“And God created man to his own image: to the image of God He created him: male and female He created them.” (Gen 1:27) Since God is Trinity, therefore infinitely fruitful, eternally begetting His Only Begotten Son, He gave man of His own power to transmit life: “Increase and multiply”! We must never forget that God doesn’t need human parents to bring children in the world – He made Adam and Eve directly, and He creates every human soul of every human being that is conceived. He could also have created every human body. And by the way, Angels don’t reproduce, God made them all directly. There are no family among the angels…
Having said this, one can see the great dignity of being parents, pro-creators, which means working with the Creator, to bring children in the world, for the purpose of filling the places left empty in Heaven by the fall of the bad angels. “To people Heaven with elects”, that is the ultimate and fantastic goal of marriage.
Any surprise, then, that the devils, out of sheer jealousy, will do all they can to prevent humans from taking their places in Heaven? They do that not just by making people fall into mortal sin, live and die in mortal sin, but also by trying from every angle possible to stop humans from reproducing. One of the best means so far has been through contraception, especially “the pill”, since the 1960s in particular.
When Paul VI published in 1968 his encyclical Humanae Vitae which condemned contraception, he took everyone by surprise, as the worldwide trend was really in favor of it.
And sad to say, although many Episcopal Conferences then published statements regarding Humanae Vitae, it is the Canadian Bishops' statement –The Winnipeg Statement, of Sept 27, 1968 - which has been the subject of the most controversy, as it has been widely interpreted as a loophole whereby Catholics may feel permitted to use birth control. Central to the debate is the role and importance of personal religious freedom of conscience.
Paragraph 26 stated: "In accord with the accepted principles of moral theology, if these persons have tried sincerely but without success to pursue a line of conduct in keeping with the given directives, they may be safely assured that, whoever honestly chooses that course which seems right to him does so in good conscience." Which simply means, “if you think contraception is fine, then use it” no matter what the Church teaches.. As Saint Pius X taught in his encyclical on modernism, even the supreme authority in the Church must bow to the individual conscience.
Recently this teaching of Humanae Vitae condemning contraception is back in the news, not only because it is the 50th anniversary of the document, but more so, and sadly so, because many in the Church are trying to reverse this official teaching as they are trying to reverse other teaching concerning various aspects of marriage, such as divorce.
But you will not read in the news that the very first cause of divorce is precisely contraception which goes directly against the very first goal of marriage and which kills love at its source. (To be continued)