nearly 50 years after this “prophetic” papal document, more
than 500 Catholic scholars with doctoral degrees in theology, medicine, law and
other fields have recently signed a document in support of Catholic teaching,
titled
Dissent from Humanae vitae centers around the claim there are “no grounds” for Catholic teaching against contraception, questioning the idea that openness to procreation is inherent to the significance of sexual intercourse, and that the choice to use contraceptives for either family planning or prophylactic purposes can be a responsible and ethical decision and even, at times, an moral imperative.
Humanae vitae speaks against the
distorted view of human sexuality and intimate relationships that many in the
modern world endorse. The document was prophetic in predicting some of the evils
that would result from widespread use of contraception.
Dissent from Humanae vitae centers around the claim there are “no grounds” for Catholic teaching against contraception, questioning the idea that openness to procreation is inherent to the significance of sexual intercourse, and that the choice to use contraceptives for either family planning or prophylactic purposes can be a responsible and ethical decision and even, at times, an moral imperative.
Blessed Paul VI’s 1968 encyclical reaffirmed
the traditional Christian rejection of contraception and said it applied to the
birth control pill, drawing significant opposition from non-Catholics and from
some within the Church who had been campaigning against Church teaching. The Church
holds that sex is designed by God to be both unitive and procreative, and that
attempting to separate these two aspects of human sexuality through artificial
contraception is immoral. If a married couple faces a just reason to avoid
pregnancy, the Church teaches that they may do so through Natural Family
Planning, a process that works with a woman’s natural fertile cycles and
abstaining from sexual activity during the times that she is fertile.
The 500 Catholic scholars
maintained that Church teaching is “true and defensible” on the basis of
Scripture and reason, describing Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross as “the
ultimate and complete self-gift” linked to the biblical spousal imagery of Our
Lord and His Church. Human sexual relations fulfill God's intent only, the
scholars said, when they “respect the procreative meaning of the sexual act”
and take place as a “complete gift of self” within marriage.
Since the 1960s the widespread
use of contraception has contributed greatly to the increase of sex outside of
marriage, to an increase of unwed pregnancies, abortion, single parenthood,
cohabitation, divorce, poverty, the exploitation of women and the porn industry,
declining marriage rates, and declining population growth in many parts of the
world.
To those Catholics who continue to dissent
from Humanae vitae: please deepen your relationship” with God. Be
open to the direction of the Holy Spirit, and ask Jesus Christ to give you the
graces needed to live in accord with God’s will for their married lives, even
the difficult moral truths.
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