To Catholics marriage is a Sacrament. Wealthy persons treat it as a settlement in life. For ordinary people it may spell a career in the man’s case, and to the woman an emancipation from family ties. Doubting souls may call it a vocation. As regards the ‘masses,’ the only ‘classes’ which really count in these Labour days, marriage appears to be a lottery in more ways than one. Catholics, and I speak of adherents to the ‘old-established firm with its headquarters at Rome’ —the expression is Henry Labouchere’s—have a very definite conception of marriage. ‘Hoc est magnum sacramentum,’ exclaims St Paul. And he adds the proviso : ‘Dico autem in Christo et in Ecclesia.’ It is the life-long union of man and woman indissoluble as the union of Christ with His Church.

Marriage implies children. Catholics adopt this principle as their own. In Catholic countries the birth-rate remains at high tide. Their women accept child-birth as a natural incident of married life. Therefore, they are not afraid of it. Birth control is anathema to Catholics. And by this I mean artificial birth prevention. The Church does not forbid control by abstention. She insists on the Pauline precept of each party according to the other its due rights. But if both parties agree to live for a space as brother and sister, either to limit a family or for any other such reason, the Church does not say them nay. So far the Catholic standpoint. It is held wholly by High Churchmen, and partially by other religious bodies.