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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]
Pope Paul VI was prophetic
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.
Nothing could be farther from the truth.
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."
Pope John Paul II
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 Chaput
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.
Pope Paul VI was indeed a prophet.
More perspectives on contraception
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 20th 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]
[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.
********
Says
Church will only grow when full teaching on life taught; "Tactical silence", as
practiced by many bishops, would stifle growthLifeSiteNews.com reported on October 11, 2007:
A new book called 'God and Caesar" by Cardinal George Pell, the Archbishop of Sydney is to be published this week. The book deals with a widespread 'heresy' among Catholics which permits approval of contraception and even abortion by way of "primacy of conscience".
Borrowing from Oxford Professor Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, Pell calls it the "Donald Duck heresy" referring to the Disney character who "knows it all", and "has an unshakeable conviction of self-righteousness." The self-indulgent duck, explains Pell is well-meaning but "his activity is often disastrous for himself and others."
So too with Catholics who practice and indeed promote a disordered vision of human sexuality, with contraception, abortion and even embryo-destructive research suggests Pell. With claims to "primacy of conscience" they falsely believe themselves in the right, while they thus distort the image of God which the Creator intended to convey in the fruitful sexual union of husband and wife.
"Too many 'Donald Ducks' produce a 'feel good' society, which works to remove personal guilt, anything that would make people feel uncomfortable, and complacent self-satisfaction becomes a virtue," writes Pell. "Confession of sins is replaced with therapy, and self-reproach with self-discovery."
The Cardinal notes that the false opinion on the primacy of conscience was a main target of Pope John Paul II's 1993 encyclical Veritatis Splendor. "Only truth, or the Word of God has primacy, and is the ultimate rule of action. The individual conscience is a proximate norm-necessary, but not sufficient. Even a genuine searcher for truth can be mistaken, sometimes with disastrous consequences."
The book is a compilation of essays the Cardinal has penned over the years. One essay which was delivered as a talk to the Linicare Conference in the UK in 2000, under the title "The Role of the Bishop in Promoting the Gospel of Life". In that talk, the Cardinal warned that the Catholic Church would not grow unless the full teaching of the Church on life matters was expounded. "Tactical silence", as practiced by many bishops, would stifle growth he suggested.
"Church growth will only follow the faithful living and effective presentation of the fullness of Catholic teaching on life, he said. "No growth will follow from dilution or deformation of the teaching on life, nor from tactful silence."
"There is very little understanding in the public mind - even within the Catholic community - of the connection between 'the Pill' as the trigger of a contraceptive mentality, and the evil consequences for society of this contraceptive and irresponsible mentality," he said. "So a major task for the Church is to encourage people more and more to see the wisdom, human and divine, of this particular teaching."
"People often do not like being told what is right or wrong and what to do by authority figures - clerical or otherwise. When Church leaders - clerical or lay - lapse into silence or are unable to argue convincingly for moral principles, even pro-life supporters - who are pro-family and opposed to abortion and "euthanasia"- can be tempted to see their position as an individual one, which they would not want to force onto others, especially by public legislation. This is no basis for action in support of the Gospel of Life."
See previous LifeSiteNews.com reports on Cardinal Pell:
Australian Cardinal Pell Asks School Principals to Sign Oath of Fidelity to Church's Life and Family Teachings
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/jun/07060406.html
Cardinal George Pell May Withhold Communion From New South Wales Premier Over Cloning
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/jun/07060511.html
Cardinal Pell on Sexual Abuse Scandal: "Obviously Connected with Problem of Homosexuality"
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/may/06051811.html
Cardinal Pell on "Diabolical" Porn, a Great New Generation of Priests, and Entering Politics
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/may/06052301.html
Australia's Cardinal Pell Repents of Failing to Sufficiently Stress Moral Teaching
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2004/mar/04030303.html
Cardinal Pell: Read the Koran - Stakes are Too High to Misunderstand Islam
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/may/06050803.html
NSW Parliament Threatens Cardinal Pell, Places Him Under Investigation for "Meddling" in Politics
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/jun/07061809.html
Catholic Youth Face Dangerous Religious Confusion, Warns Australian Cardinal Pell
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/sep/06092905.html
Australian Cardinal Pell Calls For "whole new form" of Democracy
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2004/nov/04111606.html
Australia's Cardinal Pell Seeks Ban on Embryo Research
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/feb/05021111.html
Cardinal Pell Defends Right of Catholic Schools to Discriminate
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2004/may/04051808.html
Sydney's Cardinal Pell Bans Anti-Catholic Group from Church Property
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2004/sep/04091603.html
National Australian Newspaper Praises Cardinal for Standing Firm on Embryonic Stem Cell Research
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/jun/07061204.html
"We warned you over and over again, through years of visitations upon earth--My Mother going to and fro to warn you, that those who have given themselves over to debasement, by the practice of homosexuality, birth control, abortion and all other aberrations that bring sorrow to My Mother's heart--this must be stopped now. There shall be no excuse accepted in Heaven by the saints, nor by My Mother and I, or the Eternal Father and the Holy Ghost, for what you are doing upon earth now." - Jesus, June 6, 1987
“Permissiveness shall not be accepted by your God. Sin is sin; there is no compromise for sin. Mortal sin is a grievous offense to the Eternal Father. The Commandments shall be followed without permissiveness.” – Jesus, November 21, 1977
|
Vatican: “The Church has always taught the intrinsic evil of contraception” |
"The
Church has always taught the intrinsic evil of contraception, that is, of every
marital act intentionally rendered unfruitful. This teaching is to be held as
definitive and irreformable."
- "Vademecum for Confessors: Concerning Some Aspects of the Morality of Conjugal Life," #4, Vatican Pontifical Council for the Family, March 1, 1997.
"From the ethical standpoint the same absolute unlawfulness of abortifacient procedures also applies to distributing, prescribing and taking the morning-after pill. All who, whether sharing the intention or not, directly co-operate with this procedure, are also morally responsible for it."
- “Statement on the So-Called Morning After Pill,” Vatican Pontifical Council for Life, October 31, 2000.
"It is not possible to
anesthetize the conscience, for example, when it comes to molecules whose aim is
to stop an embryo implanting or to cut short someone's life... I invite your
federation [of pharmacists] to consider conscientious objection which is a right
that must be recognized for your profession so you can avoid collaborating,
directly or indirectly, in the supply of products which have clearly immoral
aims, for example abortion or euthanasia..."
- Pope Benedict XVI, address to Catholic Pharmacists, October 29, 2007
On
June 5, 1987, Pope John Paul II warned clergy and theologians of their grave
obligation to faithfully transmit the Church’s teaching on contraception: “A
grave responsibility derives from this: those who place themselves in open
conflict with the law of God, authentically taught by the Church, guide spouses
along a false path. The Church’s teaching on contraception does not belong to
the category of matter open to free discussion among theologians. Teaching the
contrary amounts to leading the moral consciences of spouses into error.”
- "The Church's teaching on contraception is not a matter for free discussion among theologians," L'Osservatore Romano, July 6, 1987, p. 12.
On September 17, 1983, Pope John Paul II told priests in Rome 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 is lawful not to recognize God as God.”
- quotation from “The Papal Talk of 17 Sept.,” The [Hartford] Catholic Transcript, David Q. Liptak, January 20, 1984.
"In fact, just as man does
not have unlimited dominion over his body in general, so also, with particular
reason, he has no such dominion over his generative faculties as such, because
of their intrinsic ordination towards raising up life, of which God is the
principle. 'Human life is sacred,' Pope John XXIII recalled; 'from its very
inception it reveals the creating hand of God.'
"In conformity with these landmarks in the human and Christian vision of
marriage, we must once again declare that the direct interruption of the
generative process already begun, and, above all, directly willed and procured
abortion, even if for therapeutic reasons, are to be absolutely excluded as
licit means of regulating birth.
"Equally to be excluded, as the teaching authority of the Church has
frequently declared, is direct sterilization, whether perpetual or temporary,
whether of the man or of the woman. Similarly excluded is every action which,
either in anticipation of the conjugal act, or in its accomplishment, or in the
development of its natural consequences, proposes, whether as an end or as a
means, to render procreation impossible."
- Pope Paul VI, encyclical Humanae Vitae, July 25, 1968 (#13-14).
Asked
what he would do if pushed on the issue by the state, Bishop Sheridan indicated
that he would likely rather have the Church pull out of hospitals than
compromise the faith. "If I personally were being pushed on this and had to
make the decision by myself, I'd have to question whether or not we could
continue that particular ministry if the state were going to force us to act
contrary to Catholic teaching, to the Catholic conscience," he told
LifeSiteNews.com.
Bishop Sheridan concluded, "How could you continue to call yourself Catholic if you were doing things that were contrary to Catholic teaching even if you were being forced by the state to do them?"
- “Colorado Springs Bishop Says He Does Not and Would Not Permit Plan B in Catholic Hospitals”, LifeSiteNews.com, October 10, 2007.
The
truth is that there is absolutely no doubt about how the Plan B pills work. Just
ask the manufacturer, Barr Pharmaceuticals, whose product insert states: "This
product works mainly by preventing ovulation (egg release). It may also
prevent fertilization of a released egg (joining of sperm and egg) or
attachment of a fertilized egg to the uterus (implantation)." (My
italics.) It's that third item that makes Plan B an abortion-causing drug. The
same can be said for every chemical contraceptive.
- Human Life International
President: "Plan A: Keep 'Plan B' out of Catholic hospitals", LifeSiteNews.com,
October 5, 2007.
“The Vatican did not need to invent any new teaching on the Plan B pills because these pills fall into the category of abortifacient contraception, pure and simple. The consistent teaching of our Church on abortion applies here.”
- Fr. Thomas J. Euteneuer, quotation from “A ‘seriously flawed’ decision in Connecticut,” The [Los Angeles] Tidings, October 19, 2007.
"Abortion and euthanasia are thus crimes which no human law can claim to legitimize. There is no obligation in conscience to obey such laws; instead there is a grave and clear obligation to oppose them by conscientious objection."
- Pope John Paul II, encyclical The Gospel of Life, #73, March 25, 1995.
"The
[abortion] excommunication affects all those who commit this crime with
knowledge of the penalty attached, and thus includes those accomplices without
which the crime would not have been committed."
Directives from Heaven
D23 - Abortion
D164 - Heresy
D196 - Life Begins at Conception
Links
Contraception:
Contraception: Fatal to the Faith and to Eternal Life, John A. Hardon, S.J.
Is Contraception Gravely Sinful Matter? by Fr Lino Ciccone CM (from L'Osservatore Romano, 4 December 1996)
Faithfulness to the Divine Plan in the Transmission of Life Pope John Paul II's General Audience (8 August 1984)
Humanae Vitae Pope Paul VI - Encyclical - On the Regulation of Births (25 July 1968)
Contraception Versus Abortion: A Comparison and Some Implications, By Msgr. Vincent Foy, PhD.
Contraception and Catholic Teaching, Donald DeMarco, Ph.D.
God and the Pill, Terence J. Hughes
Abortifacients, Charles M. Mangan
Videos online:
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 Deception
of the CenturyWatch here... |
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 Jacinta's
Third Secret vision: She saw Pope Paul VIWatch here... |
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