THE EMERGENCE OF CONTRACEPTION AND THE TEACHING OF THE CHURCH –continued. (Sr. Kelechi)
Elements of contraception were present among nations even before the birth of Christianity but were used for less than noble reasons and generally not considered as values.
In the Church, contraception was always forbidden. Our great Fathers including St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas consistently maintained this teaching. It remained that way among all Christian denominations and other religious groups for a very long time until the late 19th to early 20th century, culminating in the 1930 Lambeth conference when the Anglican Communion reneged its long-held teaching on contraception, and approved the use of the pills for married couples. This approval of contraception by the Anglican Church marked the beginning of a major shift in the history of contraception fueled by the American-led sexual revolution now affecting even the remotest corner of our country – fornication/adultery, sexual abuse of children, different kinds of sexual experimenting among children, young people and even supposed adults, pornography, masturbation etc. This singular act has today grown into a complexity of evils not only in marriage but also within the family, the cell unit of Society. All kinds of contraception is being promoted in the general population including teenagers and even primary school children with all its negative impact on individuals as well as the Society!
Pope Pius XI responded to the Lambeth Conference decision by issuing his encyclical Casti Connubii [On Christian marriage] in 1931 maintaining the teaching of the Church on marriage and procreation and condemning contraception as morally evil because it is contrary to God’s design for love, life and human dignity. He proposed as legitimate the use of natural family planning for married couples. This was the first papal encyclical specifically to address the issue of birth regulation in the Church though Leo XIII obliquely addressed it Rerum Novarum, 1891. The Church has consistently continued to teach and encourage her faithful to respect God’s design in the area of marriage and generation of life, love and sexuality.
But why does the consider contraception as intrinsically evil?
“…And God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it…” [Gen 1:28].
The universe, immense and diverse as it is, the world of all living beings, is inscribed in God\’s fatherhood, which is its source (cf. Eph. 3:14-16). Married love shares in the characteristics of God’s love that is; total self-giving, uniting, and procreative. It is embedded in Responsible Parenthood. “Therefore, married couples are not free to act as they choose in the service of transmitting life, as if it were wholly up to them to decide what is the right course to follow”. On the contrary, they are bound to ensure that what they do corresponds to the will of God the Creator. The very nature of marriage and its use makes His will clear, while the constant teaching of the Church spells it out. (On Human Love by Pope Paul VI, no 10). We shall continue to explore the reasons for the stance of the Church on Contraception next week. Meanwhile, I pray that the year 2020 continues to unfold filled with abundant blessings for you and all your family!