The process of the family’s secularization in the West

(32) At the beginning of the process of secularization of the matrimonial institution, the first and almost only thing that was secularized was the wedding or the way of celebrating marriage, at least in the Western countries with Catholic roots.  For a certain period of time, both in the people’s conscience and in the secular systems, the basic principles of marriage persisted, such as the precious value of the indissolubility of marriage and, in particular, the absolute indissolubility of sacramental marriage between baptized persons, ratified and consummated.[77][77]  The widespread introduction of legislative systems which the Second Vatican Council described as “the divorce epidemic”, gave rise to a progressive darkening in the social conscience regarding the value of what constituted a great conquest of humanity over the ages.  The early Church did not succeed while in making sacred or Christianizing the Roman concept of marriage, it did restore this institution to its origins from creation, as explicitly willed by Jesus Christ.  It is certain that in the conscience of the early Church it was already understood clearly that the natural essence of marriage had been conceived originally by God the Creator as a sign of God’s love for his people, and when the fullness of time came, of Christ’s love for his Church.  But the first thing the Church did, guided by the Gospel and the explicit teachings of Christ, was to bring marriage back to its beginning, aware that “God himself is the author of marriage which he endowed with various goods and ends”[78][78].  Moreover, the Church was well aware that the importance of this natural institution has “a very decisive bearing on the continuation of the human race, on the personal development and eternal destiny of the individual members of a family, and on the dignity, stability, peace and prosperity of the family itself and of human society as a whole”[79][79].  Those who get married according to the stablished formalities (by the Church and the State, according to the cases), can and normally want to contract a real marriage.  The inclination toward the conjugal union is innate in human persons, and the juridical aspect of the conjugal covenant and the origin of a real conjugal bond is based on this decision.