Most everyone knows the Catholic Church remains opposed to birth control use. Despite this unpopular teaching, the majority of Catholics continue to use it.
The reasons for using are heard commonly:
Doesn’t the Church realize the cost of raising a child?
Is the Church aware of the worries of overpopulation?
Can’t the Church just understand that I am simply not ready to have a child?
Yet, have you ever taken time to ask why the Church opposes using contraception?
Although the list could go on for a long time, let me put forward three reasons the Catholic Church has opposed and will always oppose use of contraceptives.
1. Contraception Defies Human Nature
Have you ever thought about what your body “says’ about you?
Nevermind your hairdo, your jewelry, or your fashion sense (or lack thereof). What are you, as a man or as a women, capable of doing by your God-given, human body?
We have the ability, when united with someone of the opposite sex, to generate a new human life. Thus, producing a baby is the right order of our human bodies.
Birth control, instead, declares the human body as flawed. Birth control says human sexuality ought NOT produce human life, and attempts to fix this “error.”
When you do something your body is not designed to do (like lift too heavy a weight, or eat a corrosive chemical), your body reacts negatively. So too with birth control. The side effects of using the Pill, for instance, are extensive.
Weddings are a celebration of two people uniting to become one.
2. Contraception Defies the Purpose of Marriage and Marriage Vows
If you are married, do you remember the vows you took? Do you remember what you agreed to just before those vows?
The priest presiding over a wedding typically has three questions for both the bride and groom preceding the exchange of vows:
1. “(Name) and (name), have you come here freely and without reservation to give yourselves to each other in marriage?”
2. “Will you honor each other as man and wife for the rest of your lives?”
3. “Will you accept children lovingly from God, and bring them up according to the law of Christ and his Church?”
The bride and groom respond “I will” or “yes” (Rite of Marriage #34).
Question number three asked you both if you will accept children from God, and raise them in the Church.
Using contraceptive obviously breaks that vow before God, as it says you are not open to having children.
Did you know that being open to having children is a prerequisite to entering into a valid marriage? Marriage tribunals, when deciding whether to grant an annulment, will need to know if both spouses were open to having children on their wedding day. If one or both spouses were not, then no marriage actually took place.
Sure, the rings may have been exchanged, the cake cut, and the reception occurred. But in God’s eyes, nothing happened. He did not bless that union and He did not give them the Sacrament of Matrimony. In the eyes of the Church, thus, the couple never married.
Again, a marriage tribunal would investigate this and other factors, if ever an annulment was requested. Otherwise, the Church assumes every marriage is valid, until proven otherwise.
3. Using Birth Control Leaves God Out
Quite often followers of the religion maintain a mistaken view of Christianity. They uphold the parts of being kind, of withholding judgment, and promoting forgiveness for sins. But they leave out the command from Jesus to let Him be the Lord of one’s life.
Christ said the whole of the law boils down to two great commandments: Love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength; and love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:36-40).
How are we loving God when we will not trust Him with our fertility and family size? Instead, using contraceptives tells God that He can be the Lord of other parts of your life, just not this fertility part.
In addition, how are we loving our neighbor, namely our children, when we use contraceptives? Instead of welcoming them, we are telling them they are not desired or are unnecessary.
Let us put the contraceptives away and place our trust in God. If we do, we will act in compliance with our design. We will renew our marriage vows. We will be healthier. And we will grow in faith.
In Closing
At the end of the day, we were made to give ourselves away. We are meant to live in community. That is how and where we experience love.
Birth control defies this. It prevents us from giving ourselves completely to the other. It isolates, instead of uniting.
Catholics who have not followed the Church’s teaching in this regard are encouraged to go to Confession and begin to receive the grace to heal.
Your Turn
Please leave a comment.
What are your feelings about the controversial teaching of the Church against contraception?
What can we do to help fellow Catholics understand and embrace the Church’s teaching?
