundation (p. 73). She takes the consequences of this (pp. 114-115)
when she finds contraception (and even sterilization) and artificial
insemination morally appropriate given sufficient reason. But these
matters are not highlighted.
Indeed, if one is going to disagree with Hogan’s conclusions, one
must wrestle with their suppositions about the nature of marriage and its
ends. For it is from these more basic analyses that her conclusions flow.
And herein lies the value and distinct contribution of this study. It starts
with basic concerns, not with conclusions to defend or destroy.
x FOREWORD
In this the study resembles the work of Bernard Lonergan upon
whom Hogan obviously relies. We know what Lonergan thought of
Humanae Vitae’s conclusion. In his words: “No valid reason whatever for
a precept.” His analysis is published in the Lonergan Studies Newsletter,
v. 11, 1990, pp. 7-8. We also know that his abiding interest lay elsewhere,
specifically in the understanding of marriage supposed in concrete
conclusions and the method that leads to such understanding. He told
me this on several occasions.
With this in mind it is my hope that those who engage Margaret
Monahan Hogan’s careful study will do so at the level of her basic
concerns. Her book will richly reward that kind of effort.