“What Is Historical Church Teaching On Contraception?”

By BRIAN CLOWES

(Editor’s Note: Brian Clowes has been director of research and training at Human Life International since 1995.)

Part 2

Since her beginning, the Catholic Church has condemned all unnecessary mutilation of the body. Contraception is unique in that it adds a new dimension to this practice — it actually cripples a major organ system.
The Church’s teachings have become even more relevant as the “contraceptive revolution” swept the world in the middle of the 20th century and became firmly entrenched throughout most of the world.
The Catholic Church and the Protestant denominations stood shoulder to shoulder in their fight against the evil of artificially induced sterility until August 15, 1930, when Resolution 15 of the Anglican bishops’ Lambeth Conference stated that the use of birth control could be left up to the conscience of the individual.
Pope Pius XI reacted to this capitulation swiftly. In his great encyclical Casti Connubii, published on the last day of 1930, he wrote:
“In order that she [the Catholic Church] may preserve the chastity of the nuptial union from being defiled by this foul stain, she 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 offense against the law of God and of nature, and those who indulge in such are branded with the guilt of a grave sin.”
Nearly a century ago, the mainstream media were much more willing to examine social issues from an objective viewpoint than they are now. In fact, for a few years the media were just as prophetic as the Catholic Church regarding contraception.
The Washington Post, which led the secular media response against birth control, editorialized: “Carried to its logical conclusion, the [Lambeth] committee’s report, if carried into effect, would sound the death-knell of marriage as a holy institution by establishing degrading practices which would encourage indiscriminate immorality. The suggestion that the use of legalized contraceptives would be ‘careful and restrained’ is preposterous.”
The Post also exposed how some churches, eager to please man and not God, were being cynically manipulated:
“It is the misfortune of the churches that they are too often misused by visionaries for the promotion of ‘reforms’ in fields foreign to religion. The departures from Christian teachings are astounding in many cases, leaving the beholder aghast at the willingness of some churches to teach ‘Christ and Him crucified.’ If the churches are to become organizations for political and scientific propaganda, they should be honest and reject the Bible, scoff at Christ as an obsolete and unscientific teacher, and strike out boldly as champions of politics and science as modern substitutes for the old-time religion.”
The secular press could not have assessed and summarized the situation more accurately. Unfortunately, The Washington Post and its fellows in the media were soon to fall victim to the infiltration and subversion so expertly practiced by the Culture of Death.
The Catholic Church and the press were not the only entities which clearly perceived the danger posed to society and morality by contraception. Many leading atheists and non-Christians clearly predicted the deadly consequences of contraception that are so evident today.
Famed psychologist Sigmund Freud — no friend of the Catholic Church — got to the core of the matter when he pointed out that all sexual perversions begin with what we now call the “contraceptive mentality”:
“The abandonment of the reproductive function is the common feature of all perversions. We actually describe a sexual activity as perverse if it has given up the aim of reproduction and pursues the attainment of pleasure as an aim independent of it.
“So, as you will see, the breach and turning point in the development of sexual life lies in becoming subordinate to the purpose of reproduction. Everything that happens before this turn of events and equally everything that disregards it and that aims solely at obtaining pleasure is given the uncomplimentary name of ‘perverse’ and as such is proscribed.”
Not long after Freud’s death, Mahatma Gandhi publicly rebuked Margaret Sanger when he outlined the inevitable disastrous impacts of contraception:
“Artificial methods [of contraception] are like putting a premium on vice. They make men and women reckless. . . . Nature is relentless and will have full revenge for any such violation of her laws. Moral results can only be produced by moral restraints. All other restraints defeat the very purpose for which they are intended. If artificial [birth control] methods become the order of the day, nothing but moral degradation can be the result….As it is, man has sufficiently degraded women for his lust, and artificial [birth control] methods, no matter how well meaning the advocates may be, will still further degrade her.”
Inevitably, the expansion of approval of contraception by the Protestant churches from just the “hard cases” to all cases proceeded with great speed. The National Council of Churches (NCC) proclaimed on February 23, 1961:
“Most of the Protestant churches hold contraception and periodic abstinence to be morally right when the motives are right. The general Protestant conviction is that motives, rather than methods, form the primary moral issue provided the methods are limited to the prevention of conception. Protestant Christians are agreed in condemning abortion or any method which destroys human life, except when the health or life of the mother is at stake.”
This NCC statement soon fell by the wayside as the Protestant churches continued to follow the latest public opinion polls and psychological findings instead of God. Today, almost all of the mainline Protestant denominations accept not only contraception but unrestrained abortion.
These church denominations are paying the price for their betrayal of the natural law. They are dying out, having lost a third of their combined memberships since 1970. In addition, more and more Protestant churches are accepting euthanasia and homosexuality, including ersatz same-sex “marriage.”
Freud, Gandhi, and The Washington Post have proven prophetic.
Meanwhile, the Catholic Church continues to stand firm.
The Pope does not live in a vacuum, as some would have us believe. He is well aware of the currents of dissent and apostasy in the Church because he consults the finest body of practical and moral theologians in the world. Because of the terrible spiritual and demographic damage wreaked by contraception, the Vatican issued more than 100 denunciations of it during the 20th century alone.
For example, Pope Pius XII stated: “Every attempt of either husband or wife in the performance of the conjugal act or in the development of its natural consequences which aims at depriving it of its inherent force and hinders the procreation of a new life is immoral; and that no ‘indication’ or need can convert an act which is intrinsically immoral into a moral and lawful one. . . . This precept is in force today, as it was in the past, and so it will be in the future also, and always, because it is not a simple human whim, but the expression of a natural and divine law.”
In his encyclical Mater et Magistra, Pope John XXIII taught: “The transmission of human life is the result of a personal and conscientious act, and, as such, is subject to the all-holy, inviolable and immutable laws of God, which a man ignores and disobeys to his cost….Those who violate His laws not only offend the divine Majesty but degrade themselves and humanity.”
Perhaps the most direct affirmation of Church teaching was presented by St. John Paul, who said: “On my part I owe it to my Apostolic Office to reaffirm as clearly and as strongly as possible what the Church of Christ teaches in this respect, and to reiterate vigorously her condemnation of artificial contraception and abortion.”
He also said: “Anti-life actions such as contraception and abortion are wrong and are unworthy of good husbands and wives.”

Dissenting Theologians

The teaching of the Catholic Church on contraception has not changed — and can never change. In 1988, St. John Paul summarized the Church’s teaching regarding birth control in a single sentence: “No personal or social circumstances have ever or can ever justify such an [contraceptive] act.”
He also firmly stated that the ban on contraception “cannot be questioned by the Catholic theologian,” much to the consternation of dissenting theologians in the Western world.
In summary, the Roman Catholic Church has consistently condemned contraception as a gross violation of the natural law since her founding, and has been absolutely consistent in this teaching ever since. In a sense, the Church is compelled to do this, since she does not have the authority to abridge or nullify the natural law in any respect.
Thus, it is impossible for the Church to ever accept or condone the practice of birth control. Those who demand that the Church “soften” her opposition to contraception for “pastoral” or other reasons simply do not comprehend what either the Roman Catholic Church or the natural law really is.