The value of parenthoodAround seminary day, we were concerned about the lack of priestly vocations. Today I dare to point out that the culprit of this crisis is the misinterpretation of one of the terms proposed by Christian doctrine, that of "responsible paternity". The Catechism uses it in the context of the regulation of procreation and wisely affirms that, "for justified reasons, spouses may wish to space the births of their children. In this case, they should make sure that their desire is not born of selfishness, but is in accordance with the just generosity of responsible parenthood".
We all know that there are some justified reasons, the problem is that, on many occasions, we justify our reasons by trying to constrain God's plan to human logic, and human logic is always so limited!
Human logic and divine plans
The human logic of St. JosephFor example, it was crushing: "The child that Mary is carrying is not mine, I don't want to denounce her. I don't want to denounce her, the best thing to do is to repudiate her in secret" -he thought-. An angel had to come in a dream to get him out of the mistake and make him understand the divine logic. And what was Mary's "let it be done" if not an example of irresponsible motherhood book? A Hebrew girl in her circumstances was literally staking her life. The responsible thing to do, no doubt, would have been to decline the angel's invitation outright and ask him to find another mother in better conditions. Besides, both she and the possibly conceived Son of the Most High would be in mortal danger. How could anyone with two fingers in front allow that?
It was the Holy Spirit, which Mary enjoyed in fullness, and not the more than justified reasons, that made her leave the worldly logic and open herself to the newness of the God of surprises. It seems normal to me that those who do not live in this spirit close themselves to life; the problem is when this worldliness enters the Church. Worldliness, Pope Francis has pointed out, is in fact "the worst of the evils that can affect it".
How many times we Christian couples have let ourselves be carried away by the environment, understanding parenthood as a source of difficulties and problems rather than as, in the words of the Pope, "the opening of a new horizon of creativity and happiness"! How many times confessors and spiritual directors have also fallen into this fear of the life that is opening up, depriving couples of the opportunity to live the happiness that comes from responding generously to God from the vocation that is proper to them!
Clerical paternalism and responsible parenthood
There is a lot of clerical paternalism behind some advice in the name of "responsible paternity", as if the vocation to marriage were of a lower rank, destined to the weakest in faith, and did not drink from the same call to holiness as the rest of vocations. Or have you ever heard of responsible priesthood? or responsible contemplative life? Can you imagine a warning for missionaries to be responsible? They would all have to go back home!
Those who, no doubt with good will, have encouraged Christian marriages, in line with current liberal thinking, not to be too complicated with children and to limit their number, have taken away from them that point of irresponsibility that Christian life needs. You have to be irresponsible to give up a professional career, study for six years and give up raising a family to dedicate yourself to being a priest working 24/7 and earning the minimum wage. You have to be irresponsible to shut yourself up forever within four walls with the idea of spending the day praying to a God who does not always answer, living with companions you have not chosen and obeying a superior in a cloistered convent. You have to be irresponsible to go to a country that is not your own, sometimes to the most dangerous places on the planet, to live among the poor and evangelize them as a missionary.
When we complain about the lack of young people who want to make the irresponsible decision to go to a seminary to study (sometimes for several years, with no certainty that they will end up being ordained), let us look to see what kind of responsibility is lived and transmitted in Christian homes. Perhaps we have gone too far in prescribing responsible parenthood. A term that, poorly discerned, has become an authentic vasectomy of the Christian life, whose shadow of sterility is ravaging the Western Church.
Journalist. Graduate in Communication Sciences and Bachelor in Religious Sciences. He works in the Diocesan Delegation of Media in Malaga. His numerous "threads" on Twitter about faith and daily life have a great popularity.
