50. Human society is a union of minds, wills, and powers for a common good. -- Human society should contain all that is proper to man in his specific nature and in his relations with his fellow-men. But man is essentially a being having mind and will conjoined in unity of person with a material organism. On the other hand, minds do not unite without a common truth, which being proposed to their wills, impels them with common accord to the same good. For the acquisition of this good men are morally united only when they join their moral forces by the help of material means, as language, cohabitation, etc. Therefore human society unites minds and wills which concur to the common good by the help of material means.
51. The essential elements of society are multitude, unity, end, and means. -- Multitude constitutes the quasi-material part of society; unity, which is effected by authority, is the formal part. Society is the more perfect, the more numerous the elements that are united, the more complete their union, the more universal the good sought after, and the more efficacious the means of attaining it.
52. The foundation of all society lies in the good which its members should wish one another. -- The obligations upon men which result from association, are only the confirmation, the determination of these general obligations which result from their likeness in nature. But the foundation of the latter consists in this, that each is bound to love the others and to wish them whatever good he wishes for himself. Such, then, must also be the foundation of society. Hence society should never depart from the moral order, for the good that we should wish for ourselves or others should be no other than the honorable good.
53. Perfect society is divided into domestic, civil, and religious society. -- Society is either perfect or imperfect. It is perfect when it has for its end the general good of its members and all that can procure their perfection. Society is imperfect if it pursues a particular good; as literary and industrial societies, etc. Perfect society is of three kinds domestic, civil, and religious, according as it seeks the perfection and propagation of individuals, or has for special end the good proper to this life, or the life to come.
ART. I. -- NATURE OF MARRIAGE.
54. Marriage{1} is the society of man and woman united in a community of existence and life. -- Marriage is a natural contract by which the spouses engage to give themselves to each other. The society which results therefrom is not transitory, but it is a stable union, which has for its end: (1) the propagation and education of the human species; (2) the mutual happiness of the married couple. Before Christianity marrlage was only a natural association, though of divine institution; in the Church of Christ it is a sacrament.
55. Marriage is one of the most important acts of man's life. -- In ordinary engagements man stipulates for his private interests, as arbiter of his fortune; in marriage he stipulates not for himself only, but for others. He engages to become, as it were, a second providence for the new family to which be will give existence; he stipulates for the State and for humanity. Hence the multiplicity of protective forms surrounding it in both the civil and the religious order; hence likewise the religious law consecrating among almost all peoples the nuptial tie.
56. Marriage derives from civil authority only its purely civil effects; for the rest it is indebted to religion. -- Civil society supposes domestic society, whose rights it does not create, but recognizes and safeguards. Hence what regards the constitution of the family does not depend on the State. Such is the case with marriage, which is the foundation of the family. Secondly, civil society supposes religion, which is essential to man as man; now marriage is matter of religion, for it is consecrated by its end, which is to give existence to a being made in the likeness of God and destined to glorify Him. Therefore, among all peoples, even among barbarians, marriage has always been attended with sacred rites. Besides, marriage has been raised by Jesus Christ to the dignity of a sacrament; and since the sacraments come from ecclesiastical authority, it follows that marriage can depend on the State for none but its purely civil effects.{2}
57. Celibacy kept from love of virtue is a more elevated state than marriage. -- By celibacy kept from love of virtue, man attains a very great intellectual and moral perfection, and puts himself in a condition to reach his last end more surely and more perfectly. The nobility of virtuous celibacy is also manifest from the admiration felt by the people and sages of all times.{3}
ART. II. -- UNITY AND INDISSOLUBILITY OF MARRIAGE.
58. Nature wills that marriage should be a union between one man and one woman.{4} -- It is manifest that unity of marriage is demanded by the good of the marrled couple and by that of society; therefore it is consonant with nature. Besides, it is rigorously demanded in the law of Christ, where marriage has been brought back to its primitive perfection.{5}
59. Divorce is absolutely contrary to the perfection of marriage. -- The dissolubility of the marriage tie would despoil, so to say, those who are united, of the glorious titles of husband and wife, father and mother. It is opposed to the children's interest and to the well-being of the State, In the evangelical law marriage having been raised to the dignity of a sacrament and signifying the indissoluble union of Christ and His Church, has been re-invested with a stability such as nothing can destroy.
ART. III. -- RECIPROCAL DUTIES OF HUSBAND AND WIFE.
60. The authority in domestic society resides in the husband. -- Marriage is a society in which an authority is necessary. But to whom can it belong but to him on whom the Author of nature has bestowed the double authority of physical strength and of reason? Civil legislations have acknowledged this superiority by imposing upon the wife the duty of listening to her husband and following him; and in this they are in accord with the Sacred Scriptures.
61. In domestic society the wife is not the slave, but the aid and associate of her husband. -- Woman has a natural dignity equal to that of man, and although she is subject to him, she yet retains all her natural rights. She is the indispensable aid of man, and shares with him the family cares and duties. She is his associate, because she is one of the contracting parties, and by the matrimonial contract she has been provided with a husband and protector, not a despot.
ART. IV. -- DUTIES OF PARENTS AND CHILDREN.
62. Education is the principal duty that results from paternity; this duty is common to father and mother. -- Education, in its most extended meaning, comprises all the cares whether corporal or spiritual, by which the child is developed, physically, intellectually, and morally. Thus understood, it is certainly a duty imposed on parents by nature, by society, by God Himself; by nature which, making the child incapable of preserving and perfecting itself, charges with this care those who have given it existence; by society, which can be preserved and can prosper only on condition that its members have received a suitable physical and moral development; by God, who by giving children to parents evidently charges them with the duty of making them useful members of civil society and of the Church. The duty of education is common to father and mother, because both concur in giving existence to the child, and because this is required by the very end of education, the harmonious development of body, mind, and heart. The duties of parents to their children also oblige masters, who are the representatives of parental authority. As to moral education, it is essential that parents and those who in any way represent them, offer in their own person models worthy of imitation, for children follow more readily what they see than what they hear.
63. From the duty of educating follows the right of parents to direct this education personally. -- The right of parents to direct the education of their children is founded in the natural law and is therefore inviolable. Hence it is without reason that some moralists confine to the State the right of education. It is indeed true, that as the children of the family are one day to be members of society, the State has in self-defence and pursuance of its end, which is the temporal good of the community, the right to demand that they be suitably trained to fulfil their future duties as citizens. But this by no means implies that education, or even secular instruction, belongs to the State exclusively. The right of the State in this regard is limited to affording parents ample facilities for the proper training of their children; its interference can be justified only in individual cases of manifest neglect. For the rest, the natural love of parents for their offspring will more effectually provide for their education than State control, which in itself is purely temporal, and often with no higher end in view than utility.
64. The child owes its parents obedience, respect, love, and assistance. -- The voice of nature, of religion, and of gratitude, unite in bidding man honor those who, after God, are the authors of his life. Children owe obedience, respect, and love to those also who in their regard represent their parents.
65. The authority of parents over their children is limited in the extent and duration of its exercise. -- Education is the end for which nature gives parents authority over their children. What is required by this education should therefore regulate the exercise of this authority, which, in consequence, will be less exercised as the child advances in years. The child may even withdraw entirely from it when he becomes of age, yet ever fulfilling toward his parents the duties of love, respect, and gratitude. He may also be released from obedience to them in the choice of a state of life; for in this matter his parents may direct and counsel him, but not oppose or constrain him.
66. The children of a family owe one another affection and assistance. -- Consanguinity and community of education and life produce among brothers and sisters those sweet and lasting bonds which cannot be broken without violating the law of nature.
ART. V. -- DUTIES OF MASTERS AND SERVANTS.{6}
67. The society of masters and servants is lawful. -- This society is founded in the inequality of the conditions of life and the reciprocity of social needs. It is indeed constituted by the free consent of man; but though not directly derived from nature, it is nevertheless in perfect conformity with the natural law.
68. The society of masters and servants is an extension of the family, and thus, in a measure, gives rise to the same series of duties. -- Servants owe their masters respect, obedience, service, and fidelity; masters, in turn owe their servants affection, care for their spiritual and temporal interests, and fidelity to their contracts. The extent of these reciprocal duties is determined by the nature of the engagements.
69. Slavery is not absolutely in contradiction to nature. -- The state of domestic service is free; slavery, on the other hand, is a state of perpetual subjection in which a man in exchange for the necessaries of life is bound to give all the profit of his labor to him who supports him. Such a state, though less suited to man's dignity, is not, strictly speaking, contradictory to his nature; for man has the right to serve his fellowman under the reserve of his essential rights. But if slavery be understood to deprive a man of all his rights, to degrade him to the level of the brute, and to give to his master the power of life and death over the slave, then is it absolutely opposed to the natural law, since it is essentially destructive of the slave's inalienable rights.
{1} The one marriage may, according to the different aspects in which it is viewed, be called a natural contract a social or civil contract, a religious contract, and a sacrament.
{2} "The dependence of marriage on the State is entirely extrinsic and presupposes a marriage already contracted and a family, or domestic society, already constituted; for if there were no marriage, it could have no relations to civil society" (Zigilara, Summa Philosophica, M. 44, iv.) but "the marriage tie is in no way subject to will power." (vii.)
{3} Marriage is of precept for mankind in general, but not for the individual unless the human race be in imminent danger of becoming extinct. It is beyond question that Christian celibacy gives the individual greater liberty for the contemplation and pursuit of truth and the practice of virtue, and thereby confers untold blessings upon society. (Zigliara, M. 42, viii.)
{4} Polyandry opposes the principal end of marriage; polygamy breeds jealousy, strife, and dissension. Cf. Zigliara, M. 42, x., xi.
{5} The polygamy of the patriarchs of the old law is an apparent exception; but two explanations may be given in harmony with the natural law from which God cannot dispense without contradicting Himself. One explanation "would suppose that mankind beginning in monogamy, from passion and ignorance leaped quickly into polygamy that the patriarchs in good faith conformed to the practice of their time; and that God, in their case as with the rest of mankind, awaited His own destined hour for the light of better knowledge to break upon the earth. Whether, meanwhile, by some darkly intelligible stretch of His power He legitimized their unions, who can tell?" Or again, "God by His supreme dominion can dissolve any marriage. By the same dominative power He can infringe and partially make void any marriage contract without entirely undoing it. The marriage contract, existing in its fulness and integrity, is a bar to any second similar contract. But what, on this theory, the Lord God did with the marriages of the patriarchs was this: He partially unravelled and undid the contract, so as to leave room for a second contract, and a third, each having the bare essentials of a marriage, but none of them the full integrity." -- Moral Philosophy, Stonyhurst Series, p. 273.
{6} A servant "is one bound by an onerous contract to do work useful to another and determined by his will; a master is one who has a personal right of exacting from another work useful to himself and determined according to his own will, with the obligation of paying him in return the wages agreed npon." -- Russo, § 816.