Section — Wouters, Manual of Moral Theology
In French
The Church desires, and even commands, that the priest set forth to persons who are going to contract marriage certain truths which it is indispensable for them to know.
These truths are as follows.
I. The principal ends of marriage are: 1. the procreation of children; 2. the support, or assistance, which spouses owe each other mutually.
II. With regard to the first end of marriage, it must be observed that certain acts are permitted to married persons, and that others are forbidden to them.
- What is permitted in marriage?
a) First, the conjugal act, which consists in the union of bodies. Here it must be pointed out that the woman ought to be lying under the man, on her back. Except for a reason, one ought not depart from this manner of acting.
b) Everything that is necessary or useful for properly accomplishing the conjugal act, for example the mutual touches of spouses.
- What is forbidden in marriage?
a) Under pain of grave sin, everything that can prevent the procreation of children is forbidden. Therefore, if someone should encourage you to restrict the number of children by fraudulent practices, the man or woman who gave you this counsel would commit a grave sin, and you would commit a grave sin by following it. For the rest, have confidence in divine Providence, which, in giving you children, will help you to rear them.
b) Moreover, it is forbidden for you to excite each other mutually to grave sexual emotions, unless you are able and willing to proceed to the conjugal act.
III. The conjugal act is not only lawful, but obligatory, when your spouse asks it of you seriously and legitimately. Therefore it is not permitted to refuse it, unless there is a grave reason, for example in case of sickness.
IV. When God deigns to bless your marriage, the woman must carefully avoid everything that could harm the child whom she carries, such as giving herself to labors that are too fatiguing, lifting heavy burdens, causing physical jolts, for example by the immoderate use of the bicycle and, in certain cases, of the automobile; or abandoning herself to violent moral emotions, for example great anger or great sadness. The husband, for his part, is bound to take the condition of his wife into serious consideration. Both of them must pray to God for the life of the child, and especially that he may be able to receive Baptism.
V. Some very important observations on the subject of Baptism.
- Must every fetus to which the woman gives birth be baptized?
Yes, even in the case of a miscarriage, that is, when the child arrives before term; even when he gives no sign of life; even when he is still enveloped in the membranes.
- Who must baptize the child?
a) In normal cases, when a child is brought into the world in good health, he must be baptized in church by the priest.
b) If the child is in danger of death, he must be baptized by one of the persons present. The father or mother will do it themselves only in default of another person who knows how to do it suitably. This will generally be the case when there is a miscarriage.
- How must the child be baptized?
a) If the child can be baptized on the head, you will baptize him in the ordinary way; that is, you will clean the head so that the baptismal water can certainly touch it. Then you will take ordinary water - lukewarm water, if you have some at hand; there is no need to take blessed water. With this ordinary water you will wash the head of the child, pronouncing at the same time these words: I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
If you cannot at once reach the child's head, baptize him on a part of the body, however small it may be, for example a finger of the hand or of the foot, always choosing, among the parts of the body that you can touch, the principal one.
If, afterward, it is possible for you to reach a more important part of the body, such as a hand or a foot, begin again on it, and this as often as it happens that you reach a more important part of the body: the breast, the back, the shoulders, and finally the head; for it is only when you have baptized on the well-cleaned head that you will be altogether sure that you have administered a valid Baptism.
Of course, if, after having baptized on a finger of the hand or of the foot, you can immediately reach the head, you will pass over the intermediate parts.
At each ablution that you perform elsewhere than on the head, at the same time that you perform the ablution you will say these words: If you can be baptized, I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. If finally you baptize on the head, you will say: If you are not baptized, I, etc.1
b) How must one baptize when the child does not yet have a human form, or when he is still surrounded by his membranes?
Pay close attention here; for in those circumstances it is ordinarily upon the father or mother that the duty of baptizing falls. Now, the salvation of a soul can depend on it. For an unbaptized child cannot enter heaven; therefore in this case one must take great care that the child be baptized, and baptized as well as possible.
Therefore, if after conjugal union, even on one of the first days following, the woman gives birth to a substance of which you do not know what it is, carefully guard against simply disposing of it. Examine whether perhaps the child is there: he is enclosed in a little bladder filled with a whitish fluid.
When you have found this little bladder, place it on a table or on a plate, and put beside it a basin of water. Then pour a good quantity of water over the little bladder,2 saying: If you can be baptized, I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Then hold the little bladder in the basin of water, a little obliquely; open it with the thumb and index finger of both hands, and make the fluid contained in the little bladder come out. Then you will say again, while moving the fetus a little in the water: If you can be baptized, I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. After that, you will remove the fetus from the water.
1 Cf. p. 118, note.
2 Cf. p. 119, note 1.