Abstract
This paper explores the possibility that Catholic marital values are changing. Data are provided by the debate on marriage participated in by the Church hierarchy in the third session of Vatican II and by related documents. These data are interpreted in terms of Burgess' conceptualization of the American family in a process of change from institutional to companionship forms. It is suggested that research is needed to determine the prevalence of companionship values in the general and Catholic populations in the United States. A number of general hypotheses consistent with Burgess' conceptualization are fitted to the case of the American Catholic family. The paper concludes that the test of these would yield further understanding of the American Catholic family itself, clarify Burgess' conceptualization, and test its predictability.
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