In response to the question of contraceptives in marriage as a form of disease preventionā¦I agree with the posters here that it is not allowed and probably shouldnāt be. (For many reasons ā the āRussian rouletteā argument is the one that tends to be most effective when talking to non-Catholics who donāt share our theology of the body.) I think it should be pointed out, though, that the question of contraceptive use with HIV+ couples is under review by the Vatican:
awid.org/eng/Issues-and-Analysis/Library/The-Vatican-and-Condom-Use
This will probably not change anything, but may give us some wonderful pastoral and philosophical clarification of the Churchās instruction.
Also, one other remark: I can think of one other situation in which I believe contraception would be allowed (correct me if I am wrong or let me know if this rings any bells): namely, if a woman is forced into sex slavery, she has the right to protect herself. The reasoning would be that contraception is wrong not just because it closes any arbitrary sex act to the gift of life, but because this gift of life must be seen in the context of a human act of complete self-giving. Since the situation I described is basically rape, there is no self-giving to begin with; it would be obscene and cruel to think of it as such. Thus the question of contraception impeding an act of self-giving is moot, and the use of contraception to protect the woman (and any potential child, although that branch of the argument begins to sound eugenic) from disease is allowed.
I should clarify that this is what Iāve
heardā¦I honestly donāt know if this is correct. Like I said, Iād be curious to hear thoughts. Iād say that it seems completely humane, though it does also offer up some slippery slopes. For instance, since no sexual act outside of marriage can represent a total self-giving anyway (because it has no sacramental validity), is the sin of contraception āmootā for all extramarital couples?
My answer would be, well, an extramarital couple has already committed a greater sin by having sex, so itās not that the evil of contraception becomes moot, itās just that itās subsumed under a larger category of sin. Whereby contraceptive use would really only be flagrantly evil, on its own, a) within marriages (which brings us back to the question of infected couples) and b) for its scandalous contribution to a culture of convenient profligacy among the unwedā¦
Sorry, all I intended to do was post that Vatican link and this turned into a stream of consciousness. haha. Interesting stuff, though, no?
Peace,
+AMDG+
