Last night at Pure in Heart, Conal gave a very informative talk on Humanae Vitae, the added benefit being that we no longer have to pretend to know what it is.
For those who have not thus far been so fortunate, Humanae Vitae is the 1968 encyclical on artificial contraception – always a hot-button topic, and often a tough one to explain. We explored the reasons why the Catholic teaching is what it is, but also the social turbulence unfolding at the time of this encyclical’s release. In the midst of the Vietnam war, the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., and many other distressing global events, the Church’s refusal to approve the use of artificial birth control sent another shockwave around the world. A lot of Catholics saw this teaching as a “dealbreaker”; they were no longer willing to submit to the Church’s authority if this is what it would require. To this day, many cite this teaching as the reason they don’t fully practice their faith.
We looked at the reasons why the Church teaches that contraception is harmful to relationships and to general social morality. In a nutshell, God put sex and procreation together. When we separate them, each one on its own goes haywire. When sex is no longer tempered by the responsibility of potential parenthood, it is engaged in more recklessly, resulting in a higher number of unplanned pregnancies, abortions, and STDs. Procreation, removed from an intimate, loving spousal relationship, becomes a science experiment, and human life is literally brought forth in test tubes. Instead of having two natural parents, it’s now possible for a child to have two biological contributors, a surrogate carrier, and one or two adoptive parents. Conal highlighted a case like this, where a couple “commissioned” a baby conceived and carried by three other people, and before it was born, the man changed his mind and decided he didn’t want to be responsible for the baby. The case had to be taken to court, where a judge ruled that the two adoptive parents were responsible for the baby.
The last part of the talk brought good news that there is a better way forward – through the wholesomeness of Natural Family Planning – a way for the married couple to space out the birth of children when necessary, while still giving themselves completely to each other, and leaving room for God’s will to be done. Though mocked by critics as “Vatican roulette”, NFP allows the couple to grow in holiness and in love for each other by living their sexual relationship according to God’s design, co-ordinating marital intimacy with the woman’s biological rhythm. To sum it up in the wise words of G.K. Chesterton, “Normal and real birth control is called self control”.
