Article IV: On the Ends of Matrimony

S. Th., Suppl., q. 41, a. 1; q. 44, a. 1; q. 42, a. 2; a. 3, ad 4; q. 48; q. 49, a. 2, ad 1; q. 65, a. 1; q. 67, a. 1, ad 2; c. Gent. III, 122.

768. Notions. The end of matrimony properly is intrinsic and essential, or of the work, to which by its nature matrimony has been instituted, is ordered, and per se tends; - from this can be distinguished the extrinsic and accidental end, or the end of the one acting, which the one acting intends or which is intended and adjoined by those contracting.

The intrinsic end of the work, one is primary or principal, another secondary, which is essentially subordinated and consequent to the primary: it supposes the primary, for it is not an end except dependently upon that principal end, and a means to the primary end so that it may be obtained more securely and certainly, so that matrimony cannot be ordered to the secondary end unless the ordination to the primary end is preserved.¹

¹ Cf. there can be consulted: Dr. Biot, Les buts du mariage, and Rud. Geis, Katholische Sexualethik.

769. Principle I. The ends of matrimony, on the part of the work, intrinsic or essential, are three: one primary, the procreation and education of offspring, two secondary, mutual solace and assistance, and the enjoyment of delight calming concupiscence (can. 1013, § 1).

1. The essential and primary end of the work, or that to which matrimony by its nature is primarily and principally ordered, is the propagation of the human species, the procreation and education of offspring; otherwise it would be another society, not matrimony. This is clear from what was said above about the natural origin of matrimony, and from Sacred Scripture: "Increase and multiply," says God, Gen. I, 28; "I will therefore that the younger marry, bear children, be mothers of families," says Paul concerning younger widows, I Tim. V, 14. Cf. Tob. VI, 22; VIII, 9; I Tim. II, 15.

Hence one who entirely excluded the primary end would exclude matrimony, and the matrimony would be null.

2. The essential but secondary end of the work is also an end which, by the nature of the thing, must be obtained, but only secondarily and dependently upon the primary end; whence matrimony also is per se ordered to that end, not however as to an independent end which could be intended independently from the primary, but rather as a means by which the primary end may be obtained better of itself. Now the secondary end of matrimony is twofold:

a) Solace and mutual assistance which, with God and nature disposing, spouses find in matrimony, insofar as from it cohabitation necessary for educating offspring becomes more pleasant and the burdens of common life and of old age press less (Prov. XXXI, 10-12; Eccli. XXVI, 1-2; Eph. V, 22, 25). Hence, when the first man had been created, God said: "It is not good for man to be alone; let us make him a help like unto himself" (Gen. II, 18); hence also nature itself has put diverse inclinations and faculties into the diverse sexes, which complete themselves in the matrimonial state.

b) The enjoyment of delight and the calming of concupiscence is attached to the use of marriage so that the end of generation may be obtained more securely and certainly. Concupiscence in the state of fallen nature is not contained within the limits of reason except with difficulty, but it excites less to illicit things if licit things in order to the primary end are conceded to it in matrimony. And thus matrimony has been made a remedy of concupiscence. Whence the Apostle: "But because of fornication let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband...; but if they do not contain themselves, let them marry: for it is better to marry than to burn" (I Cor. VII, 2 and 9).

On the ends of matrimony let Augustine be read, On the Good of Marriage, c. 2-5.

770. Principle II. Several accidental ends of matrimony can be intended on the part of the one acting, provided they are honorable and are not opposed to the primary end.

Several accidental ends of this kind can be imagined, for example, peace of families to be reconciled, honor of the family to be preserved, peace, charity, and love to be procured for blood-relations, preservation of an illustrious family, peace of the republic, riches, pleasures, personal honor, a tranquil old age, etc.; indeed according to St. Thomas, q. 48, a. 2 and ad 1, such ends can be multiplied to infinity. They are rather a condition, or an occasion, and the reason of application for contracting such a matrimony and for pursuing other ends. For the Roman Catechism says, n. 15: "But if other causes also accede to these, by which men induced enter matrimony, and in making a choice of a wife prefer this one to that one, such as the desire of leaving an heir, riches, beauty, splendor of family, likeness of morals: reasons of this kind certainly are not to be condemned, since they are not repugnant to the sanctity of matrimony: for neither in Sacred Scripture is the patriarch Jacob reprehended because, allured by Rachel's beauty, he preferred her to Leah."

But the condition required is that they be honorable, otherwise they would render matrimony illicit; and that they not be opposed to the primary end, otherwise they could also render it invalid.

Hence: 1. To contract matrimony on account of a dishonorable end is a sin: mortal if the end is gravely dishonorable, venial if lightly dishonorable, for example, if it is done on account of vanity, or exclusively on account of delight.

2. Matrimony cannot be entered if its essential and primary end therefore cannot be per se obtained, because it is entered between persons who are per se unfit for placing an act of itself apt for generating offspring, such as eunuchs and castrated men.

3. Indeed a positive intention excluding the primary end or generation, if it is brought into an agreement, invalidates matrimony.

4. A fortiori, if a dishonorable condition contrary to this end is brought into an agreement.

5. Those about to marry who enter matrimony solely for a secondary end, for example, on account of mutual solace and assistance, prescinding from the primary end, yet not excluding it, avoid positive disorder and therefore are excused from sin; indeed by the very fact that they do not exclude generation, they implicitly include it, which suffices for mere honesty. Yet for the perfection of the work it is required that the intention of the one acting be positively conformed to the primary end of generating offspring.

771. Corollaries. - 1. It is essential to matrimony that it be ordered to the primary end, the fitting propagation of the human race, not to the private good and happiness of the parties. The primary end is the procreation and education of offspring: a) procreation, because without the generative faculty the institution of matrimony is not even conceived, the good use of that faculty promotes the other ends of matrimony, and finally this end immediately regards the common good, to which private good is to be subordinated; b) education, because without it the work of procreation is imperfect; therefore it too is a primary end.

2. Whence they err who hold only procreation as the primary end, and posit education as a secondary end, since the complete human life of offspring, physical and moral, is intended (q. 49, a. 2, ad 1; can. 1113).

3. They also err who hold the three ends as merely coordinated and equal.

4. Likewise they err who think that the proper end of matrimony is the mutual complement of human personality; but that the generation of offspring is something accessory resulting from that complement. Namely, they say that the singular man, whether male or female, is not perfect and complete, but exists as such only through marital union or through the exchange of sexual properties. - But the sexual complement is not to be confused with the human complement, or that required for the perfect being of man, as if an unmarried man ought to be considered only half a man or imperfect. The sexual complement is required only for this, that there may be one and perfect principle of generation, education, and domestic social unity; but not that the individual man be complete.²

² Cappello, Tractatus canonico-moralis de Sacramentis, vol. III, De Matrimonio, n. 8, note 18.

5. Nor are mutual love and mutual perfection the primary end, as certain men have dreamed, even among Catholics, concluding that conjugal intercourse can be licit even if the procreation of offspring is impeded, and abusing the authority of the Roman Catechism, which posits mutual love and perfection as the first cause of matrimony. To this Pius XI alludes, in the encyclical Casti connubii, concerning Christian matrimony which is ruled by the most perfect love of supernatural charity, writing: "This mutual inward formation of the spouses, this assiduous zeal of perfecting each other in turn, can in a certain most true sense be called even the primary cause and reason of matrimony, if nevertheless matrimony is taken not more strictly as an institution for rightly procreating and educating offspring, but more broadly as the communion, association, and society of the whole of life." Therefore it is not called the primary end of the institution of matrimony nor the end of the work, but a cause; not simply, but in a certain sense, namely, the primary impelling cause or the principle moving the one acting, and the reason from which the chief excellence and whole perfection of matrimony is derived; and only if it is not taken more strictly as an institution for rightly procreating and educating offspring, or as to the primary end, but more broadly as the communion of the whole of life, i.e., precisely as to the secondary end.

Moreover the Pontiff himself also in the same encyclical explicitly calls the procreation of offspring the primary end, and calls the others secondary. But if the primary end were mutual love, they would easily deduce from this the dissolubility of matrimony, or divorce, on account of the absence of love, since they would say that matrimony without love cannot attain its primary end, nor therefore validly consist, but is to be dissolved. Whence such an opinion is to be avoided, as logically leading to false conclusions.

When a doubt had been proposed on this matter, the Congregation of the Holy Office decreed that response was to be made in the negative: "Whether the opinion of certain more recent authors can be admitted, who either deny that the primary end of matrimony is the generation and education of offspring, or teach that the secondary ends are not essentially subordinated to the primary end, but are equally principal and independent." In the negative. (Decree of the Holy Office, April 1, 1944.)