Pope Paul VI was prophetic

"The encyclical [Humanae Vitae] of Pope Paul on birth control is true and must be followed by mankind. There shall be no rationalization of sin." – Our Lady of the Roses, October 2, 1976

Pope John Paul II warned Catholic theologians in 1987, "The Church's teaching on contraception does not belong in the category of matter open to free discussion among theologians. Teaching the contrary amounts to leading the moral consciences of spouses into error."[1]

The Holy Father's words fell on deaf ears, just as Pope Paul VI's words did in 1968, the year Humanae Vitae was published.

Contraception is defined as any direct, positive frustration of any phase in the process of conception before, during, or after a voluntary act of intercourse. Tragically, many Catholics are practicing contraception in open rebellion to the Vicar of Christ and the law of God, even though it is objectively a mortal sin to do so. As Pope Pius XI wrote many years ago in Casti Connubii, "No reason, however grave, can make what is intrinsically contrary to nature to be in conformity with nature and morally right. And since the conjugal act by its very nature is destined for the begetting of children, those who in exercising it deliberately frustrate its natural power and purpose are acting against nature, and are doing something that is base and intrinsically immoral".

Pope Pius XI also wrote: "The Catholic Church ... raises her voice as a sign of her divine mission, and through Our mouth proclaims anew: any use of marriage exercised in such a way that through human effort the act is deprived of its natural power to procreate human life violates the law of God and of nature, and those who commit such an action are stained with the guilt of grave sin.”[2]

In 1968, many Catholics had hoped that Pope Paul VI would condone the already widespread practice of using "The Pill." When he reaffirmed traditional Catholic opposition, millions of Catholics flouted his position. By 1977, a Gallup Poll found that 73 percent of Catholics said one could be a good Catholic and ignore the Pope.

In his prophetic encyclical against contraception (Humanae Vitae, 1968), Pope Paul predicted that contraceptive use would encourage man to lose respect for woman, considering her "as a mere instrument of selfish enjoyment, and no longer as his respected and beloved companion." Through abortion and contraception, women have been degraded to an object of sexual use. Many relationships now are devoid of any authentic interest in the other, because abortion and contraception have opened an even wider door for manipulation. But this can never be Christian love. As Pope Paul VI told Jean Guitton, "... when one has passed beyond that stage of egoism, when one has truly understood that loved is shared joy, a mutual gift, then one comes to what is truly love."[3]

Because the world and many in the Church have rejected Pope Paul's words, we are witnessing what one writer has called a worldwide "sexual holocaust."

Speaking at the 1993 World Youth Day in Denver, Colorado, the Holy Father called contraception "inherently evil." He challenged our country with these words: "America, you must come out of your comfortable lifestyles now and you must come out into the streets and into the public places and you must shout the Gospel of Life from the rooftop. Do not be afraid. Jesus Christ is with you."

Pope John Paul II points out in his encyclical Evangelium Vitae that the "contraceptive mentality" has become a breeding ground for abortion: "Such practices are rooted in a hedonistic mentality unwilling to accept responsibility in matters of sexuality, and they imply a self-centered concept of freedom, which regards procreation as an obstacle to personal fulfillment," the Pope writes. "The life which could result from a sexual encounter thus becomes an enemy to be avoided at all costs, and abortion becomes the only possible decisive response to failed contraception."

The following quote from the Holy Father is very profound, and is worth re-reading: "the innate language that expresses the total reciprocal self-giving of husband and wife is overlaid, through contraception, by an objectively contradictory language, namely, that of not giving oneself totally to the other. This leads not only to a positive refusal to be open to life but also to a falsification of the inner truth of conjugal love, which is called upon to give itself in personal totality." (Familiaris Consortio, #19)

As Dr. Donald DeMarco writes, "For the Holy Father, contraception compromises intimacy between man and God, and between husband and wife."

Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver, Colorado has written a marvelous pastoral letter commemorating Pope Paul's Humanae Vitae. Chaput writes that thirty years ago [as of 1999] Pope Paul VI "triggered a struggle within the Church which continues to mark American Catholic life even today. The irony is that the people who dismissed Church teaching in the 1960s soon discovered that they had subverted their own ability to pass anything along to their children. The result is that the Church now must evangelize a world of their children's children--adolescents and young adults raised in moral confusion, often unaware of their own moral heritage, who hunger for meaning, community, and love with real substance."

Archbishop Chaput also notes that Pope Paul VI warned of four cultural problems that would worsen, if Church teachings regarding married life and contraception were ignored:

1. The first would be a rise in "conjugal infidelity and the general lowering of morality."

2. Second, men would lose respect for women, ignoring issues of their physical and emotional health even more than in the past and exploit them as instruments of selfish pleasure.

3. Third, contraception would be abused by "public authorities who take no heed of moral exigencies." Today, first-world leaders regularly export "contraceptives, abortion and sterilization" to developing nations, often as a prerequisite for financial aid.

4. Finally, human beings would be tempted to believe that they have "unlimited dominion" over their bodies.

Dr. Donald DeMarco, well-known Catholic philosopher and author, has written a very informative book entitled New Perspectives on Contraception. Anyone with a desire to learn more on this subject should read his book, which has already brought enlightenment and inspiration to many Catholic couples. He writes, "Contraception is part of a philosophy that implies that when it comes to having children, the husband and wife (or the producers) should be the only ones in charge."[4] He also warns that a couple's use of contraception is in a way playing God: "Contraception is an attempt to disenfranchise God from the matter of creating new life and putting the responsibility solely in the hands of humans."[5] Dr. DeMarco’s analysis is similar to that made by the Holy Father in his powerful January 17, 1984 address to priests in Rome: “When … through contraception married couples remove from the exercise of their conjugal sexuality its potential creative capacity, they claim a power which belongs solely to God.“ The Holy Father then warns that “… contraception is to be judged objectively so profoundly unlawful as never to be, for any reason, justified. To think or to say the contrary is equal to maintaining that in human life situations may arise in which it’s lawful not to recognize God as God.”

Compromised marital intimacy is another causality of this practice, warns Dr. DeMarco:. "Contraception compromises the intimacy between husband and wife because it negates part of their being, in particular, that which is ordered to procreation," he writes. "Another way of expressing this 'compromise' is to say that the unselfishness of their spousal love is diluted by the presence of self-interest."[6] Dr. DeMarco also emphasizes that contraception allows spouses "to go through the motions of being intimate without their being truly intimate, that is, unreservedly and unconditionally so."[7] He sums up the whole theme of his book by noting that "the use of contraception is not compatible with the kind of pure and total gift that marriage asks of husband and wife."[8] By contraception, couples do not give their totality to each other because they withhold the gift of fertility, as expressed by Msgr. David Liptak: “By practicing contraception, couples ‘celebrate’ the ‘nuptial’ meaning of their bodies while at the same time refusing to submit themselves to the blessings of fertility.”[9]

The fact that contraception inclines couples towards selfishness has been brought out in many studies. "Contraception expresses a lack of desire to subordinate sexual impulses to the will and plan of God,"[10] writes Dr. Siegfried Ernst. Wanda Poltawska observes that contraception "destroys love, leads to unfaithfulness, and causes disintegration of the marriage."[11] She is absolutely right. Since the Pill began to be sold in 1960, divorces have tripled, out-of-wedlock births jumped from 224,000 to 1.2 million, abortions doubled, and cohabitation soared 10-fold from 430,000 to 4.2 million. On the other hand, among married couples practicing National Family Planning, divorce is rare. Joseph Rotzer, M.D., author of the sympto-thermal method, reports not a single divorce or abortion among 1,400 married couples who used NFP. And Couple to Couple League Founder John Kippley reports a 1.3% divorce rate among married couples who teach NFP.[12]

Without a trusting faith in God's love and providence, a couple will be tempted to turn away from the Church's teaching on contraception. Paul Quay brings this up quite well: "God, through His Church, both denounces contraception and proffers the graces to regulate the size of one's family by continence. Disbelief in the one truth implies disobedience in the other."[13] Explaining the tragic personal consequences of using contraception, Msgr. David Liptak writes, “A person who performs a sexual action contrary to the authentic meaning of human sexuality—by deliberating separating the life-giving dimension from the love-giving dimension (by deliberating excluding the procreative aspect)—distorts his or her own personality, and hence crosses the moral law by this very fact….”[14]

Mother Teresa of Calcutta, in her speech at the 1994 National Prayer Breakfast, spoke against contraception: "The way to plan the family is Natural Family Planning, not contraception. In destroying the power of giving life, through contraception, a husband or wife is doing something to self. This turns the attention to self and so destroys the gift of love in him or her. In loving, the husband and wife must turn the attention to each other. Once that living love is destroyed by contraception, abortion follows very easily."

Dietrich von Hildebrand, whom Pope Pius XII called a 20^th Century Doctor of the Church, writes: "We can now see more clearly the difference between natural and artificial birth control. The sinfulness of artificial birth control is rooted in the arrogation of the right to separate the actualized love union in marriage from a possible conception, to sever the wonderful, deeply mysterious connection instituted by God. This mystery is approached in an irreverent attitude. Here we are confronted with the fundamental sin of irreverence toward God, the denial of our creaturehood, the acting as if we were our own lords.… It is the same sinfulness that lies in suicide or in euthanasia, in both of which we act as if we were masters of life."[15]

Abortion: the ultimate exploitation of women
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[1] John Paul II, "The Church's teaching on contraception is not a matter for free discussion among theologians," L'Osservatore Romano, July 6, 1987.

[2] Pius XI, Encyclical Letter Casti connubii (30 December 1930), in Acta Apostolicae Sedis 22 (1930), pp. 559-561.

[3] The Pope Speaks: Dialogues of Pope Paul VI with Jean Guitton, trans. by Anne and Christopher Freemantle, p. 275.

[4] New Perspectives on Contraception, Donald DeMarco, p. 11.

[5] Ibid., p. 11.

[6] DeMarco, p. 39.

[7] Ibid., p. 41.

[8] Ibid., p. 109.

[9] Msgr. David Q. Liptak, “On ‘Nuptial Meaning’ of Body,” Catholic Transcript, July 27, 1984.

[10] Dr. Siegfried Ernst, Man: The Greatest of Miracles, p. 121.

[11] Wanda Poltawska, "The Effect of a Contraceptive Attitude on Marriage," International Review of Natural Family Planning, Vol. IV, No. 3, Fall 1980, p. 298.

[12] Janet E. Smith, Why Humanae Vitae Was Right: A Reader, p. 432.

[13] Paul Quay, "Contraception and Conjugal Love," Janet E. Smith (ed.), op. cit., p. 43.

[14] Msgr. David Q. Liptak, “Proportionalism, Weak Moral Theory,” Catholic Transcript, February 8, 1985.

[15] Dietrich von Hildebrand, Love, Marriage and the Catholic Conscience, pp. 45-46.

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Abortion: the ultimate exploitation of women http://www.tldm.org/news6/exploitation.htm

Abortion: the ultimate exploitation of women
http://www.tldm.org/news6/exploitation.htm