Radical feminism, not unlike the dream-thief character Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) in the movie “Inception,” has stolen into our subconscious and implanted an insidious idea that refuses to die. The idea: That contraceptives and their evil twin, abortion are “health care”, that public funding for them are a necessity, and that they are positive goods. Like Cobb, radical feminists have planted a whopper of a lie. The question is how will we get out of it?
In the film, Cobb uses a totem (a spinning metallic top), to tell if he’s in the dream. We, too, have totems - a tool for differentiating between the false dream and the reality. The antidotes are Pope Paul VI’s 1968 encyclical letter Humanae Vitae, and Pope John Paul II’s encyclical letter Evangelium Vitae and his teachings on the “Theology of the Body.”
Forty-three years after Humanae Vitae’s release, we need to reexamine the letter’s predictions so that we may see the false bill of goods that we’ve been sold and the enormity of the lie we’ve been living.
Let’s take a look at the reality.
Contraception and Abortion are not “Health care”
Contraception is neither “health” nor “care.” It treats a woman’s natural, God-given fertility as a disease that needs to be controlled or stopped. For something to be healthy it shouldn’t lead to permanent damage or death. Yet, the introduction of contraceptive chemicals into the female body to prevent her natural fertility cycle is far from healthy. The birth control pill has contributed to blood clots, heart attacks, strokes, and death in women. When the Pill was first being tested in Puerto Rico at least three women died during the clinical trials. Who knows how many more have died because of oral contraceptive use in subsequent years. The Pill kills.
Those who teach modern, scientific Natural Family Planning will also attest to the numerous couples whom they see who learn NFP after having been on the Pill. Talk to those couples and you will learn that use of the Pill, sometimes over decades, has permanently affected the ability of many couples to conceive. Use of oral contraceptives can render a couple infertile. In other cases, it can be months or years before normal fertility returns.
Radical feminists purport that contraception will increase women’s enjoyment of the marital act because they will be free to have intercourse without fear of pregnancy. In reality, the Pill decreases women’s libido and desire for intimacy.
Another potential danger for women… studies have demonstrated a possible link between hormonal contraceptives and breast cancer.
When contraceptives are used to avoid pregnancy, and one results, many then turn to contraceptive’s evil twin of abortion. One of the ways in which many oral contraceptives work is to prevent the implantation of a human embryo, hence inducing abortion. To furthermore understand the description of abortion as contraceptive’s evil twin, consider the statistics.
A 2011 Guttmacher Institute fact sheet states that nearly half of all pregnancies among American women are unintended. Four in 10 of all pregnancies end in abortion; and 54% of women who have had abortions had been using contraception at the time they became pregnant.
Killing a pre-born child is hardly a “healthy” outcome for the child or the mother.
Public Funding of Contraception and Abortion are Not Necessary
We have also been sold the lie that public funding of contraception and abortion are absolutely necessary, and that those of us who are opposed to their use have an obligation to pay for them.
In the current debate over contraceptive coverage, we’re being told that every insurance plan must provide coverage for contraception, sterilization, and abortion-inducing medications, and that all employers must provide insurance coverage to make these available, as if contraception and abortion haven’t been freely available for the past 40 years.
Planned Parenthood already offers free and low-cost contraceptives on a sliding-fee scale. Contraception and abortion are readily available. While we’ve been told that there are medical conditions where oral contraceptives are necessary, that’s not the case. Bio-identical hormones outside of contraception are available, without harming women or their fertility. It’s hard to imagine any condition where the death of a child is the “treatment.”
Contraception and Abortion are Not Positive Goods
According to the journal Family Planning Perspectives’ 1998 article “Trends in Contraceptive Use in the United States: 1982-1995, 75% of women who use oral contraceptives are unmarried.
Love is willing the good of the other. Forcing people to pay for the destructive behavior of the other can never be a good.
Closing the marital act to the possibility of procreation is to make it less than the self-gift intended in marriage. The act becomes not a self-gift but an act of selfishness and self-pleasure. It says to the spouse, “I share myself with you, all but this part. This part of myself I withhold.” That undermines marriage and the purpose of marriage. Practicing this is harmful to marriage. Contraception ultimately leads to objectification and dehumanization. The result of this repeated action is that children aren’t seen as gifts, but as a lifestyle choice or a commodity.
Natural Family Planning, on the other hand, fosters a healthy respect and wonder between husband and wife, and awe for the creation of life. In a culture so willing to embrace the “green,” the natural, the organic, it’s surprising that more married couples do not choose to learn about natural fertility regulation rather than introducing potentially fertility-destroying chemicals into their bodies.
The Church’s Moral Voice Has Been Compromised
If the Church is going to have an authoritative voice on this issue it cannot be complicit in it. It cannot have dioceses, hospitals, universities, charities, and other institutions that are covering or distributing contraception, and performing sterilization and abortion. Yet, it has.
The National Women’s Law Center has published a list of Catholic hospitals, healthcare systems, and colleges and universities – organizations such as Catholic Healthcare West - that do provide contraceptive coverage. Sandra Hapenney, a doctoral candidate at Baylor University, found that more than 20,000 sterilizations were performed at 48% of 176 Catholic hospitals.
This is scandalous. These institutions, ostensibly our institutions, are complicit in performing surgeries and providing medications that block fertility and induce abortion.
To their credit, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, and individually, every bishop in the country has been unified against the U.S. Health and Human Service’s mandate regarding contraceptive coverage. The sleeping giant is beginning to wake and has found its voice.
The Totems or Antidote
When the prophetic encyclical Humanae Vitae was released on July 25, 1968, Pope Paul VI, predicted that the widespread use of contraception would lead to: 1) infidelity and moral decline, 2) a loss of respect for women, 3) the abuse of power, and 4) unlimited dominion.
Clearly, every single prediction has come to pass. We’re witness to widespread infidelity and sexual immorality. Without a doubt, the past 40 years have seen increases in premarital relations, out-of-wedlock pregnancies, divorce, abortion, and sexually-transmitted diseases.
Pope Paul VI also said that man would reach “the point of considering [woman] as a mere instrument of selfish enjoyment and no longer as his respected and beloved companion.” We see this all too often in modern media and in relationships where people treat others as objects for their own pleasure. We see it, too, in the proliferation of pornography. Reality has exceeded the Pope’s prediction in that sexual activity has become an appetite to be satisfied without the need for any relationship at all. Think of the “hook-up” culture and the recent film “Friends with Benefits.”
Contraception, Pope Paul VI warned would become a “dangerous weapon… in the hands of those public authorities who take no heed of moral exigencies.” This is evidenced not only by family-planning programs tied to foreign aid in developing countries, forced sterilization and abortion in countries such as China, but also in the current Health and Human Service’s mandate in our own country.
Finally, Pope Paul VI cautioned that contraception would lead humans to think that they have unlimited dominion over their own bodies. So convinced are individuals of this “right,” many do not hesitate to disfigure themselves through sterilization, seek to produce life outside the womb when they are unable to achieve pregnancy, or to find ways to end their life prematurely once they believe they have outlived their own usefulness.
The antidote lies in Pope Paul VI’s encyclical letter Humanae Vitae, and in Pope John Paul II’s Evangelium Vitae, and “Theology of the Body.” In such expositions, we are shown that we are created for far more than sexual degradation. We have a proper way of looking at the body. The human person has a profound dignity. Rather than separating the unitive and procreative aspects of marriage, we must reverence the gift of our sexuality within marriage. That is the self-sacrificial love for which we were created.
Marian femininity serves as our model. Virgin and mother - the two states most under attack through contraceptive use and abortion - must be embraced. No matter how we might try, human sexuality cannot be divorced from marriage or children.
The lie of contraception, implanted not by the fictional Cobb, but by the very real Margaret Sanger, into our subconscious, has seriously distorted our view of reality. The late-Father Paul Marx, OSB, former director of Human Life International used to say that contraception has “driven a wedge into the most intimate sphere of communion known to man outside of the Holy Sacrament of the Mass.”
May we all awake from the nightmare we are in, and soon, before it’s too late.
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It’s odd watching the American contraception furore from the very secular, liberal European country where I live, where universal health care is taken for granted, because guess what? People here pay for their own contraceptives, and no one makes a fuss.
Thank you for mentioning the reality of Planned Parenthood’s free or almost availability to contraception. I have been waiting (still waiting) for PP to step into the limelight and declare this much more broadly but, interestingly enough, they haven’t. Why not?
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Why hasn’t PP, the protector of all women, come out of the dark and let everyone know that no matter what happens in the HHS debate they’ve got what every woman needs? Don’t worry if your insurance company won’t pay for your contraception - WE WILL! After weeks and weeks of front page headlines about the HHS issue, they remain stunningly silent.
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We heard them roar when Susan G. Koman wanted to hold back their small donation. It was a measly <1% of their monies away from them but PP would have none of it. They were all over the media and in a matters of hours, SGK caved and recanted. They were handing over their money like a kid in the lunch room shaken down like a bully.
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But now, where are they? Do you hear them offering to make it clear that no woman needs worry about losing her full access to contraception as they are here to save us.
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Their silence in the current discussion speaks volumes.
“According to the journal Family Planning Perspectives’ 1998 article “Trends in Contraceptive Use in the United States: 1982-1995, 75% of women who use oral contraceptives are not currently married. So, we are largely being asked to subsidize contraception for those who are unmarried.”
Privacy, ever heard of it. Not your business. Contraception is fully legal and not subject to your theocratic impulses you don’t get tho control other’s sex lives. You lost that war in the early 1960s’ with Griswold.
The Catholic church and every other church in my town is tax-exempt so am am require to subsidize the local church property taxes that pay for the fire and police protection.
@dch
Absolutely we have heard of privacy. We have heard of freedom of religion too. If you believe that something is true dch then please advocate for it. Vote for candidates that will further your agenda. Write letters to the editor that further your view. Please. This is the beauty of our country.
To be a society as opposed to anarchy, we have to have a few common values so we can get along. I pay taxes too. I want my tax money that goes to the fire department to protect atheists and Catholics. No question. I want you to have a good life and be able to care for your family. I especially don’t want to know anything about your private life. If for some odd reason you decide that your private life needs to be public or I need to pay for you to have no consequences for the choices you make then oops. Not interested.
The Church may have lost something with the Griswold decision but we respected the decision. Give unto Caeser what is Caeser’s.
The question is not does everyone have to give up something or compromise some for our society to exist. Obviously. The question is where is the line between co-existance and cohersion? There is a real need to choose between good governance and Big Brother. You might be stunned about the federal budget I would be willing to pay for. Fortunately those brilliant folks that brought us the Constitution really tried for a nice balance.
I am certain you do many things that I think are not in your best interest. I know I do things not in my best interest. It is unfortunate that you cannot express yoruself without a sneer or contempt. I can only presume that you assume to be better than any Catholic. Good thing the rest of us respect yoru privacy so you can keep believing that.
Don’t forget that the pill also contributes to the risk of developing Lupus ( an autoimmune disease).
Theology of the Body
Tim and NCR Readers,
AMEN to that closing …
The late-Father Paul Marx, OSB, former director of Human Life International used to say that contraception had “driven a wedge into the most intimate sphere of communion known to man outside of the Holy Sacrament of the Mass.” May we all awake from the nightmare we are in, and soon, before it’s too late.
An OPORD (Operations Order)
All of my military instincts convince me that we in the Church Militant are misjudging the SITUATION, which must be based on: (1) Enemy forces-... (2) Friendly forces-... (3) Attachments and detachments-... If we get this analysis wrong we are almost certain to fight the wrong battle on ground not of our choosing. It has often been said, and history bears out the fact that in war, truth is the first casualty. In the mass confusion of this Information Age we must only do one thing well. We must trust in the Truth of the Holy Eucharist, the fact that CHRIST IS KING and that the Mystery of Light is our viaticum and ultimate weapon against sin, darkness and death. We must witness our faith in Jesus Christ in charity, like St. Paul and Archbishop Oscar Romero. I see no other way. We must march united, rosaries in hand (trusting in the support of the Angels and Saints) till we drop… before it’s too late.
http://eucharist-emc2.blogspot.com
dch, no one is saying the Church should monitor and make other peoples sex lives their business. What they are saying is… birth control is already available for anyone who wants it. They are not denying anyone birth control to anyone not even to Ms. Fluke, but the Church should NOT have to be forced to pay for it. If you want to use birth control, that is your business and currently legal. But to make the Church pay for it, is forcing your views upon the Church and that is wrong. Besides, there is already a 100% effective means of birth control and it is 100% free and it harms no one and is always morally acceptable… it’s called abstinence. But perish the thought that anyone would have to give up sex for recreational purposes.
The Bishops dropped the ball in 2008. Remember that Catholic guide to voting that you needed a PhD to understand? Instead of stating emphatically that Catholics should not support a candidate who voted for infanticide, the USCCB put out some esoteric gobbletygook about how Catholic voters should balance life issues with peace and social justice issues. Many of us saw this attack on religious freedom coming.
Contraception is the russe as we call can see. The issue is
The real issue is the distruction of the bill of rights guaranteeing
Our religious rights and freedoms. Control is the issue
Not free contraception. Keep your contraception out
Of the constitution.
Why do I and anyone else or organization legally have to subsidise your promiscuous behavior. Oh yeah and bc of your sexually devience we have to pay for your trx of std’s. Come on ppl wake the hell up, oh pardon HELL has already been woke up and and we are gonna burn. 21st Century martyrdom
Rachel W., excellent point! Thanks for bringing it up!
Well written, Tim; I could not agree with you more. The rejection of Humana Vitae in 1968 was the beginning of a revolt against our Church teaching on sexual morality. Today, we see, as you stated, every form of evil: adultery, promiscuity, and the like. God bless you, and continue to speak out courageously on these issues of morality.
Thanks, Deacon Hornick. Of course, the revolt against the Church really began in the Garden. We said we wanted to “do it our way,” and we’ve been doing that ever since. Christ and His Truth are the answer to every social problem we face.
While I agree that it is mainly the Bishops fault for not teaching the evil of contraception at first, we have to understand that now God stepped in and the Bishops have been enlightend by the Holy Spirit, thank God they have awaken from their slumber, but there is much more to be done, so lets support them
and pray and do fasting because its going to be a long haul, and not only on contracetion, we also have the issue of the sanctity of marriage, we are in for the fight of our lives.
“In a culture so willing to embrace the “green,” the natural, the organic, it’s surprising that more married couples do not choose to learn about natural fertility regulation rather than introducing potentially fertility-destructing chemicals into their bodies.” Not only that, but these “green” embracers are also killing everything around them as contraceptives are flushed out into the water and beginning to alter the sexual proportions of amphibian and fish life to date - and who knows what in the future.
I wouldnt blame the bishops for OUR disobedience to Chuch teaching they sure as heck arent gonna put us in a head lock and make us comply. Obiedience comes from loving God and His Church even though we may not understand right now, but we will understand in due time and Gods good grace
You forgot to include that it has been scientifically proven that the pill causes breast cancer which can be verified by the World Health Organization which classified it as a Class 1 carcinogen which is the same level as Asbestos, Benzene, and Plutonium.
My household was suprised when ObamaCare became law, now we are angered beyond words that he has the nerve to tell my (Catholic) church that we are to go against what we were not only taught but believe to be sacred. We need to stand together and make it known that we will not bow to him or his will. Not only will we not use contraception/birth control, we will not commit murder by supplying or using abortificants. Washington has gone to far over the line and it is time to push them back!
Steve - Way to take @dch to school and set him straight! I could not have said it better myself. Keep up the fight!
The horrible thing about this entire series of events, is that the Church believed Obama would keep his word. We were told over and over again that there would be consideration to religious organizations. They did consider something but not protecting the rights of religious Christian organizations.
Now if the Catholics would become Muslim, then they would be fine, or if all Catholic organizations were in Nevada or another state that has a waiver.
If you actually believe anything Obama says, you get what is coming.
May God forgive us all for letting this “Mad Man” get into the White House.
Way to go for it here Tim. You are a brave and fine writer and it is great to see you step up and punch some wholes into their lousy rhetoric. For years I have been telling my students how completely destructive euphemism can be, and it is really an issue of the pro-abortion advocates misusing language in an endlessly irresponsible way. Reproductive health, ethnic cleansing, depopulation are all tricks from the same dark handbag.
Dear National Catholic Register,
Could the readers of the National Catholic Register have more stories and opinion pieces by Tim Drake? Thanks, Joe in Iowa
This is a great article. Just wondering if there is any side effects from vasectomies or tubal ligations. I suspect there is.
“How will we get out of it” you ask? Maybe when and if there is a study done and a connection is discovered between contraception and autism.
@Rachel
Agreed PP’s silence is in itself very informative. Which entity will have profit margins bloat if the American taxpayer pays for the contraception that they have been so selflessly paying for (i.e. Using $300million taxpayer dollars)? Yes, that’s right Planned Parenthood stands to make ever larger profits if they can convince you and me to foot the bill for other peoples’ contraception. This stinks to the high heavens.
Great point, Maggie. Somehow the main stream media has not seen such information as fit to print. I wonder why.
Is anyone aware of Maslow’ pyramid of human needs?
Level 1, the Basics: Food, Clothing and Shelter.
Level 2, Safety: some protection from threats to one’s physical existence.
Level 3, Love, Friendship, the possibility of intimacy.
Levels 4 and higher include “nice to have” areas not strictly necessary for human existence.
The HHS Mandate has devised a new pyramid where the first level is “no-Deductible, no-coinsurance” BC to enable sexual behavior. And this takes priority over Food Clothing and Shelter!
Is there any rational explanation for this new pyramid?
TeaPot562
I’ve been a reader of the National Catholic Register for a good fifteen years or so. In that time, and for decades prior, you could have called it the Journal of the Demise of Western Civilization. We’ve been in a downward spiral for a long time, and I don’t see an ‘up’ button anywhere.
But one of the themes that has been consistent throughout has been the absence of action on the part of the bishops. There was the Vatican statement several years ago which seemed to indicate quite clearly that the “I’m personally opposed but won’t force my morals on anyone else” viewpoint was not acceptable in certain areas (contraception not being one of them), but when John Kerry, Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi and the majority of contracepting catholic women can continue presenting themselves for communion without fear of being corrected, it can leave the rest of the flock thinking that their practices are acceptable.
I have too much respect for Paul VI, John Paul II (who selected the vast majority of bishops who are active in the world today), and Benedict XVI to believe that they are (were) ignorant of what is going on, or afraid to address it, so I can only conclude that they ARE (were) aware, and determined to let the weeds grow up with the wheat. But then why won’t they say so? We repeat the refrain: “it’s the bishops’ fault”, and I know Tim won’t let us waterboard them, but isn’t there some way to get a straight answer? “Dear Bishops, Why do you continue to allow catholic public officials to flout catholic teaching in their capacities as public servants?” Get out the syrup, I can feel the waffles coming.
TeaPot - If you follow the administration’s philosophy on many issues (same-sex “marriage,” HHS mandate, abortion) to their logical conclusion, it seems that the rational explanation is the desire for less people. Reducing the number of people born reduces health care costs. Liberals view people as a problem, not as a solution.
Kathleen Sebelius herself said as much in a hearing before a House panel on March 2.
“The reduction in the number of pregnancies compensates for the cost of contraception,” Sebelius said.
Her questioner, Rep. Tim Murphy (R-PA), asked repeatedly. “So by not having babies born, we’re saving money?”
Sebelius would not answer the question. “Family planning is a critical health benefit in this country, according to the Institute of Medicine,” she said.
Eugenics is alive and well.
Here’s an article taking a look at the thinking: http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/03/sibelius_spills_the_beans.html
Maternal deaths related to pregnancy stand around 500,000 a year. Pregnancy kills, and far more often than the pill. Yet I hardly ever (never?) hear Catholics bring up this statistic.
“In reality, the Pill decreases women’s libido and desire for intimacy.”
And the rhythm method, which demands abstinence during the period of the woman’s strongest libido, doesn’t? Or how about simply the fear that she might get pregnant? The thought of something rending her loins open in ten months can be a turnoff.
Pope Paul VI ignored the advice of 68 out of 72 members of his own commission on the matter, members whose majority report puts forward a coherent, consistent, and reasonable defense of contraception within a Catholic marriage. The minority report, signed by only 4 members, is mainly concerned with saving face - that is, the fact that the Church would look like its changed its mind.
Heaven forbid the Church change its mind on something (Galileo? Usury? The wording of the Nicene Creed?)
Tim,
Excellent job pointing out that the entire contraceptive “health” concept is a lie.
Telling the truth on Symptom-Thermal Method NFP is exposing the lie; including the lie of those that still persist in calling NFP the rhythm method or natural contraception –which is not.
Scotty Ellis,
Those teachings you mentioned have all become better known -not changed. Contraception is a good example. We now have JP2’s Theology of the Body, something that we did not have in 1930 when the Pope condemned contraception. That is the Holy Spirit leading Us into All Truth. Jesus is Lord, the pope is His vicar on earth… this is kind of obvious with contraception. Don’t you think?
(Or do you know this already and are just trying to mislead others?)
Why doesn’t Obama just grant Catholic institutions a ‘waiver’ from Obamacare, as he did for the coal miners’ union and other group who had a beef with his socialist solution? Our President and his HHS henchmen are insidious liars. Oops, I’m on a Catholic site - Peace to all. Seriously, I will pray for the enemy, and we all know who he is.
David,
You wrote:
“Those teachings you mentioned have all become better known -not changed”
The problem is that this statement is incorrect. The Inquisition against Galileo explicitly stated that it was a matter of faith to believe that the earth was the immobile center of the universe. Clearly, this position has changed. Usury was once condemned; now, as the foundation of modern economics, it is rarely even treated by Church authorities.
My point is simply that Paul VI had every reason to allow the use of contraception within Catholic marriages, but declined due to the concern that he would have to say that previous Pontiffs were wrong.
Scotty Ellis,
First and foremost, the ‘something rending her loins open in ten months’ comment only proves what the article and the encyclical were stating. The language you use shows that apparently children are mere ‘somethings’ a commodity, or product that can be acquired or disposed of, at will. That is complete rubbish.
The minority report saving face? Hardly, it preserved sound Catholic Tradition that had been preached as early as St. Justin Martyr, St. Ireneaus of Lyon, and other early Church fathers. The fact that other Papal advisors would abandon the Holy Father, and Church, for shameful profit (popularity in the ‘Sexual Liberation’ movement) is nothing new, and just as shameful as it always has been. Surely you recall Judas Iscariot, the Apostle who betrayed our Lord? If Galileo is the only martyr you can think of, surely you have an incredibly weak argument. Nicholas Copernicus proposed the heliocentric theory long before Galileo was born. The Church put him under house arrest, for the manner of teaching he used. That is, implying that the Church was wrong, to believe in a God, who was not visible in the cosmos.
The Creed wasn’t changed, anymore than the rest of the Church was changed by Pius XII promulgating the Dogma of the Assumption. It was already a long held belief that Holy Church confirmed. The point that the ‘Filioque’ was not included by the previous Councils is a non-point. Next, shall we declare that because something was not included in the Council of Jerusalem, the Church must have ‘changed its mind’? The 15th and 16th centuries were an awful period, when many senior clerics were interested in temporal affairs, rather than spiritual ones. A period of Borgia, della Rovere, and two Medici popes did not help either. They never changed doctrine,including understanding usury as a sin. Your argument totally ignores historical fact, and amounts to little more than the angry pouting of a child.
One thing that has not been said in this excellent article is that the hormonal contraceptive also acts as an abortifacient.
It is generally believed that the pill, injection or IUD prevents a woman from becoming pregnant. But it may not. They all have one thing in common. If the woman ovulates and is impregnated in spite of the progesterone-like drug in the contraceptive, it is backed up by a second drug which induces an abortion by preventing implantation. An induced abortion is the sole purpose of the IUD. These are the reasons why knowledgeable people of good conscience cannot have any part in using or providing these things.
Because of the duplicity of the drug companies and the medical profession, millions of otherwise Christian and pro-life women are having silent abortions. It’s time that someone told them.
Israel A.R.
Many women are afraid of childbirth, because regardless of what terms you use the child really does injure the mother during the process. Maternal mortality is an issue even within the developed world. Pregnancy is a dangerous time for the mother. Birth control prevents this danger, and in that sense is a form of preventative health care.
68 of the 72 members of the Pontifical committee hardly seems like a small, traitorous group; rather, it sounds like the general consensus. I am wondering, have you actually read the reports? The majority report draws from Church tradition; it simply recognizes that the Church’s stance against artificial contraception is ultimately inconsistent with its permissive attitude towards NFP. The Majority report argues from both reason and tradition. The minority report presents the circular and specious argument that the Church has always been against contraception because it is evil, and we know contraception is evil since the Church has always ruled against it.
The Council of Nicea specifically condemned any creed other than the one it presents. It is not for no reason that the entire Eastern Church was infuriated by the inclusion of novel language and concepts within the Latin version; however the Roman Church wishes to minimize the difference, there clearly was (and is) major disagreement on the issue.
I am indifferent to the Galileo matter, except for the fact that the Inquisition explicitly stated that the faith of the Church was in an immobile earth at the center of the universe, a doctrine that has clearly not been upheld in modern Catholicism. You are correct that the Church allowed the presentation of alternate hypotheses; they were simply infuriated by Galileo’s insistence that the matter was less a hypothesis and more a fact.
When was the last time you heard the Pope condemn the banking industry on the grounds of usury? What was once a sin (that is, in its original sense, simply charging for the use of money) is now recognized as one of the most fundamental concepts of economics. Now the Vatican, so far from condemning usury, runs its own bank and actively participates in something the Church once condemned outright.
As my priest told me, “the development of doctrine is one of the most underdeveloped doctrines in the Church.” It is easy to proclaim on an internet forum that the Church has always believed such and such a doctrine; it is much harder to actually dig through the vastly complicated and chaotic history of the Church, in which doctrines were often decided at the point of the sword or under imperial mandate (such as the Arian controversy), and say with any simplicity that the Church always believed it. More often, it becomes simply a matter of ignoring anyone who disagreed with the current belief and only quoting those from the tradition who align with the current dogma; thank goodness people like Peter Abelard came along to stir the pot a little with books like Sic et Non!
Doesn’t anyone read history? Galileo was at odds with the Church for teaching theology, not for teaching science. The Church was very open to his scientific theories and discoveries. However, it was when he branched out into matters where he was unqualified—theology—that he ran into problems.
***
Maternal deaths at 500,000 per year? Please tell me where you get this statistic—is this in N. America alone or worldwide? Because I can tell you that a woman giving birth in China or Africa or Ecuador has a much greater chance of death than a woman in Europe or America. This only serves to highlight the disparity in access to good medical care; it is not a valid argument for pregnancy-related mortality. You should consider studying human physiology—if you did, you would see that pregnancy is what happens when everything works RIGHT in the body (as opposed to being a state of disease)!
Usury is still a sin; charging exorbinate amounts of interest was and is still a sin, and that was always the intent of the teaching. It has become understood that charging some interest is necessary for a healthy modern economy. But you know that don’t you ...
“As my priest told me, “the development of doctrine is one of the most underdeveloped doctrines in the Church.”
You have a priest?!
The will is a blind instrument; We need light for the mind for the will to choose.
John 14:26
But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.
I love Chesterton’s quote on the Church:
“All these things did indeed run their course to its normal end; and there ... will learn from their incessant and interminable disappointments not to look for anything so simple as its death.”
It is contraception that will fade. I know that must sound unbelievable, but it will happen.
Thank you for this article! One of the best explanations I have ever read, especially through the lens of Theology of the Body!! I have shared this article far and wide!
Working in a crisis pregnancy center, I see daily the disgusting effects of our contraception society, and none of it is good. This week alone, a 26 year old with her tubes permanently mutilated by Essure, 3rd girl pregnant on “The Shot”, another abortion minded 18 year old, pregnant on the patch…this list goes on!
i ask all of them “has any one ever told you, that you were created in the image and likeness of our Lord, and he loves you so much?” About 100% of the women fill with tears, and respond with a “NO”!..it is the window to share, God has a plan for them that includes their bodies! I have NEVER had a women not want to hear more, our world is starving for the truth.
Thank you again, prayers for our society, these times are so dark, but it is when it is darkest that the light shines the brightest!
Like I said in my previous post, we are at war and we have to acknowledge it. We can no longer count on media based so-called “truth.” To the person who posted the 500,000 deaths to pregnancy…really? Trust your heart that should be given over to Christ on this one. Stick to the Church’s official teaching: Knowingly and willfully using contraception/abortificiant drugs is a mortal sin…PERIOD.
I wouldn’t risk eternal damnation on a double-down wagger on this one.
Leave it to the LEFT to come up with ways to continue to divide people - a tool of the devil and the Culture of Death. In the 2008 “selection” (to borrow from one of the atheist’s pagan “gods”, Darwin), the Left used the issue of “race” to succeed in getting Obama. Many white people voted for him because of guilt - “white” guilt - for the atrocities that happened in the 1800s and pre-60s. And 98% of blacks voted for Obama BECAUSE he was black - a racially motivated vote for “reparation”. Most of us were not even around during that time and, therefore, NOT GUILTY of committing these atrocities. Just like many of us DID NOT committ atrocities to Native Americans, Jews in WWII, etc… Yet, the LEFT constantly plays on our “guilt” as a Nation and WE - those around WAY AFTER - are the ones who have to pay reparations and join in the chorus of the LEFT’s song, “Never again,” as we try to “heal” the damage as a nation. Same thing with the treatment of homosexuals, the environment, etc…
Now, here they are - again - trying to make us feel “guilty” for offenses done to women in the past that were “supposedly” erradicated by the “Women’s Rights” movements. And yet the irony is that in the name of “freedom” and in the name of “justice”, the LEFT has succeeded in achieving the polar opposites: slavery, inequality, promiscuity, murder (abortion), etc… And “the catch” - according to them? NO GUILT!!!! I “guess” we don’t need to go to confession because if you go along with the LEFT’s “acts of reparations”, your guilt “should” be relieved and “cleansed”. The State and its accomplices - the media and Hollywood - have also succeeding in further advancing greed, racism, inequlity, persecution, division, slavery, lust, etc… It just points to the finger of blame on Christians, therefore, leaving us to “feel guilty” about it. Just another way for the State to get rid of the Church’s sacraments - and priests.
Until we as a people - and as a nation - learn to go to Jesus for TRUE relief of guilt and for the appropriate formation of consciences, we are bound to succeed in creating a society where Good is seen as “evil” and Evil will be seen as “nornal and good and just.” The problem is: I think we’re already there!
why are so many yack yack yack here the solution is very simple
Some evils can only be cast out by prayer and fasting.Mark9:29 This
getting easier for me to put this on the post and I find that no one
is understanding this and I’m sure I will post this again. We are in a
spiritual war and sticking fingers at others will not do PRAYER &FAST;
Great point that PP will profit from more failed contraception. Who else might profit? Perhaps SGK as women’s cancer rates continue to increase and we MUST find a CURE so if we care we MUST DONATE more to SGK? How about a little PREVENTION like stop poisoning women with unnatural levels of hormones? SGK climbed into bed with PP long ago and, as such, their credibility is very much in question.
Laura Streitmann-I LOVE your post, (along with many of the others!) I also counsel at a prolife CPC, and the peace and love and Gospel message on offer by the women in that place is a precious gift, usually well-received by girls and women who find themselves there as clients. We minister to the women, and many clients have told us that our conversations are the first they’ve ever had wherein the thoughts and feelings and souls of the mothers-to-be are ever honored.
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I concur with your observations about contraception. It is ‘comprehensively’ promoted by many in our society, but if you are not in tune with your body, and have become enslaved to the idea of free and easy sex, indoctrinated and inculcated at a young age, you will find yourself pregnant and alone at some point, despite the pills, shots and patches that are ‘pushed’.
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I keep reading about fasting and prayer as an antidote to our dying culture. I’ll have to muster the courage to try it…
What is the Church’s position on Medicaid funding for contraception that’s been going on for years? Why has that been seemingly ok and now Obamacare funding is not? Confused.
Can’t afford another child. At age 49 - I don’t want anymore. Neither does my husband - who are you to tell me what I should or should not do?
Not sure who you are directing your comments to, but if you’re Catholic, then you agree to follow the teachings of the Catholic Church if you truly are Catholic. If you’re just referring to a non-Catholic’s “right” to contraception, that’s not the issue. Many are blowing the Catholic Church’s opposition way out of proportion. Just like you say that you can’t afford another child, we are simply saying that we can’t afford your contraception, nor do we want to be forced to buy it against our religious beliefs whic I hope you equally respect.
“Just like you say that you can’t afford another child, we are simply saying that we can’t afford your contraception, nor do we want to be forced to buy it against our religious beliefs whic I hope you equally respect.”
First, you are not forced to buy contraception for others. They will pay for it, and if you work at a religious institution they will pay for it directly for themselves. Secondly, that argument, inasmuch as it has validity in that premiums for everyone will go up slightly, can be flipped on its head: maybe others don’t want to pay for your much much more expensive choice to not use contraception and instead have a child; but they do. Thirdly, if the Church had its way some women working at religious employers would lose their access to contraception (and other women’s health care) coverage.
Scotty Ellis - Not true my friend. As an employer in a pro-life organization with a contractual restriction against contraception, we would be forced to pay insurance premiums for employees that would cover contraception. As a Deacon in the Catholic Church, I am well aware that our Catholic hospitals, schools and other entities that have employees will have to likewise pay insurance premiums for employees to cover contraception, abortion services, and sterilization procedures, all of which are contrary to the teachings of our faith. That all qualifies as “buying contraception for others” in my book. If they want to take the money they earned from their employment and purchase contraception on their own, that is their right. It is not health care. And don’t try to bring up the worn out argument that “contraception can be required for many other medical purposes other than preventing conception.” Health insurance covers that right now so long as their is a doctor’s order for those purposes.
I am not a Catholic but I sincerely respect and agree with the church’s stand on the Obamacare “Healthcare Law”. I am pro-life at one point in my life I took the day after pill. It was a horrific experience! Not only did I take the pill which causes a woman to become violently ill and then another pill has to be taken to counter those effects. I carried that secret for decades and finally knew that even though I had confessed to that sin, I realized it is part my life and my testimony. I can now speak candidly to young women about the REAL consequences of that foolish decision. Then, in 2006, my 94-year-old mother had a stroke, my siblings demanded that she be sent to Hospice to be starved and drugged til she died 49 days later. I did everything I could to save her, but my siblings and Hospice would not allow me to get outside medical opinions and appropriate therapy and nutrition. Now, I am called to fight for the lives of the elderly—so others will not be starved and abused the way my mother was. Actually, my siblings expedited her death so they could sell the family farms and get the money to enjoy the windfall! My siblings are not poor and have very comfortable lives—they just plain wanted MORE! It goes hand-in-hand with the fight against abortion! We must never give up!
Contraception is the costliest plague, in both blood and treasure ever visited upon mankind, the loudest expression of “NON SERVIAM” ever flung in the face of God.
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