Procreation Not “the only purpose of marriage”: South African Catholic Priest

Parents should therefore provide for their children and teach them to live a life that is grounded in the Catholic faith and morals, the South African Priest said during the September 23 session of the marriage awareness campaign that was facilitated by Archbishop Zolile Mphambani and Fr. Mthembeni Dlamini.

“It’s also important for married couples to understand what the Catholic Church truly teaches about multiple purposes of marriage,” the member of South Africa’s inter-diocesan tribunal said, adding that the partnership between husband and wife must be characterized by human love and the love of Christ over his church, that is the purpose of marriage.

Making reference to Can. 1055, Fr. Madlala said that lifelong partnerships are naturally ordered to the good of the spouses, the procreation and education of offspring, aspects, he added, that have been raised by Christ the Lord to the dignity of a Sacrament between the baptized.

Couples who practice responsible parenthood are prudently and generously in their marital union and maintain openness to life while taking into consideration the good of prospective children and the limited nature of natural resources, the Catholic Priest further said.

“The two dimensions of conjugal union in the unitive and procreative cannot be artificially separated without damage being done to the deepest truth of the conjugal act itself,” he noted, adding that through their own experience, spouses come to learn the meaning of responsible fatherhood and motherhood.

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Fr. Madlala explained that spouses can also learn responsible parenthood from the experience of other couples in similar situations.

“The subject of responsible parenthood has been extensively treated in the documents of the 2^nd Vatican council,” the Catholic Priest further said, adding, “In the eyes of God, parents have a great responsibility to their families.”

As co-creators with God, parents have the responsibility to decide on the number of children they can care for as they cooperate with God in the noble task, he further said, making reference to the Catholic Social Teaching.

God commanded men and women to beget children to fill the earth, and also made them responsible for the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of the children, Fr. Madlala said, and cautioned, “Parents are able to meet these responsibilities when the number of children is reasonable and manageable.”

“Parents should not reproduce carelessly having many children yet failing to give those children the care they deserve,'' the Catholic Priest further said during his September 23 virtual address.

He went on to urge couples to consider responsible procreation saying that begetting children whose dignity will not be respected is virtually sinning, regardless of whether the “population is low or high.”

“Couples must discuss and make decisions together regarding the number of children they can be able to fully take care of,” he said, and added, “Responsible parenthood has many benefits, not only for children but also parents, the society and the church.”

Responsible parenthood, Fr. Madlala said, involves giving children a chance to grow in an environment conducive to healthy, spiritual, moral and social development.

Parenting responsibly, he said, “helps parents to become better role models for their children, raise them with integrity, to be good citizens with the ability to make appropriate moral choices and become good parents themselves in the future.”

Making reference to the bond that exists between mother and unborn child, Fr. Madlala said that fatherhood and motherhood presumes before existence of an interaction of autonomous subjects. 

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“This is quite evident in the case of a mother when she conceives a new human being, the 1^st month of the child’s presence in the mother’s womb brings about a particular bond, which already possesses an educational significance of its own,'' the South African Priest said.

Even before giving birth, the mother does not only give shape to the child’s body but also, in an indirect way, to the child’s own personality, he added.

In the raising of children, Fr. Madlala said, conjugal love is expressed as authentic parental love. He said, “Every individual born and raised in a family constitutes a potential treasure, which must be responsibly accepted so that it will not diminish or get lost.”

“While parents are teachers of humanity for their own children, they learn humanity from them. All this clearly brings out the organic structure of the family and reveals the fundamental meaning of the fourth commandment,” the South African Catholic Priest said.