I believe that Humanae Vitae teaches the truth about love, marriage and sexuality because I am convinced that it expresses a Tradition that meets the criteria for infallibility or at least the criteria for a teaching that must be accepted with religious submission of mind and will, according to the teaching of Lumen Gentium 25 especially as repeatedly reaffirmed by St. Pope John Paul II.
I am also convinced by reason that its teaching against marital contraception is true because of theological reasons that are further supported by sociological reasons. Ask any theist “Who put together in one act what we call making love and making babies?” The theist has to answer, “God Himself put together in one act what we call making love and making babies.” Quite obviously, contraceptive behaviors are studied efforts to take apart what God has put together in the extremely important area of love, marriage and sexuality.
Further, I am convinced that what the Lord Jesus taught about marriage also applies to the marriage act. “What God has put together, let no one take apart.” That teaching was just as countercultural in his day as it is in ours.
When people tell themselves, either as individuals or as a culture, that we are now so enlightened that we can take apart what God Himself has put together, there is no logical stopping point. That’s where the West is today. Modernity accepts only the limitations of mutual consent and legal age. In 1930 when the Church of England was debating the acceptance of marital contraception, their conservatives warned them that the acceptance of marital contraception logically entailed the acceptance of sodomy. The conservatives lost, and so now the Church of England even permits its bishops to live in sodomitic relationships.
Your express great concern over population. These fears have been part of the public square ever since Thomas Malthus, an economist and Anglican minister, expressed his dire warnings in 1798. His remedy was complete abstinence once a couple had reached its desired family size. Just a few years later, the neo-Malthusians dropped the moral convictions of Malthus and recommended contraception.
Some sociologists emphasize two things in reducing the birth rate in any given culture. First, provide good health care and medical care so that couples do not have to have a large number of babies to insure the survival of just a few. Second, a rising material standard of living tends to reduce family size. They look at the West and see these factors as important in declining populations in the West. I understand that almost every non-Muslim European country has a birth rate below replacement level.
My concern is with the individual family. We have developed a natural family planning program that addresses the key issues.
John Kippley’s letter continues next week. Thanks for reading and please come back.