"God's Generosity in Human Fertility" by Judith A. Cox

            The following is simply a 70 year old lifetime Catholic’s opinion except for the historical information at the end.

            God has generously given to human beings great insight into human sexuality, specifically fertility.  All God gives us is good but could be used for bad purposes as promiscuity. 

This insight is called contraception.  In the Catholic Church, contraception has become the Galileo of our time.  Catholics believe that they are the children of God, but it is time they see themselves as adult children who have responsibilities.  In this context, those married couples who use contraception and invitro fertilization (a special gift from God to those who cannot conceive naturally) to manage their fertility should be commended for not accepting the condemnation of the institutional church. Could it be that instead of being “intrinsically evil” as the institutional church claims this is, be instead God’s sharing of wisdom to help married couples be responsible for their children?

 99% of Catholic married couples of childbearing age use some kind of contraception to help them space their children and determine how many they will have.  This is particularly significant for those couples who have been advised by doctors that their genetic match will produce only severely debilitated children or that bearing more children will cause severe physical, mental or emotional damage to the mother.  Financial difficulties as loss of job can be another significant reason to use contraception as this could cause extreme distress trying to provide for the current family needs.

            Therefore, these faithful Catholic couples who have well formed consciences and are knowledgeable about the gift from God of contraception, pray about it and make the best decision for their families, children and their marriages.  They recognize that God gave them free will and responsibility to do the best they can given their individual circumstances.  Using currently available means of contraception to be responsible for the family should not be considered “intrinsically evil” as stated by law of the Catholic institutional Church.

            It is interesting where this law began.  Below is a brief explanation of its origins.  Suffice to say, celibate males who made this law without the input of Catholic married couples or women who have a lived experience with fertility, should not have the right to dictate to those who live the experience.

History of Contraception and the Catholic Church

            A Pontifical Commission on birth control was set up by Pope John XXIII to get an independent source of information to be used at Vatican II council. When Pope Paul VI became pope, the commission became a papal secret and all of its findings were handed over to Paul VI who could use or suppress it as his discretion.  Sessions were held from 1963 to 1965.  The vote of the theologians on the commission was 15 to 4 against the claim that contraception is intrinsically evil.  The vote of the larger group was 30 to 5 against accepting that contraception is evil.  After having presented 16 Bishops with their findings, the climactic vote was 9 to 3 for changing the church’s position on contraception.  Pope Paul VI ignored all this and wrote Humanae Vitae and condemned contraception. Polls of Catholics registered an instant noncompliance with the encyclical. Paraphrased from Papal Sin by Gary Wills

            Vatican II encouraged Catholics to see the church (faithful people) as a body with a “supernatural sense of faith.”  The Dogmatic Constitution on the Church teaches that the body of the faithful cannot err in matters of belief.  The people of God exercise the sense of faith or sensum fidei, when they manifest a universal consent in matters of faith and morals.  If this sense of faith as an instinctive sensitivity and discrimination is valid for reception of doctrines and practices in to the body of the church then that same sense of faith is also valid for nonreception.  Paraphrased from Lay Ministry by William J Rademacher.

 Could the 99% of those who are Catholic today and refuse to accept the hierarchal stand against contraception be validly expressing this nonreception as the sense of the faithful?

Submitted by

Judith A Cox

Bridget Mary 's Reflection:

Thank you Judith for expressing the wisdom from people in the pews on the birth control issue. Pope Paul VI should have listened to faithful Catholic couples and the majority of the Commission before he mandated the rule against artificial birth control. It is obvious that the Spirit speaks through you and the millions of Catholics who have experienced God's generosity in human fertility! The Spirit speaks through the people of God, not just the hierarchy. It is obvious that 99% of Catholics who follow their consciences on birth control reflect the sense of the faithful, not the Pope! Come, Holy Spirit, fall afresh on our church, the people of God! Renew us and transform us as we celebrate Pentecost this Sunday!