Contraception: At Odds with Truth

It is clear that the use of contraceptives, which is an 'intrinsically evil' act, has led to many other evils.

GLADE PARK, Colorado (Catholic Online) - Our Holy Father has asked us to imitate St. Anselm. This magnificent saint, at the end of chapter one of the Proslogion, wrote: "I long to understand in some degree Thy truth, which my heart believes and loves. For I do not seek to understand that I may believe, but I believe in order to understand. For this I also believe, that unless I believed, I should not understand."

St. Anselm was speaking of the fact that faith is not opposed to reason, and that faith seeks understanding. Faith is a gift freely given by God to those who seek it, yet it is a gift given to the human person who God created in his likeness and image; a human person endowed with the capacity to reason. Therefore both faith and reason are an integral part of being fully human.

It is key, though, to note St. Anselm's words: ". . . unless I believed, I should not understand." It is key because those words provide a powerful insight into combating the many troubling errors of our present society. We'll return and dwell on those revealing words later . . .

But first, let us explore one of those errors so widespread in our society: the use of contraceptives. The Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us: "'every action which, whether in anticipation of the conjugal act, or its accomplishment, or in the development of its natural consequences, proposes, whether as an end or as a means, to render procreation impossible' is intrinsically evil" (cf. CCC 2370; HV 14).

It is clear that the use of contraceptives, which is an "intrinsically evil" act, has led to many other evils. Once men and women entrap themselves in the sin of attempting to render procreation impossible, it follows that they ought to enjoy the pleasures of sex outside marriage. From there, a snowball effect occurs: promiscuity and divorce increase; disordered ideologies embracing population control become common; and, on the extreme end of the resultant effects of artificial contraception, we find the unspeakable evil of abortion.

Simply, if one gets to thinking they are themselves the god of procreation, it is only a slight step to falsely reason that one can act as a god whose power includes ruling against the sanctity of life.

Further, the contraceptive mentality, that is, the disordered view of the conjugal act, leads to other errors in the area of human sexuality, such as coming to the dark conclusion that medical men ought wield power over procreation by manipulating embryos, implanting them, sifting them, freezing them, and experimenting on them. In the wake of all this, damage occurs, such as with the Savage's:

On the Today Show, Sean and Carolyn Savage related their story of in vitro fertilization gone awry. According to the Savage's, they had been having trouble conceiving their fourth child, and so resorted to IVF. Yet during the procedure a mixup occurred, and Carolyn was later told that the fertility clinic had implanted the wrong embryo in her womb.

Now, in return to contraception, there is an inseparable connection between our actions and God, for we are accountable before God for what we do, for how we live. Too, there is an inseparable connection between the marital act and procreation:

"That teaching, often set forth by the magisterium, is founded upon the inseparable connection, willed by God and unable to be broken by man on his own initiative, between the two meanings of the conjugal act: the unitive meaning and the procreative meaning" (HV, 12).

To separate the procreative meaning from the conjugal act is analogous to separating bodily nourishment from eating. Suppose someone were to work a bypass between the back of their throat and stomach, in order that they could relish in the consumption of any and every food at will, enjoying the pleasures of eating without constraint. Certainly such a person's lust for food has reached the point of insanity. Yet the doctrine of secular wisdom is one that teaches precisely such a type of insanity.

Luke Gormally points out that "Conventional secular wisdom, according to which you can do what you like with your sexual capacities, providing you do not harm non-consenting parties to the activity, is completely at a loss in face of what is specific to sexual disorder - the vice of lust in its multiple manifestations." (http://www.linacre.org/contra.html).

Is abortion a manifestation of lust gone awry? One could say so, in a manner of speaking. There is no arguing against the fact that the use of contraceptives breeds lust and seriously damages man and the society we live in. It denies the Father's charge to go forth and multiply; it rejects our call to raise up children, teach them the Faith, and thus populate heaven.

"Nonetheless the Church, calling men back to the observance of the norms of the natural law, as interpreted by their constant doctrine, teaches that each and every marriage act (quilibet matrimonii usus) must remain open to the transmission of life" (HV, 11).

Now let us return to St. Anselm's statement: "unless I believed, I should not understand."

What we find in our society is vast numbers of Christians who fail to believe the Catholic Church is indeed the Bride of Christ. They do not believe; therefore, they do not understand that she is a divinely founded institution, a nurturing mother whose purpose is to guide souls to heaven. In unbelief their eyes are closed to the treasure of our holy mother Church.

Failure to believe results in failure to achieve all that God wills we ought. Let us not forget that each man is repaid for all that he has done. Life is not a mere process of existing in a haphazard, lackadaisical manner, drifting along, free to believe what we wish and live as we desire without consequence. Our Lord Jesus Christ himself told us so:

"Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few" (Matthew 7:13 -14).

If more Christians truly believed in what the Catholic Church is, it would follow, then, that they would truly believe in the fullness of Christian truth in regards faith and morals. Therefore they would lead purer, holier lives in union with Christ.

That, indeed, is what we are called to do. A great deal of the errors in the world will decrease as the community of the Church increases. As obedience to Christ's Bride increases, immorality will begin to dwindle; heaven on earth will draw nearer. St. Anselm would agree.

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F. K. Bartels is a Catholic freelance writer who operates www.catholicpathways.com, and may be reached via email at bartels@catholicpathways.com. He is a new contributing writer for Catholic Online.

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