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LIFE LINES 4. OF HUMAN LIFE
A few days ago, we celebrated our youngest daughter’s 5th birthday. That joyful day also coincided with the 40th anniversary of a papal encyclical—and it’s actually because we were challenged by the truth in that particular encyclical that she, our sixth child, was even conceived!
“Of Human Life,” given July 25, 1968, was destined to become a true sign of contradiction within Catholicism and indeed all of Christianity. Its publication marked a turning point in our Church’s history, when many theologians, bishops, priests, sisters, and laity decided they were justified in becoming Cafeteria Catholics—free to pick and choose from a supposed “buffet line” of optional Church doctrines. Evidently, they concluded that the Pope and the Magisterium were no longer certain guides to The Truth--that they themselves knew better.
Forty years ago, Pope Paul VI was prophetic as he warned of a rapid downward spiral of moral standards, of increased adultery and fornication, of men increasingly treating women as sex objects, of governments forcing their citizens to be sterilized and to abort their children...This is no longer prophecy—it is the painful reality for much of our 21st century world. So what was it that Pope Paul VI said would lead to all of these problems? Are you ready? It was “ignoring the Church’s constant and unchanging teaching against...... contraception.” WAIT!!! Don’t stop reading yet!! We KNOW that many of you will have an automatic negative reaction, thinking perhaps in disgust, “I KNEW IT! It’s that stupid birth control issue again! How can the Church STILL keep saying artificial contraception is wrong?! What is this-- the Stone Age?!” But if you’re really honest with yourself, do you actually know why the Catholic Church teaches that artificial birth control is a sin? Please keep reading for a few minutes—try to keep an open mind—and let us share with you some excerpts from a 1998 pastoral letter by Archbishop Charles Chaput (of Denver) on the subject of Humanae Vitae, because he has done a great job of describing things more clearly (and certainly with more authority!) than we could:
“Dear brothers and sisters in the Lord,
1. Thirty <forty> years ago this week, Pope Paul VI issued his encyclical letter Humanae Vitae (Of Human Life), which reaffirmed the Church's constant teaching on the regulation of births. It is certainly the most misunderstood papal intervention of this century. It was the spark which led to three <four> decades of doubt and dissent among many Catholics, especially in the developed countries. With the passage of time, however, it has also proven prophetic. It teaches the truth. My purpose in this pastoral letter, therefore, is simple. I believe the message of Humanae Vitae is not a burden but a joy. I believe this encyclical offers a key to deeper, richer marriages...
11... The Catholic attitude toward sexuality is anything but puritanical, repressive or anti-carnal. God created the world and fashioned the human person in His own image. Therefore the body is good. In fact, it's often been a source of great humor for me to listen incognito as people simultaneously complain about the alleged "bottled-up sexuality" of Catholic moral doctrine, and the size of many good Catholic families. (From where, one might ask, do they think the babies come?) Catholic marriage -- exactly like Jesus Himself -- is not about scarcity but abundance. It's not about sterility, but rather the fruitfulness which flows from unitive, procreative love. Catholic married love always implies the possibility of new life; and because it does, it drives out loneliness and affirms the future. And because it affirms the future, it becomes a furnace of hope in a world prone to despair. In effect, Catholic marriage is attractive because it is true. It's designed for the creatures we are: persons meant for communion. Spouses complete each other. When God joins a woman and man together in marriage, they create with Him a new wholeness; a "belonging" which is so real, so concrete, that a new life, a child, is its natural expression and seal. This is what the Church means when she teaches that Catholic married love is by its nature both unitive and procreative – not either/or.
12. But why can't a married couple simply choose the unitive aspect of marriage and temporarily block or even permanently prevent its procreative nature? The answer is as simple and radical as the Gospel itself. When spouses give themselves honestly and entirely to each other, as the nature of married love implies and even demands, that must include their whole selves -- and the most intimate, powerful part of each person is his or her fertility. Contraception not only denies this fertility and attacks procreation; in doing so, it necessarily damages unity as well. It is the equivalent of spouses saying: "I'll give you all I am -- except my fertility; I'll accept all you are -- except your fertility." This withholding of self inevitably works to isolate and divide the spouses, and unravel the holy friendship between them . . . maybe not immediately and overtly, but deeply, and in the long run often fatally for the marriage.
13. This is why the Church is not against "artificial" contraception. She is against all contraception. The notion of "artificial" has nothing to do with the issue. In fact, it tends to confuse discussion by implying that the debate is about a mechanical intrusion into the body's organic system. It is not. The Church has no problem with science appropriately intervening to heal or enhance bodily health. Rather, the Church teaches that all contraception is morally wrong; and not only wrong, but seriously wrong. The covenant which husband and wife enter at marriage requires that all intercourse remain open to the transmission of new life. This is what becoming "one flesh" implies: complete self-giving, without reservation or exception, just as Christ withheld nothing of Himself from His bride, the Church, by dying for her on the cross. Any intentional interference with the procreative nature of intercourse necessarily involves spouses' withholding themselves from each other and from God, who is their partner in sacramental love. In effect, they steal something infinitely precious -- themselves -- from each other and from their Creator.
14. And this is why natural family planning (NFP) differs not merely in style but in moral substance from contraception as a means of regulating family size. NFP is not contraception. Rather, it is a method of fertility awareness and appreciation. It is an entirely different approach to regulating birth. NFP does nothing to attack fertility, withhold the gift of oneself from one's spouse, or block the procreative nature of intercourse. The marriage covenant requires that each act of intercourse be fully an act of self-giving, and therefore open to the possibility of new life. But when, for good reasons, a husband and wife limit their intercourse to the wife's natural periods of infertility during a month, they are simply observing a cycle which God Himself created in the woman. They are not subverting it. And so they are living within the law of God's love.” (emphases added)
In a follow-up column in the Denver diocesan newspaper, Archbishop Chaput said,
“God created our sexuality to be a sign in the world of His own life and love, and to reveal to us that we can only fulfill ourselves by loving as He loves. When sexuality becomes distorted, however, it’s no longer able to communicate God’s life and love. Empty of true love, life lacks meaning, and people soon seem disposable. Sex becomes a pursuit of selfish gratification at the expense of others. Children are no longer welcomed as the natural fruit of married love, but are seen as a burden to be avoided. We don’t even shrink from killing (through abortion) thousands of innocent preborn lives a day in satisfying our convenience and appetites.
“It’s no exaggeration, then, to say that disordered sexuality is the beginning of what Pope John Paul II calls ‘the culture of death.’ In fact, we’ll never build a culture of life and love without first restoring the true meaning of human sexuality. If the Church is so concerned about sex, it’s because she seeks to defend the dignity of the human person, and to safeguard the true meaning of life and love which sexuality is meant to reveal.
“…The church won’t be renewed without a renewal of family life. And the family can’t be renewed without a return to the truths taught in Humanae Vitae.”
We invite you to read Humanae Vitae (as well as the Archbishop’s whole letter and his follow-up answers) on the website of the Denver Archdiocese:
http://www.archden.org/archbishop/docs/of_human_life.htm
Let’s make Archbishop Chaput’s prayer our own: “May the Lord grant us the wisdom to recognize the great treasure which resides in our teaching about married love and human sexuality, the faith, joy and perseverance to live it in our own families – and the courage which Paul VI possessed to preach it anew.”
--Mike and April Frigge
Discussion Question: Am I afraid to trust God with my fertility?
