No Surprise Here! Vatican Conference Ends With Affirmation of Marriage

The Vatican’s three-day colloquium on The Complementarity of Man and Woman in Marriage has ended today, not surprisingly, with an affirmation of marriage.

What WAS surprising–at least to me–was the pure poetry of the closing statement.   Participants listened to a reading of “A New Affirmation of Marriage”–which explained why wedding celebrations are joyful.  The statement, along with additional information about the conference, can be accessed at the website; but for your convenience, I’ve included it below in its entirety.

The global colloquium, which brought together representatives from 14 religious traditions and 23 countries, was hosted by the Pontifical Council for the Family, the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, and the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.

A number of Americans were among the 30 speakers at the colloquium. The American Catholics included

• Archbishop Charles Chaput, OFM, Cap., Archbishop of Philadelphia;
• Sr. M. Prudence Allen, RSM, Ph.D., Religious Sisters of Mercy of Alma; and
• Archbishop J. Augustine DiNoia, Adjunct Secretary of the Congregation of the Faith (an American who has one foot on American soil and one on the ground in Italy).

Representatives from other faiths included:

• Dr. Russell D. Moore, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptists;
• Rev. Dr. Richard D. Warren, senior pastor of Saddleback Church;
• President Henry B. Eyring, First Counselor in the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints;
• Dr. Jacqueline C. Rivers, Director of the Seymour Institute for Black Church and Policy Studies; and
• Mr. Manmohan Singh of the World Sikh Council, American Region.

Here in its entirety, courtesy of the Vatican Information Service, is the closing statement:

A NEW AFFIRMATION OF MARRIAGE

Why do weddings still move us? We do not become emotional when business partners strike a deal. We shed no tears at a friendly handshake. We feel no such joy to hear of “casual” mating.

A wedding is different. Here stand a man and woman, entering together into a new life.

And yet it is more than this. They are about to enter the generations. Their union proclaims life: their parents and grandparents still live within them. Humankind lives within them. The cultures and creeds of the world live within them. They are there—in the blood. Those bearing witness know this truth. They too have been born from a union of man and woman.

See the grandmother who looks on, now frail. She was once that bride, and the memory of her own mother and father dwells within her still.

See the brother who welcomes guests—he will one day be that bridegroom, and he too will enter in a new way the long history into which he was born.

See their friends and neighbors. They are more essential than any might guess. For it is they who will help make this marriage flourish. Their investment will return to them, for marriage is a cup that runs over.

See the mother of the bridegroom, hugging her son amid smiles and tears. He was once a helpless baby whom she nursed at the breast. Now he stands tall above her, and his voice is deep, and his shoulders broad. She remembers his birth. He who was once her child will one day be a father.

See the father of the bride, holding her by the hand. He recalls when her mother bore her, and he envisions in her what is so hard to believe, the mother-to-be. She is the bearer of a future. She is irreplaceable.

See man and woman together. They are not just two people. He is for her, and she for him; it is inscribed in their bodies. Their union will bring life that binds and mingles families, encourages faith to flourish, and brings humankind and the world’s diverse cultures to flower again.

Both are eager to undertake their new responsibilities—their gift of self to the other—and think little about what is owed them. They know nothing yet of the difficulty of the years ahead, only of their desire to travel it together.

It is hard now to speak of such obvious and beautiful things, but they are there. All the witnesses know it. It is the music of man and of woman. Man with woman brings out the finest in him, directing his blood and his mind toward what makes life possible; and woman with man brings out the finest in her, directing her love and her care toward what makes life sweet.

Today, however, the homes that marriage makes are exposed to an army of distractions, and to the thief and the enemy who comes to steal and destroy. Weddings are rarer and children fewer. Where poverty erodes, marriage feels out of reach. Where war afflicts, families are crushed. Anywhere marriage recedes, we lose the transcendent and material goods that all human beings should enjoy.

And we too are at fault, for when marriages are exposed to the wind and the rain, we have paid little attention. When the needs of children succumb to the wishes of adults, we have often remained silent. Love is reduced to a consumer item, an airbrushed image, or a slogan to export. It will not work. We will not flourish.

For marriage is no mere symbol of achievement, but the very foundation—a base from which to build a family and from there a community. For on earth marriage binds us across the ages in the flesh, across families in the flesh, and across the fearful and wonderful divide of man and woman, in the flesh. This is not ours to alter. It is ours, however, to encourage and celebrate.

And so it is that we rejoice at weddings.

This we affirm.