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BibleReader
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This post is going to upset some people.
When I was at St. Joseph’s University in the 1970s, among other things I studied the abortion phenomenon, in the wake of Roe v. Wade.
Even back then, I was struck by the fact that abortion boomed as use of contraceptions in the culture boomed, after The Pill popularized contraceptive thinking. The standard answer of Pro-Choicers to Catholic Pro-Lifers has always been, “Well, if you are against abortion, why does your Church oppose use of contraceptives? YOU HYPOCRITES!” But I wondered, Is it possible that the Pro-Choicers have it backwards – that abortion is following use of contraceptives? That as contraceptive use boomed, (a) abortion became the “contraceptive” of choice when contraception fails and a pregnancy occurs, anyway; and (b) widespread contraceptive use generates a Society-wide ethos to the effect that one is entitled to “risk-free nookie,” and it is this contraception-driven misconception which impels folks, whether or not they actually use contraceptives, to seek an abortion when an inconvenient little one appears in the “oven.”
In other words, the root of the abortion movement IS widespread use of contraception.
A book by Germain Grisez, Abortion: The Myths, the Realities, and the Arguments, discusses work of sociologists which does, indeed, confirm that abortion booms AS use of contraceptives becomes widespread. I.e., socially, contraception causes abortion; it doesn’t stop it.
About a month ago, I heard a discussion on public radio of a more modern study which seemed to confirm the same thing.
Now, let us assume that this is true – that contraceptive use leads to abortions. I believe that it is true.
Let us now look at our Church.
Though almost every Diocese sponsors Pro-Life activities, and many Dioceses require parish budgets to have a Pro-Life actvity component, almost no Diocese or parish – in the world? – sponsors anti-contraception activities.
Our Diocese did it once. The bishop issued a memo instructing every priest to give a homily against contraceptive use on a particular Sunday. That Sunday came to be nicknamed “Contraception Sunday” in our Diocese. The Chancellor of the Diocese, who is my friend, told me that about one-third of the priests simply disobeyed. In the case of those who obeyed, hundreds of people walked out of Mass during the homily, and thousands wrote in nasty letters to the Diocese.
After that, Contraception Sunday never happened again.
In one parish not my own, one day I asked the girl in the confession line in front of me asked why Monsignor So-and-so had such long lines at his confessional. The girl smiled and said, “Oh, you can confess contraceptive use to him a hundred times, and he just doesn’t care! He’s fine with it!” Later, I asked Monsignor So-and-so if this was true. He said, “It’s not even a sin if you’re over forty-five! And it’s not in the Bible!” I.e., *Humanae Vitae *is wrong, he was hinting.
I told him that it is in the Bible, at four places, where contraceptive use in Greco-Roman society in the Early Church was being condemned.
I suspect that Parish after Parish, Diocese after Diocese, is quiet about contraception, and let’s Rome be the “heavy,” the “sourpuss,” on that question.
A federal study done in the 1990s alleges that 73.5% of the regular churchgoers in the Catholic Church who are sexually active regularly use contraception.
Bottom line: If, indeed, widespread contraception use, including among Catholics, drives Society’s “contraceptive ethos” – “Hey, man, I’m entitled to risk-free nookie” – then Pro-Life efforts are like standing in front of a moving truck without asking someone to simply turn off the motor.
They are completely wasted effort, and window dressing, to enable the Church to feel good about itself, while it quietly tolerates contraception use by many who come up to the front of the Church for the Eucharist, in order to avoid massive defections from the Catholic Church.
What a mess!
When I was at St. Joseph’s University in the 1970s, among other things I studied the abortion phenomenon, in the wake of Roe v. Wade.
Even back then, I was struck by the fact that abortion boomed as use of contraceptions in the culture boomed, after The Pill popularized contraceptive thinking. The standard answer of Pro-Choicers to Catholic Pro-Lifers has always been, “Well, if you are against abortion, why does your Church oppose use of contraceptives? YOU HYPOCRITES!” But I wondered, Is it possible that the Pro-Choicers have it backwards – that abortion is following use of contraceptives? That as contraceptive use boomed, (a) abortion became the “contraceptive” of choice when contraception fails and a pregnancy occurs, anyway; and (b) widespread contraceptive use generates a Society-wide ethos to the effect that one is entitled to “risk-free nookie,” and it is this contraception-driven misconception which impels folks, whether or not they actually use contraceptives, to seek an abortion when an inconvenient little one appears in the “oven.”
In other words, the root of the abortion movement IS widespread use of contraception.
A book by Germain Grisez, Abortion: The Myths, the Realities, and the Arguments, discusses work of sociologists which does, indeed, confirm that abortion booms AS use of contraceptives becomes widespread. I.e., socially, contraception causes abortion; it doesn’t stop it.
About a month ago, I heard a discussion on public radio of a more modern study which seemed to confirm the same thing.
Now, let us assume that this is true – that contraceptive use leads to abortions. I believe that it is true.
Let us now look at our Church.
Though almost every Diocese sponsors Pro-Life activities, and many Dioceses require parish budgets to have a Pro-Life actvity component, almost no Diocese or parish – in the world? – sponsors anti-contraception activities.
Our Diocese did it once. The bishop issued a memo instructing every priest to give a homily against contraceptive use on a particular Sunday. That Sunday came to be nicknamed “Contraception Sunday” in our Diocese. The Chancellor of the Diocese, who is my friend, told me that about one-third of the priests simply disobeyed. In the case of those who obeyed, hundreds of people walked out of Mass during the homily, and thousands wrote in nasty letters to the Diocese.
After that, Contraception Sunday never happened again.
In one parish not my own, one day I asked the girl in the confession line in front of me asked why Monsignor So-and-so had such long lines at his confessional. The girl smiled and said, “Oh, you can confess contraceptive use to him a hundred times, and he just doesn’t care! He’s fine with it!” Later, I asked Monsignor So-and-so if this was true. He said, “It’s not even a sin if you’re over forty-five! And it’s not in the Bible!” I.e., *Humanae Vitae *is wrong, he was hinting.
I told him that it is in the Bible, at four places, where contraceptive use in Greco-Roman society in the Early Church was being condemned.
I suspect that Parish after Parish, Diocese after Diocese, is quiet about contraception, and let’s Rome be the “heavy,” the “sourpuss,” on that question.
A federal study done in the 1990s alleges that 73.5% of the regular churchgoers in the Catholic Church who are sexually active regularly use contraception.
Bottom line: If, indeed, widespread contraception use, including among Catholics, drives Society’s “contraceptive ethos” – “Hey, man, I’m entitled to risk-free nookie” – then Pro-Life efforts are like standing in front of a moving truck without asking someone to simply turn off the motor.
They are completely wasted effort, and window dressing, to enable the Church to feel good about itself, while it quietly tolerates contraception use by many who come up to the front of the Church for the Eucharist, in order to avoid massive defections from the Catholic Church.
What a mess!
