Completely disagree here.
Well, I used to agree with you. I have become more jaded with age. Both abstinence for we little people, and celibacy for the priesthood, appear to be abject failures as effective means of 1) birth control and 2) keeping out the riff-raff from the priesthood. Hence pedophilia scandals, homosexual scandals, priests in Africa living openly with concubines… the only result has been hypocrisy.
Unfortunately this seems like what is needed. I have no idea how to square it with Humanae Vitae, however.
I think somewhere between total abstinence including even from self-pleasure, and total licentiousness, there is a balance somewhere.
I think as an ideal to strive for, Humanae Vitae and the Church’s teaching on sexuality have some validity. As a realistic expectation though, not so much.
My own answer would be not to take such a granular view, and instead look at the bigger picture. Ask families to be fecund, but give them the moral right to select the best non-abortifacient means to balance fecundity against economic realities. Ask young adults to do their best to remain chaste, but given them the tools to protect themselves when nature and youthful hormone levels catch up with them. As for telling a 14 y.o. kid to wait until (s)he marries at 30 for any kind of sexuality, including masturbation… well I have some prime swampland in Florida to sell you.
The Church changing to fit the world’s desire would only make matters worse.
I disagree. The Protestants don’t all have the same take on masturbation and contraception within marriage as the Catholic Church. They don’t appear to descend into moral depravity any more or less than we do. When we try to short-circuit nature, nature somehow manages to short-circuit our efforts to short-circuit nature. And it often leaves us looking like fools.
Contraception is like the Internet: it can be used with restraint in a family context, or it can be used wrongly. We as humans have been misusing good tools to evil purposes since the Garden of Eden. Just because something like the Internet can effectively be used maliciously doesn’t mean we should ban the Internet (or the phone for that matter). Just because contraception can be used by a rapist, doesn’t mean it should be banned for families or other monogamous relationships.