The Catholic
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Contraception
When Pope Paul VI came out with his encyclical Humanae Vitae in 1968, he simply restated 2000 years of Christian tradition. The Holy Father condemned the use of all forms of contraception, and of course, artificial birth control. Until 1930, all Protestant denominations also condemned birth control as a sinful act. But in that year, the Anglican church allowed it in some cases, and soon the entire Protestant world capitulated on the issue. Today, only the Catholic Church condemns the practice. Secular society accepts birth control, so many in the Church are swayed and reject the teaching of Humanae Vitae. But they are misled. Birth control is wrong for many reasons.
First of all, contraception goes against nature. God created sex for two purposes–one is to bring couples closer together (unitive), and the other is for reproduction (procreative). It is unnatural to have sexual relations exclusively for unitive purposes.
Secondly, birth control is condemned by the Scriptures. Onan was commanded to "‘raise up offspring for (his) brother.' But Onan knew that the offspring would not be his; so when he went in to his brother's wife he spilled the semen on the ground, lest he should give offspring to his brother. And what he did was displeasing in the sight of the Lord, and he slew him also" (Gen. 38:8). Now, Onan did two things wrong: he refused to obey a law in which he was commanded to "raise up offspring" for his dead brother, and he practiced birth control. But the penalty for not "taking up seed" in the Bible was public humiliation (Deut. 25:7), not death. So Onan must have been killed for violating the natural law by practicing birth control. Birth control by sterilization was also condemned: "He whose testicles are crushed or whose male member is cut off shall not enter the assembly of the Lord" (Deut. 23:1). These were the methods of sterilization practiced in those days.
Thirdly, Sacred Tradition condemns birth control. The Church Fathers were unanimous in their condemnation of the practice. So we see:
Clement of Alexandria (The Instructor of Children 2:10:91:2 [A.D. 191]) "Because of its divine institution for the propagation of man, the seed is not to be vainly ejaculated, nor is it to be damaged, nor is it to be wasted".
Hippolytus (Refutation of All Heresies 9:12 [A.D. 225]) "On account of their prominent ancestry and great property, the so-called faithful want no children from slaves or lowborn commoners, they use drugs of sterility (oral contraceptives)" .
Epiphanius of Salamis (Medicine Chest Against Heresies 26:5:2 [A.D. 375]) "They [heretics] exercise genital acts, yet prevent the conceiving of children. Not in order to produce offspring, but to satisfy lust, are they eager for corruption".
John Chrysostom (Homilies on Romans 24 [A.D. 391]) "Why do you sow where the field is eager to destroy the fruit, where there are medicines of sterility [oral contraceptives], where there is murder before birth? . . . For she does not kill what is formed but prevents its formation. What then? Do you condemn the gift of God and fight with his laws?".
Jerome (Against Jovinian 1:19 [A.D. 393]) "But I wonder why he [Jovinianus] set Judah and Tamar before us for an example, unless perchance even harlots give him pleasure; or Onan, who was slain because he grudged his brother seed. Does he imagine that we approve of any sexual intercourse except for the procreation of children?".
Augustine (Marriage and Concupiscence 1:15:17) "I am supposing, then, although you are not lying for the sake of procreating offspring, you are not for the sake of lust obstructing their procreation by an evil prayer or an evil deed. Those who do this, although they are called husband and wife, are not; nor do they retain any reality of marriage, but with a respectable name cover a shame. Sometimes this lustful cruelty, or cruel lust, comes to this, that they even procure poisons of sterility [oral contraceptives] . . . Assuredly if both husband and wife are like this, they are not married, and if they were like this from the beginning, they come together not joined in matrimony but in seduction".
Caesarius of Arles (Sermons 1:12 [A.D. 522]) "Who is he who cannot warn that no woman may take a potion [an oral contraceptive] so that she is unable to conceive or condemns in herself the nature which God willed to be fecund? As often as she could have conceived or given birth, of that many homicides she will be held guilty, and, unless she undergoes suitable penance, she will be damned by eternal death in hell. If a women does not wish to have children, let her enter into a religious agreement with her husband; for chastity is the sole sterility of a Christian woman".
Fourthly, birth control has been condemned by the constant teaching of the Magisterium. So the Catechism of the Catholic Church declares: "every action which, whether in anticipation of the conjugal act, or in its accomplishment, or in the development of its natural consequences, proposes, whether as an end or as a means, to render procreation impossible is intrinsically evil" (CCC 2370).
Although artificial birth control is sinful, the Church does allow couples to use Natural Family Planning (NFP). With NFP, couples use awareness of the cycle of fertility in women to periodically abstain from sexual relations in order to space pregnancies, not to avoid them entirely. Couples who use NFP must always remain open to new life, and must not use NFP as a means to avoid pregnancy perpetually, although for "grave" reasons, a couple may use NFP for this purpose. If a couple wants to avoid pregnancy, they must, without NFP, abstain from sexual relations, which is what was done before NFP was discovered. Of course, the question arises: How can NFP be acceptable and artificial birth control be sinful when in both cases, couples do it to avoid pregnancy. The difference lies in the fact that those who use birth control are interrupting the natural end of the sexual act, while those who practice NFP do not. There is nothing evil in having sexual relations during the infertile periods of a woman's cycle (after all, God created the woman's cycle that way).
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