For those of reproductive age, the decision to marry in the Catholic Church is one that expresses the desire for a fruitful married life. The teachings of the Catholic Magisterium provide a substantial and constructive dialogue about marital fruitfulness as it relates to the bearing and raising of children but a more adequate theological and pastoral response is needed for Catholic couples who remain childless after exhausting morally upright medical procedures for assisting reproduction. This commentary provides a critical appraisal of the documents of the Magisterium dating from the 1917 Pio-Benedictine Code of Canon Law through to the present. The appraisal traces the development of the Magisterium’s teaching on sterility and marital fruitfulness by examining these documents chronologically in three periods: 1917 to 1965, 1966 to 2008 and 2009 to the present.
Author. 2020. “The Barren Bear Fruit: Towards a Theology of Marital Fruitfulness for Sterile Catholic Couples in Light of Hans Urs von Balthasar’s Theology of Fruitfulness.” MPhil thesis, University of Notre Dame. https://researchonline.nd.edu.au/theses/267/
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