A CLOSER LOOK AT THE TEXT OF GAUDIUM ET SPES ON MARRIAGE AND THE FAMILY

Abstract

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Summary The text of Gaudium, et Spes, Part II, Chapter I, on “Fostering the Dignity of Marriage and the Family”, has been the topic of considerable commentary because of its importance for the Church's teaching in this delicate area, a topic which recently came to the fore because of the 1980 Synod on the Family. However, it has become evident that there are different interpretations of what the conciliar text says. The interpretation presented by the Vatican, for instance, presumes that Gaudium et Spes upholds the doctrine of the hierarchy of the ends of marriage, while most theological consensus holds the opposite point of view. Furthermore, a recent document of the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has put forth this interpretation, basing itself upon the Expensio Modorum for the text in question. Following this ‘official’ precedent of appealing to background documents for an exposition of the conciliar teaching, the present study was undertaken with a view to investigating the attitude of the Pastoral Constitution toward the hierarchy of the ends of marriage. It has been revealed that the Congregation's quotation of the Expensio Modorum is, in at least some sense, a misrepresentation of the original document. Furthermore, a meticulous comparison of the final versions of the text of Gaudium et Spes, 47–52 as it evolved during the last month of the council has also revealed that a change was introduced into the first footnote which was at variance with the original intent. This manipulation of the note, though incomplete at the time of promulgation, was adjusted for consistency and carried over into the official version of the text found in the Acta Apostolicae Sedis. The discrepency between the text as promulgated and the AAS version, though minute in itself, can become the locus for discussing the different interpretations of Gaudium et Spes. Whereas most theological opinion views the conciliar teaching to be an evolved and dynamic one, the Vatican's own interpretation believes that nothing has changed since Casti Connubii. In the interest of further study, especially in view of understanding the recommendations of the 1980 Synod of Bishops, this preliminary study is aimed at exposing the presence of different and sometimes opposing schools of thought on the substance of this magisterial teaching.