Priests and married persons: what of their efforts in the challenge of penance and reconciliation? This section on The Sacraments takes a brief look:
The sacrament of orders is intended to give to the church the pastors who, besides being teachers and guides, are called to be witnesses and workers of unity, builders of the family of God, and defenders and preservers of the communion of this family against the sources of division and dispersion.
The sacrament of matrimony, the exaltation of human love under the action of grace, is a sign of the love of Christ for the church. But it is also a sign of the victory which Christ grants to couples in resisting the forces which deform and destroy love, in order that the family born from this sacrament may be a sign also of the reconciled and reconciling church for a world reconciled in all its structures and institutions.
The small thing I noticed: the association of family with clergy and the Church with married persons. Doubtful this is an accident. Baptized adults share a responsibility for unity and reconciliation. Better that we work together at it, rather than at cross purposes.
This document is Copyright © 1984 – Libreria Editrice Vatican. The link on the Vatican site is here.