The audio file for this sermon has very bad audio from 2:00=15:40.

• One of the cornerstones of a Catholic civilization is the phenomenon known as the large family. Catholics have always been known for having large families. But large Catholic families stand out more today than they have in the past just because families themselves are becoming rarer, not just large families.
• Young people today are finding it harder and harder to get married.
• The median age for marriage today is 30 for men and 28 for women, while it was 23 for men and 21 for women back in 1970.
• Fewer people are getting married: there were around 10.5 per 1000 in 1970, while there are around 6 per 1000 today. This is a difference of over 40%.
• Marriage requires a commitment for life and the shouldering of great responsibilities. You have to be very motivated to take on that commitment.
• Many young people find it difficult today to commit themselves to something so big as marriage and they find it even more difficult to commit themselves to having the children that come with a Catholic marriage.
• They don’t trust themselves and they don’t trust others to be able to make the marriage commitment. And so they just remain single.

Good Catholic Marriage

• This rarity of commitment makes a good Catholic marriage shine with all the more splendor today.
• We know that, when two Catholics get married, they make vows to one another. They vow to live marriage in the way that God made it.
• They exchange vows and they give to one another their life-giving powers. They promise that they will never withhold their life-giving power in their marital union.
• This gift on the wedding day is a sign of their unconditional love for one another. They accept in advance whatever life will come forth from their love.
• This helps us see how false is the love which says, “I will come together with you but I do not want to have children by you. I do not want new life to come from our union.”

Big Families Rare Today

• When there is rampant and easy birth control in a society such as ours, as well as a plague of immorality, the only thing that will lead people to make such a commitment to one another is a religious motivation. They have to believe that God wants it of them and they will only be following God’s plan if they have the children that God gives to them.
• The reason for this is that we as human beings tend to take the easy way out. It is difficult to have the children that God wants to give you and so people will opt to have just a few or none, when they are given the option. So many countries are trying today to get their citizens to have children and it is just not working. They are not motivated by money or benefits.
• Meanwhile, in the Church today, Catholics simply ignore the Church’s teaching on birth control. Studies indicate that 98% of Catholic women have used birth control at some time in their life.
• Meanwhile, it takes a special set of circumstances to have large families (like six or more children) and those circumstances are very rare today.
• The couple has to get married young, in their early 20s. And they have to be committed to having all the children that God wills to give them. Both of these extremely rare today.

• Meanwhile, it is a great blessing to a family and to the world when the family abounds with life. In 1958, Pope Pius XII gave an address to representatives of a number of associations for large families in Italy. In this address, he pointed out three testimonies given by large families.