Choose a topic from Part 3 Suppl:
1. Blood relationship or consanguinity isestablished by natural descent from a common ancestor.
2. Degrees of consanguinity are distinguished according tolines. The ascending and descending line (father, son,grandson, great-grandson) is the direct line. The lines onthe various levels of the ascending and descending line are calledlateral or collateral lines (brother, sister, firstcousins, second cousins, and so on).
3. Consanguinity is, by natural law, an impediment tomarriage between certain closely related persons. It would becontrary to the ends of marriage, chief of which is the welfare ofoffspring, if inbreeding were practiced. What was necessary in thebeginning of the race is not needed now. The voice of nature, aswell as the voice of human experience, proclaims the unlawfulnessof marriage between near relatives.
4. The Church, by her disciplinary or regulative laws(canons), fixes the degrees of consanguinity within which marriageis forbidden.
"The name of Jesus, pronounced with reverence and affection, has a kind of power to soften the heart. "
St Philip Neri
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"God looks neither at long nor beautiful prayers, but at those that come from the heart."
The Cure D'Ars
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"God commands not impossibilities, but by commanding he suggests to you to do what you can, to ask for what is beyond your strength; and he helps you, that you may be able."
St Augustine
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