10 Pre-Cana questions that are never asked

1. When spouses do not agree on whether to use NFP (periodic continence), who breaks the tie?

A. Agenesic NFP is immoral because it places the secondary ends of marriage as primary. (Casti 59). If there is serious reason to avoid pregnancy, then complete abstinence is the solution. "There is no possible circumstance in which husband and wife cannot, strengthened by the grace of God, fulfill faithfully their duties and preserve in wedlock their chastity unspotted." Casti Connubii 61

2. If there is a just reason to separate/divorce (with the bond remaining), what process makes the separation legitimate?

A. a separation decree from the local ordinary. The 3rd Council of Baltimore decree #126 states that:
"We command all (i.e. baptized) married persons that they must not go to the civil courts to obtain a separation from bed and board without previously receiving permission from the ecclesiastical authority. Should anyone attempt this, let him know that he incurs the guilt of grave sin and that he is to be punished as the bishop shall decide." Still binding today.

3. Does an illegitimate separator remain a Catholic in good standing?

A. Yes, however publicly joining or separating apart from Church is manifest grave sin.

4. Does the Church govern the common conjugal life, or  does the state govern it?

A. Divine law + canon law. Canon 1059

5. Do you agree with St. Thomas Aquinas' definition of marital debt? http://www.newadvent.org/summa/5064.htm

A. "husband and wife are mutually bound to the payment of the marriage debt." Grave matter.

6.. Under what conditions does the wife not have to be submissive to her husband?

A. Submissive in all conditions, except when those are "inconsistent with Christian piety." - Trent  "if not in harmony with right reason or with the dignity due to wife" - Casti Connubii

7. Under what conditions does the husband not have to love his wife?

A. He must love always, in headship and truth.

8. Is marriage based on Justice?

A. Yes. "Do not defraud" 1 Corinthians 7:5

9. What did Pope Leo XIII mean when he wrote "marriage is the contract itself" in Arcanum 23?

A. The marriage contract is the exchange of a right. “Marital consent is an act of the will by which each party gives and accepts a perpetual and exclusive right over the body for acts which are of themselves suitable for the generation of children." Canon 1081.2 of 1917 code. The "good of the spouses" is not essential to consent (or annulment!). The essence of marriage is immutable.


10. Will we qualify for an annulment later?


A. Nope. Because the bonum coniugum (good of the spouses) is integral & perfective, but not essential to marriage, the only grounds for a defective consent annulment are 1. Ignorance of where babies come from 2. Mental derangement (insanity) 3. Physical impotence. PS - "good of the spouses" cannot be objectively consummated which is one reason it cannot be an object of consent. One cannot legally consent to what cannot be defined.