I have traveled to over 60 countries in the nearly six years since I
joined the HLI family. Based on feedback I've received from several
dozen conferences and hundreds of parish talks I've given, I estimate
that around 90% have never heard a homily on the evil of contraception
-- much less a word about its abortifacient effects -- and nothing about
the violent crime of abortion.
A recent mission trip to Ireland only reinforced this reality.
Nearly every person I spoke with during our conferences told me that
they never hear about these subjects from their bishops and priests. We
receive little to no guidance, and they wonder why families are breaking
apart and children are losing the faith.
I believe the
primary threat affecting the sacred institution of holy matrimony and
eroding respect for human life is the evil of contraception and the
mentality that follows from its acceptance. Contraception is a direct
attack on God's plan for marital life. It is a cancer!
Contraception
rejects the dignity of human sexuality and its proper role within
marital life. The silence or ambiguity from those entrusted with
teaching the faithful -- accompanying them along the narrow path -- is
an act of scandalous neglect and indifference towards the people of God.
Worse are those who through dissent purposefully mislead the faithful
into believing contraception is a viable option.
Our Lord
tells us to judge things by their fruits. What do we see? An honest
assessment of any population that has embraced contraception cannot
ignore the undeniable consequences -- low birthrates and unhealthy
family life. We have abortion, divorce, legal same-sex unions,
cohabitation, family breakdown, and perverse sex education programs for
children, child abuse, sex trafficking, pornography, immodesty, and
promiscuity. Father Paul Marx called this the great "sex mess." Of
course, these are all symptoms of a core problem -- dissent from the
truth about the human person and the gift of sexuality. This cancer
destroying our families will continue its destruction until we eradicate
it.
One of HLI's key strategies is working with
seminarians, priests, and bishops to promote the whole pro-life message
and assist them in integrating it into every aspect of pastoral care.
Sadly, I have witnessed far too often the disconnection between pastoral
care and the Gospel of Life. Any attempt to form our spiritual leaders
that does not completely integrate Catholic teaching on sexual morality
and holy matrimony is an exercise in futility. Our founder, Father Paul
Marx, states it quite poignantly:
While we
need a variety of pro-life groups hacking away at the anti-life monster,
it is enormously futile and indeed grossly shortsighted to overlook the
chief source of baby killing, which is contraception.
It
was not so long ago that Christians worldwide held common ground on the
issue of contraception and the primary role of sexual intimacy between
husband and wife.
We utter an emphatic
warning against the use of unnatural means for the avoidance of
conception, together with the grave dangers-physical, moral, and
religious-thereby incurred, and against the evils with which the
extension of such use threatens the race. In opposition to the teaching,
which under the name of science and religion encourages married people
in the deliberate cultivation of sexual union as an end in itself, we
steadfastly uphold what must always be regarded as the governing
considerations of Christian marriage. One is the primary purpose for
which marriage exists - namely the continuation of the race through the
gift and heritage of children; the other is the paramount importance in
married life of deliberate and thoughtful self-control. We desire
solemnly to commend what we have said to Christian people and to all who
will hear. (Anglican Communion, Lambeth Conference, 1920)
Yet,
even as truth about matrimony and its openness to life was being
proclaimed, we were already beginning to see the rise in threats. In
1916, four years after the first London Eugenics Conference, Margaret
Sanger founded the Birth Control League, which later became Planned
Parenthood. In 1921, Marie Stopes founded the first birth control clinic
in Great Britain. Both women were the primary influences behind the
wedding of eugenics and the development of contraceptive technology,
which inevitably evolved into the population control movement -- a
movement which, contrary to what many have said, continues its assault
on the weak and marginalized to this day.
By the time of
the Anglican Communion's 1930 Lambeth Conference, the culture had been
seeded with dissent and disregard for the purpose of marriage and human
sexuality. The Conference rejected its own biblical theology on marriage
and formulated a "new" teaching permitting the use of contraception for
married couples.
Though
resolution 15 attempted
to uphold the teaching of 1920 by stating that the primary and obvious
method of limiting or avoiding parenthood was abstinence from the
marital act, it would give permission for contraception to be used by
married couples.
We know how that turned out.
Pope
Pius XI on December 31, 1930 made the Catholic Church's response to
this flagrant threat and radical rejection of centuries of Christian
teaching perfectly clear:
But no reason,
however grave, may be put forward by which anything intrinsically
against nature may become conformable to nature and morally good. Since,
therefore, the conjugal act is destined primarily by nature for the
begetting of children, those who in exercising it deliberately frustrate
its natural power and purpose sin against nature and commit a deed,
which is shameful and intrinsically vicious. (
Casti Connubii, n. 54)
Since,
therefore, openly departing from the uninterrupted Christian tradition
some recently have judged it possible solemnly to declare another
doctrine regarding this question, the Catholic Church, to whom God has
entrusted the defense of the integrity and purity of morals, standing
erect in the midst of the moral ruin which surrounds her, in order that
she may preserve the chastity of the nuptial union from being defiled by
this foul stain, raises her voice in token of her divine ambassadorship
and through Our mouth proclaims anew: any use whatsoever of matrimony
exercised in such a way that the act is deliberately frustrated in its
natural power to generate life is an offence against the law of God and
of nature, and those who indulge in such are branded with the guilt of a
grave sin. (n. 56)
Becoming "one flesh" implies
self-giving, without reservation or exception, just as Christ withheld
nothing of Himself from His bride, the Church, by dying for her on the
cross. Any intentional interruption with the procreative nature of
conjugal intercourse involves spouses selfishly withholding themselves
from each other and from God, who is their partner in sacramental love.
As Blessed Pope Paul VI explained, "The Church...teaches that each and
every marital act must of necessity retain its intrinsic relationship to
the procreation of human life." (Humane Vitae, n. 12)
Ultimately,
the teaching authority is vested in the college of bishops under the
headship of the Roman Pontiff, the "center of unity and head of the
whole episcopate," the successor of the Apostle Peter entrusted with the
care of souls. (Lumen Gentium, n. 22) When the bishops teach
on matters of faith and morals in their apostolic role, they speak in
the name of the Christ, and the faithful, on their part, are to accept
their teaching and adhere to it with religious assent.
In
his role as bishop of Rome, the Supreme Pontiff, Blessed Paul VI, in
defiance to popular opinion - secular and ecclesial - reaffirmed Church
teaching in his landmark encyclical,
Humane Vitae and warned us of what would arise if Church teaching on the regulation of births were ignored. (See n. 17)
Pope Saint John Paul II gave us
Familiaris Consortio and
Evangelium Vitae,
which reiterated Church teaching on matters of matrimony, family, and
life. He was undaunted in his role as Peter, teacher, and guardian of
sacred doctrine. He stated that contraception and abortion are fruits of
the same tree. "The pro-abortion culture is especially strong precisely
where the Church's teaching on contraception is rejected." (
Evangelium Vitae, n. 13)
The
teaching authority is an incredible gift and responsibility. When
exercised with courage and clarity, it can liberate and unite people in
truth. When exercised weakly and ambiguously, confusion is created,
causing tremendous and potentially irreparable damage to the faithful.
The longer this happens, the more the Faith appears to be a matter of
opinion; and the concept of absolute truth is abandoned.
The
current presidential race provides yet another example. Candidates
claiming to be Catholic expound dissent on the subject of contraception,
abortion, euthanasia, and homosexuality yet no one in leadership calls
them to task or publically corrects their statements or positions, thus,
giving the impression what they expound is acceptable and permissible.
If
we want to repair the damage and heal the infection affecting our
families and societies, then we must get the family right. Get the
family right and we can make real progress against the related scourges
of contraception and abortion, divorce, euthanasia, and homosexuality.
Get the family right and we will see our societies flourish and our
Church prosper.
We cannot afford to continue to ignore the
cancer of contraception and the fruit its bears. Our families,
children, and our future are on the line!
King Henry VIII declared the Act of Supremacy in 1534 that made him
"the only supreme head on earth of the Church of England". He broke with
the Church of Rome because Pope Clement VII refused to grant him a
divorce. Mrs. Clinton has taken issue with the Catholic Church and
everyone in the country who is opposed to unrestricted abortion and has
decided that America needs a new religion.
