Some Thoughts on Contraception
From the monthly Miles Christi newletter:
• Contraception: the chief cause of the Church’s swift decline
Contraception is certainly one of the worst problems that plague society and the Church. It is also a point where dissent to the perennial Magisterium of the Church becomes quite apparent. This opposition is found not only in many books on moral theology and in many seminaries (where future priests are formed), but also in the confessionals, where it can cause direct harm to souls. The encyclical Humanae Vitae, promulgated by Paul VI in 1968, clearly presents Church teaching on this matter.
The doctrine of the Church which recognizes contraception to be a grave sin HAS ALWAYS been anchored in the Magisterium and is therefore irreformable doctrine. It is useless to try to say that contraception is okay in certain circumstances. Contraception is, in itself, a grave sin. When it is truly a moral act of contraception, it is always seriously wrong. This is the permanent doctrine of the Church and cannot change. Priests are quite well aware of this, since the Magisterium of the last thirty years has been very firm on the matter. Many clerics, therefore, have adopted another strategy: they do not speak about it, and when they hear a confession of a sin of contraception, they act as if they hadn’t heard it, thus giving it no importance. Fr. Thomas Euteneuer, president of Human Life International, wrote of this in an article for the HLI e-newsletter:
“The beloved founder of Human Life International, Fr. Paul Marx, was not known to mince words when it came to what he called the “conspiracy of silence”... on the issue of contraception, but his insights of twenty and thirty years ago were right on target and remain true to this day. ‘Future generations,’ he said, ‘will wonder why so many Catholic bishops and priests in the West didn’t see contraception as a seminal evil and the chief çause of the Church’s swift decline.’
“There is the core issue. Priestly silence about contraception is deadly both to the Church and to our society.
“To this day the vast majority of Catholic clergy refuse to talk about contraception despite their moral obligation to do so. I can tell you that it is not only in the United States that this is the case; it is true in every part of the world. The reasons for this negligence range from outright heresy to lack of moral courage to inexcusable ignorance of the subject matter. Whatever the reason, the effect is the same: something I call clerical contraception.
“Contraception itself is a rejection of God’s sovereignty over one’s marriage and a refusal to obey the Lord’s command to ‘be fruitful and multiply.’ The priest, though not married, analogously contracepts the life-giving seed of truth when he refuses to preach the Catholic Faith — all of it. Faith comes through hearing, says St. Paul, and it is through the priestly ministry that Christ transmits the Faith to His bride, the Church, so that she can be fruitful and multiply the souls who are brought to salvation.
“This is probably the main reason why so many Catholics today contracept or sterilize themselves and see absolutely no contradiction in receiving the Eucharist every Sunday and believing themselves in perfect communion with the Church. They’ve never been admonished that it is a mortal sin to use contraception or get sterilized. They’ve never been told of the physical and spiritual danger of these practices, and they’ve never been made aware of the magnificent, life-giving alternatives that the Church offers to the ideology of infertility.
“Priests who are silent about the teaching on contraception also forget two very important things: first, priestly vocations generally come from large families. Failure to preach openness to life and generosity with children has a direct effect on how many men will be standing in the trenches with us later on. Contracepting this teaching has the same effect as contracepting the marital act: sterility. The persistent sterility of priestly vocations in the West is caused by priests who are silent about the plague of contraception among the laity and forget that their own vocations are the result of their parents’ generosity with life. Overworked priests will be reaping the fruits of their silence on contraception for a long time.
“Secondly, priestly silence about contraception has eternal consequences. The price of that silence is the loss of souls. Contracepting men and women who are not warned of their sin and who therefore do not repent of it risk the death of their immortal souls, and that is a scandal of immense proportions. To be warned is to be forewarned, especially about something so crucial. Perhaps the only danger of greater consequence is the danger to the priests themselves who don’t do their job: they risk their own spiritual deaths because in the end they will be held accountable for preaching the Church’s full message ‘in season and out of season.’
“All priests should read the Lord’s message to the prophet Ezekiel to know the high stakes of failing to preach the fullness of Christ’s teaching: ‘If I say to the wicked man, you shall surely die; and you do not warn him or speak out to dissuade him from his wicked conduct so that he may live: that wicked man shall die for his sin, but I will hold you responsible for his death’ (Ez 3:18).
“May every priest take this warning to heart!” (FR. THOMAS EUTENEUER, “Clerical Contraception,” Spirit & Life, vol. 1,no. 36, Oct 6, 2006).
Most Rev. Elio Sgreccia, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, has recently said that attacks against life at any stage means “marching toward a self-genocide of the human race... The weakness of the Christian community and the strength of secular society could spell disaster.” He asked Europe to reverse direction: “Until now it has accepted the culture of death, and that path leads to self-destruction.”
• Contraception: the chief cause of the Church’s swift decline
Contraception is certainly one of the worst problems that plague society and the Church. It is also a point where dissent to the perennial Magisterium of the Church becomes quite apparent. This opposition is found not only in many books on moral theology and in many seminaries (where future priests are formed), but also in the confessionals, where it can cause direct harm to souls. The encyclical Humanae Vitae, promulgated by Paul VI in 1968, clearly presents Church teaching on this matter.
The doctrine of the Church which recognizes contraception to be a grave sin HAS ALWAYS been anchored in the Magisterium and is therefore irreformable doctrine. It is useless to try to say that contraception is okay in certain circumstances. Contraception is, in itself, a grave sin. When it is truly a moral act of contraception, it is always seriously wrong. This is the permanent doctrine of the Church and cannot change. Priests are quite well aware of this, since the Magisterium of the last thirty years has been very firm on the matter. Many clerics, therefore, have adopted another strategy: they do not speak about it, and when they hear a confession of a sin of contraception, they act as if they hadn’t heard it, thus giving it no importance. Fr. Thomas Euteneuer, president of Human Life International, wrote of this in an article for the HLI e-newsletter:
“The beloved founder of Human Life International, Fr. Paul Marx, was not known to mince words when it came to what he called the “conspiracy of silence”... on the issue of contraception, but his insights of twenty and thirty years ago were right on target and remain true to this day. ‘Future generations,’ he said, ‘will wonder why so many Catholic bishops and priests in the West didn’t see contraception as a seminal evil and the chief çause of the Church’s swift decline.’
“There is the core issue. Priestly silence about contraception is deadly both to the Church and to our society.
“To this day the vast majority of Catholic clergy refuse to talk about contraception despite their moral obligation to do so. I can tell you that it is not only in the United States that this is the case; it is true in every part of the world. The reasons for this negligence range from outright heresy to lack of moral courage to inexcusable ignorance of the subject matter. Whatever the reason, the effect is the same: something I call clerical contraception.
“Contraception itself is a rejection of God’s sovereignty over one’s marriage and a refusal to obey the Lord’s command to ‘be fruitful and multiply.’ The priest, though not married, analogously contracepts the life-giving seed of truth when he refuses to preach the Catholic Faith — all of it. Faith comes through hearing, says St. Paul, and it is through the priestly ministry that Christ transmits the Faith to His bride, the Church, so that she can be fruitful and multiply the souls who are brought to salvation.
“This is probably the main reason why so many Catholics today contracept or sterilize themselves and see absolutely no contradiction in receiving the Eucharist every Sunday and believing themselves in perfect communion with the Church. They’ve never been admonished that it is a mortal sin to use contraception or get sterilized. They’ve never been told of the physical and spiritual danger of these practices, and they’ve never been made aware of the magnificent, life-giving alternatives that the Church offers to the ideology of infertility.
“Priests who are silent about the teaching on contraception also forget two very important things: first, priestly vocations generally come from large families. Failure to preach openness to life and generosity with children has a direct effect on how many men will be standing in the trenches with us later on. Contracepting this teaching has the same effect as contracepting the marital act: sterility. The persistent sterility of priestly vocations in the West is caused by priests who are silent about the plague of contraception among the laity and forget that their own vocations are the result of their parents’ generosity with life. Overworked priests will be reaping the fruits of their silence on contraception for a long time.
“Secondly, priestly silence about contraception has eternal consequences. The price of that silence is the loss of souls. Contracepting men and women who are not warned of their sin and who therefore do not repent of it risk the death of their immortal souls, and that is a scandal of immense proportions. To be warned is to be forewarned, especially about something so crucial. Perhaps the only danger of greater consequence is the danger to the priests themselves who don’t do their job: they risk their own spiritual deaths because in the end they will be held accountable for preaching the Church’s full message ‘in season and out of season.’
“All priests should read the Lord’s message to the prophet Ezekiel to know the high stakes of failing to preach the fullness of Christ’s teaching: ‘If I say to the wicked man, you shall surely die; and you do not warn him or speak out to dissuade him from his wicked conduct so that he may live: that wicked man shall die for his sin, but I will hold you responsible for his death’ (Ez 3:18).
“May every priest take this warning to heart!” (FR. THOMAS EUTENEUER, “Clerical Contraception,” Spirit & Life, vol. 1,no. 36, Oct 6, 2006).
Most Rev. Elio Sgreccia, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, has recently said that attacks against life at any stage means “marching toward a self-genocide of the human race... The weakness of the Christian community and the strength of secular society could spell disaster.” He asked Europe to reverse direction: “Until now it has accepted the culture of death, and that path leads to self-destruction.”
posted by Qahal at 9:53 PM
2 Comments:
Sorry. Not very easy on the eyes. I had to scan it in and when I pasted the text into blogspot it wiped out all of the formatting.
Notice how much it matters whether your priest tells you or not that contraception is a mortal sin... not much at all. I hear my wife, "But they don't know any better..." Nope wifey, I'm right again and yer gonna stay pregnant.
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