February 5, 2010

U.S. bishops’ new pastoral letter on marriage is available online

Criterion staff report

“Marriage: Love and Life in the Divine Plan” is the title of a new pastoral letter issued on Nov. 17 by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

The bishops explain that they published the document as part of their ongoing commitment to “promote, strengthen and protect marriage” as well as help “those called to the vocation of married life to live it faithfully, fruitfully and joyfully.”

The pastoral addresses the blessing and gift of marriage, marriage in the order of creation, natural family planning, male and female complementarity, the two ends or purposes of marriage, and fundamental challenges to the nature and purposes of marriage.

The document also discusses married life affected by original sin, marriage restored in Christ, Christian marriage as a sacrament, marriage as a reflection of the life of the Trinity, the family as the domestic Church, marriage as a vocation, growth in Christian marriage, growth in the virtues, chastity, gratitude, growth toward perfection, marriage and the Eucharist, and marriage fulfilled in the kingdom of God.

The bishops also comment on Church teachings that oppose same-sex unions, the use of artificial contraception, divorce, and living together without marriage.

(To read the bishops’ pastoral letter on marriage, log on to their Web site link at www.usccb.org/laity/LoveandLife.) †

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