“For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is a profound one, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church” (Eph 5:31-32)
The sexual union between a man and a woman refers to the union of Christ and his church. Can we imagine Christ putting a block like a contraceptive between his union with himself and the church? Absolutely not. But many Christians insult this mystery of sex which refers to Christ and the Church by putting a block between the union of the spouses. They therefore make a complete mockery of the union of Christ and his church which is symbolized in the sexual union of spouses.
I am glad that the Catholic church respects the mystery of sex which refers to the union of Christ and his church. Any thoughts?
There’s more to marriage than the sexual union of the partners. If that were so important and the singular meaning of Paul’s letter, then why is it that the novelty of sex soon wears of for married couples and they settle down to the far more hundrum, and difficult, problem of living together?
I’m for birth control, including artificial contraceptive, and I’ll go further. I think the contraceptive pill was God’s idea, given at the very time that population pressures were becoming a real problem in some parts of the world. It was largely developed through Catholic researchers, and came within a hair’s breath of being acceptable for married Catholics, as recommended by a committee set up by Pope Paul VI himself.
But he couldn’t bring himself to ratify the committee’s decision, even though Pope John XXIII had set it up, and he himself increased the panel from six to seventy two.
From Wikipedia -
Establishment by John XXIII - With the appearance of the first oral contraceptives in 1960, dissenters in the Church argued for a reconsideration of the Church positions. In 1963 Pope John XXIII established a commission of six European non-theologians to study questions of birth control and population.[1][2]
[edit] Role of Paul VIAfter John’s death in 1963, Pope Paul VI added theologians to the commission and over three years expanded it to 72 members from five continents (including 16 theologians, 13 physicians and five women without medical credentials, with an executive committee of 16 bishops, including seven cardinals.)[1][2]
[edit] Majority report - The commission produced a report in 1966, proposing that artificial birth control was not intrinsically evil and that Catholic couples should be allowed to decide for themselves about the methods to be employed.[1][2][3][4] According to the majority report, use of contraceptives should be regarded as an extension of the already accepted cycle method:
The acceptance of a lawful application of the calculated sterile periods of the woman–that the application is legitimate presupposes right motives–makes a separation between the sexual act which is explicitly intended and its reproductive effect which is intentionally excluded. The tradition has always rejected seeking this separation with a contraceptive intention for motives spoiled by egoism and hedonism, and such seeking can never be admitted. The true opposition is not to be sought between some material conformity to the physiological processes of nature and some artificial intervention. For it is natural to man to use his skill in order to put under human control what is given by physical nature. The opposition is really to be sought between one way of acting which is contraceptive and opposed to a prudent and generous fruitfulness, and another way which is, in an ordered relationship to responsible fruitfulness and which has a concern for education and all the essential, human and Christian values."
[edit]
But he caved in to the Minority report signed by one four of the original submission, and the fact that there was a small number of dissenters on the original commission.
Why bother having a commission if you’re going to do that?
The rationale for issuing the minority report was spelled out:
<I’ve snipped this as the post is limited to 6000 characters. Interested parties can read it on Widipedia by doing a search on -
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pontifical_Commission_on_Birth_Control >
[edit] Papal decisionHowever, Paul VI explicitly rejected his commission’s recommendations in the text of Humanae Vitae, noting the 72 member commission had not been unanimous (4 theologian priests had dissented, and 1 cardinal and 2 bishops had voted that contraception was intrinsically evil–significantly Cardinal Ottaviani, the commission’s president and Bishop Colombo, the papal theologian).[1][2][4] Humanae Vitae did, however, explicitly allow the modern forms of natural family planning that were then being developed"
For a graph showing the population growth in historical terms, click on the following. You will notice the almost vertical trend at the moment, which is why I believe the Pill was God’s idea given at the very time population pressures were becoming a real problem.
I might add that despite all the talk about a “contraceptive mentality”, the world’s population has doubled since the Pill arrived, from 3 billion to 6 billion, and in fact I think it’s now close to 7 billion.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File
opulation_curve.svg
Of if you like, I’ll listen to arguments against the contraceptive pill if they’re accompanied with intelligent suggestions on how to feed, house, clothe, educate, provide infrastructure for etc. the billions on their way, if artificial contraception is taken out of the picture.
opulation_curve.svg