Article by John F. Kippley
Introduction
The following article first appeared as an article in the Ave Maria magazine, 25 February 1967. It was the first piece I wrote about the birth control issue, and I clearly remember what prompted me to write. I was living in Santa Clara, CA, and on a winter Saturday early in 1966, I attended a workshop on the birth control issue held in a church hall somewhere up the peninsula, probably in Palo Alto. The speaker was Michael Novak who was then at Stanford. He was also making a name for himself as a leading lay spokesman for those who thought the Church could and should change its teaching to allow contraception, and he held true to form in that workshop. I can’t recall what he said, but I can remember my reaction. I thought his case specious, and I was angry—not just mad, but angry—and I was determined to respond. Considering what I wrote, I suspect that Novak had been using the very soft love-talk that has been traditionally used by dissenters from authentic Christian teaching on love and sexuality. So I responded by drawing a five-fold analogy between the conditions necessary for a worthy reception of the Eucharist and a worthy marriage. In short, Christian love is tough love, both Eucharistic and marital.
What still amazes me is the ease and speed with which I wrote that original article. I made a few handwritten notes on a half piece of paper, probably the five points of the analogy, and then started typing—the rest of Saturday afternoon and most of Sunday. I showed it to a couple of theologians in the summer of 1966, made just a few changes, and sent it off to Ave Maria.
I wish I could write with equal ease today! A healthy anger was my great aid at the time, but as error and evil have become ever so much more widespread and commonplace, it is correspondingly more difficult to get charged up by a healthy anger that moves one from inertia to action.
A personal note: The Ave Maria article drew some letters pro and con. One priest praised the article, and another accused me of blasphemy for daring to associate the Eucharistic and the sexual communions. Thus it was satisfying to see the Holy Father make the same association on 25 September 1982 to an organization that planned to study marriage in the light of the Sacrament of the Eucharist. It was also gratifying to learn that Michael Novak as the publisher of Crisis recanted his dissent in his editorial for June, 1989.
What follows is the original article [for NFP Awareness Week 2015] except for a few minor changes for clarity and some insertions [like this]. The article plus a similar introduction constitutes Chapter 4 in Sex and the Marriage Covenant: A Basis for Morality published by Ignatius Press (2005) and published here with permission.
(John F. Kippley, Sex and the Marriage Covenant)
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