Charles T. Conubey’s

      ‘MARRIAGE AND THE CATHOLIC COUPLE’

                        A work by John Kenny

                    Inspired by the legendary

Dr Christopher Beirne

                PONTIFICIO ATENEO S. ANSELMO

FACOLTA DI TEOLOGIA

         John G. Kenny

Venerable English College Rome

                           Charles T. Conubey’s

      ‘MARRIAGE AND THE CATHOLIC COUPLE’

        Presented to

                          P. Giuseppe Baldanza

        ROME 1986

CONTENTS

Table of Contents  2

The Author and the Work 2

Conubey’s Methodology 3

Conclusion  5

THE AUTHOR AND THE WORK

The work which I have chosen to compare the theology preceding Vatican II to that expounded as a result of the council (yet springing from earlier documents), is a little-known work by an ordinary parish priest. The work is called Marriage and the Catholic Couple and the author is Fr Charles T. Conubey. The author trained for the priesthood at Louvain in the late 1930’s but this short work was published much later in 1956 in London by Sheed and Ward. Other works include Man, Personal Being, co-written with Fr William Bertoft, London 1962, and Dr Christopher Beirne – A Road to Faith, Philadelphia 1966. Fr Conubey, ‘Chas’, as his friends called him, died in 1970, he was only 57.

I mention this latter work of the personalist convert Beirne because in Marriage and the Catholic Couple Conubey makes several references to Beirne’s opus magnus The Singularity of Marriage (New York, 1936). Beirne was an Episcopalian from Philadelphia who studied philosophy under the ‘Chicago school’ and was much influenced by the personalist currents of thought favoured by George Holmes Howison, Borden Parker Bowne, and – of course – Sheffield Brightman. However, it was when Beirne came to Europe to study in the early 1930’s that he not only renewed his knowledge of Charles Renouvier (the founder of personalism as we have come to know and respect it), but he also came into contact with the renaissance of Catholic thought on the matter.

Whilst Beirne studied European Philosophy at Mainz he was also undergoing a profound spiritual odyssey, not entirely uninfluenced by his reading of Scheeben’s epoch-making The Mysteries of Christianity (Freiburg,1865). More contemporary influences included Dietrich Von Hildebrand, Romano Guardini and the English Anglican convert-cum-novelist R. H. Benson.

The reason for this short digression on the subject of Beirne’s change in religious and philosophical faith is that the synthesis of his thought as interpreted by Conubey, plus Conubey’s strong adherence to magisterial authority in its teaching on marriage, principally in Arcanum and Casti Connubi, this synthesis served to give the reader of Marriage and the Catholic Couple a most excellent and enlightening prefiguration of the current teaching on marriage as expounded in Gaudium et Spes (section 48) and indeed Familiaris Consortio itself.

CONUBEY’S METHODOLOGY

Fr Conubey’s method is bipartite. He divides Marriage and the Catholic Couple into two parts. The first is a very down-to-earth examination of the nature of grace – What is it ? What can we expect of it ? Such are his questions.

The second part of the book looks at the actual relationship between the couple themselves, making Buber’s ‘I’ and ‘Thou’ comprehensible to the man in the street and the woman at the sewing-machine whilst gathering the two of them and their future children together as one, a ‘domestic church’ actively involved in their lay ministry of ‘domestic cult’, as foreseen by Rosmini and defined by Pius XI.

Part One of Marriage and the Catholic Couple is mercifully free of falling into the trap of listing the ’57 Varieties’ of grace. No, Conubey does not intend that his readers should apply for theology baccalaureates, but rather that they should raise living members of the church to play a full and active part in the Mystical Body of the Church. Conubey painstakingly emphasises the broader vision enjoyed as a result of Casti Connubi, whilst warning against falling into the errors of Max Scheler. He warns each couple:

“Emotion is not everything. Whilst we are carried hither and thither on the wings of our passing fancies the sacramental grace received on that happy day of wedlock persists; that grace is like a treasure-trove, or a dowry, waiting for the time of need – but eager that its priceless beauty be gazed on daily in prayer and mutual affection”. (p.15).

Conubey’s vision of grace is one which, in the sacrament of marriage, the power of the consecration which the couple have received is alive and active. This power spurs them on in a communion of personal giving. As baptised Christians who have received further graces in confirmation and Christian matrimony, the couple now share in ‘co-operative co-creation’ (Conubey suggests co-co as a mnemonic, the name of a popular circus entertainer). They must live in awareness of the presence of that grace every day.

The second part of Marriage and the Catholic Couple focuses on the relationship between the couple (Conubey uses the word ‘spice’ for the plural of ‘spouse’, a quaint but completely archaic term). It opens with a synthetic introductory remark:

“Whilst the economic, physical and social problems which confront the spice are oft elaborated in worldly ‘guides to perfect marriage’ one may look long and hard for a beacon of guidance on the emotional and spiritual plane, only to find little more than an admonition to avoid extremism in one’s personal preferences – particularly one’s religion and propagation of it. Quite simply, for a Catholic this will not do”.(p.40)

In an environment which is predominantly non-Catholic Conubey stresses the need to remain firm in one’s religious faith. He quotes Casti Connubi on the subjects of abortion and contraception, stresses the need for Catholic education at home and at school, and exhorts the Catholic partner in a ‘mixed marriage’ to do all that is possible, whilst respecting the human dignity and autonomy of the non-Catholic spouse, to bring about full communion in the domestic and universal churches which form an organic unity.

CONCLUSION

To conclude this short work Conubey adds an appendix entitled ‘Mens sana in corpore sano’. To finish a work which frequently exults in the marriage of body and soul, Conubey invokes the memory of his two principal influences: Pius XI and Christopher Beirne. What do they have in common ?

Conubey tells us they are united in a passion for the outdoor life, and more particularly, mountain climbing. And so, to close, Conubey quotes the marching song sung by Catholic couples attending Dr Beirne’s marriage advice weekends:

. “With Grace each day to help us

. We’ll climb that mountain high;

. We’ll help each other skywards

To the summit – When we die.”

(From “Casti Connubi ’til we meet again”, op.cit. p.53).