Is the Church quietly allowing birth control now?

[Susan_Miller]

HI
I have five children, the other day when in a discussion with six friends, the subject of birth control came up - to my suprise all of the people there except me use artificial birth control (all Catholic) one of them even said that the Church really does not talk about it anymore and its up to the individual. I always thought it was considered by the Church to be evil - have I missed something??

 

[Fr.Vincent_Serpa]

Dear Susan,

You have not missed something. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states: “…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.” #2370

Or to put it in the words of Christopher West in “Good News About Sex and Marriage” (available through catholic.com or by phone: 888 291 8000), “sex is only sex to the extent that it particpates in the ‘I do’ of wedding vows…We can rant and rave and resist all we like, but an integral part of that ‘I do’ is OPENNESS TO CHILDREN.”

Fr. Vincent Serpa, O.P.