A New Birth Control Commission?

• 7 years ago

By JOHN F. KIPPLEY

(Editor’s Note: At this point, reports about a possible new birth control commission are unconfirmed. This commentary first appeared on http://nfpandmore.org/wordpress/.)

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The week of May 13th started wonderfully with widespread efforts to honor the Blessed Virgin Mary as Our Lady of Fatima. The work week was quickly dimmed, however, by reports that Pope Francis is thinking about convening a special commission to examine Humanae Vitae.

But then it occurred to me that a well-balanced commission could serve the Church and world very well.

Let’s hear the arguments for marital contraception and/or contraception-in-general. Are there any arguments whose logic does not amount to a full scale abandonment of the basic principles of Christian morality and the acceptance of situation ethics? The arguments that I have seen for the acceptance of marital contraception cannot say a firm no to marital sodomy or sodomy-in-general.

Then let’s hear the arguments for marital chastity and for chastity-in-general. Let the world hear the arguments of St. John Paul II in favor of traditional morality and in support of Humanae Vitae in particular. Let the world see the sociological evidence marshaled by Mary Eberstadt and others regarding the effects of the Pill and contraception-in-general — amounting to a wholesale defense of the prophetic warnings of Pope Paul VI in H.V., n. 17.

Let the world hear the very simple argument that sexual intercourse is intended by God to be a marriage act, and that within marriage it ought to be a true marriage act, affirming once again their covenant of love “for better and for worse” including the imagined worse of possible pregnancy.

Let the world see that the entire sexual revolution results from thinking we can take apart what God has put together in the marriage act.

Who knows? That might help many non-Catholic Christians to accept the pre-1930 anti-contraception teaching of their respective communions.

Let the world hear the testimony of converts who entered the Church at least indirectly through the teaching of Humanae Vitae.

Let the world hear the facts behind the assertion that Ecological Breastfeeding is a natural form of baby spacing.

Let the world know that 13 months before Humanae Vitae a German doctor published a study of natural family planning that found a 99 percent level of effectiveness for avoiding pregnancy. Did the German bishops and theologians bring this to the attention of Pope Paul VI or did they suppress it as they prepared to dissent?

I don’t know whom the Pope would invite to be on such a commission, but there are some who definitely should be on the commission. The absence of people who have defended and explained the teaching of Humanae Vitae would be a clear sign that the Pope was not interested in a fair commission, and that would only increase the divisions already started by his Amoris Laetitia.

Perhaps Pope Francis would benefit as much as anyone from hearing a clearheaded, loving, and passionate defense of Humanae Vitae.

So bring on the commission. With the right membership, it could be helpful; without the right membership it would be a disaster.

And, of course, any benefits from an open discussion of Humanae Vitae would have to get through the filtering process of the liberal and hedonistic media even to reach the masses. And once heard, those benefits would depend upon being received in minds and hearts willing to hear that the teaching of Christ about the daily cross applies to sexuality as well every other aspect of life.