The St. John’s University School of Law

Jamaica, Queens, New York 11439

Robert Fastiggi was born in New Jersey in 1953. He holds a doctorate in historical theology from Fordham University in New York. From 1985-1999, he was a member of the religious studies faculty of St. Edward’s University in Austin, Texas. Since 1999, he has been teaching systematic theology at Sacred Heart Major Seminary; Detroit, Michigan. Dr. Fastiggi is the author of The Natural Theology of Yves de Paris (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1991) and the co-author (with José Pereira) of The Mystical Theology of the Catholic Reformation: An Overview of Baroque Spirituality (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2006). In addition, he has published over 90 articles and book reviews. Professor Fastiggi and his wife, Kathleen, have been married since 1984, and they have three children.

The Goods, the Purposes and the Ends of Christian Marriage

Robert Fastiggi, Sacred Heart Major Seminary

This paper will begin with an overview of the three goods of marriage as articulated by St. Augustine (offspring, fidelity and sacrament) and trace the importance of these goods in the traditional Catholic theology of marriage. It will then discuss the ends of marriage, especially with regard to the hierarchy of ends as expressed in the 1917 Code of Canon Law.

The paper will then examine why Vatican II and the subsequent 1983 Code of Canon of Canon Law chose not to retain the hierarchy of the ends of marriage as expressed in the 1917 Code (which held up the procreation and education of children as the primary end). Was a new understanding of the ends of the sacrament of marriage being expressed?

To answer this question attention will be given to the discussion of this issue as recorded in Acta of the Council. The council fathers appealed to an important passage from Pius XI’s Casti Connubii, 24, which in turn relied upon the Roman Catechism of 1566. Attention will also be given to St. Thomas Aquinas’ distinction between the essential ends of marriage (where procreation has priority) and the more excellent ends of marriage (where sacrament has priority).

The paper will seek to resolve the issue by noting that the Catholic tradition (even before Vatican II) considered marriage not only in terms of its ends but also in terms of its purposes, properties and goods (with the properties often incorporating the goods). In avoiding an explicit hierarchy of the ends of marriage, Vatican II was not abandoning any definitive teaching of the Church. Instead, it was merely recognizing that the goods, the purposes and ends of marriage can be and have been considered under diverse aspects within the tradition.