Contraception, Sex, and Women
in the Roman Catholic Church
By George Desnoyers
Although the Roman Catholic Church (RCC) teaches that both contraception and
fornication are sufficiently grave to qualify as mortal sins, the Church has
consistently taught that contraception is worse than fornication, or even
sex with one’s own mother. In fact, that last thought has been explicitly
stated by some of the Church’s most important moral theologians. Even Thomas
Aquinas, whom some say is the Church’s greatest theologian, asserted that incest
that preserved the integrity of the sex act itself is less sinful than
contraception.
Before proceeding, it should be noted that, according to the RCC
any sexual sin involving pleasure is sufficiently grave to be a mortal
sin if the other conditions necessary for a mortal sin are also met.
Accordingly, even thinking about masturbating can be a mortal sin in the
eyes of the Church.
[When studying the Church’s teachings regarding the conditions that must be met
for a mortal sin, pupils sometimes joke that one would almost have to be a moral
theologian in order to commit one. This is probably not the case in the matter
of sex sins. The Church has always been quick to order its severest penalties -
up to and including the death penalty - to its sinners in the area of sex.]
To get back to contraception, until the Canon Law of 1917/1918, the
Church taught that contraception was equivalent to murder – and not just murder
only, but murder of one’s own children. That was considered far more serious
than sex outside marriage. Although there have been some changes in Church
laws, and a complete revision of the Canon Law in 1983, the basic Church
teachings on the seriousness of sins in the area of "artificial" contraception
have not been altered.
One interesting inconsistency in the Church’s past treatment of
contraception is that for a period the Church was treating contraception as
murder at the very same time it was allowing abortions during the early period
of pregnancy when [it was thought] the embryo was not animated.
It is natural to wonder how the Church could have ever
thought that the use of contraception is so awful, perhaps even worse than sex
with one’s own mother, or the murder of one’s own children.
For
one thing, the Bible does speak approvingly of some sex outside
marriage. For instance, it speaks approvingly (some think only
non-condemningly) of Israel’s patriarchs having concubines in addition to their
multiple wives. For another [less-debatable] example, the Bible speaks
approvingly of a man having a child with the wife of a deceased brother for the
purpose of producing an heir.
To further understand the RCC’s position of making
artificial contraception a more serious sin than sex outside of marriage, it
should be realized that the Church has had an understanding of the sin of Onan
that is unique among nearly all Christian denominations and churches. At least
for a very long time, the RCC understood the sin of Onan to be the spilling of
his seed, while virtually all other Christian organizations have considered the
sin of Onan to be his refusal to produce a child by the wife of his deceased
brother. In fact, the RCC has repeatedly used the word “onanism” to refer, not
just to “coitus interruptus,” but also to all methods of artificial [or
unnatural] birth control.
Another thing to keep in mind while trying to comprehend the
Church’s latest teachings on birth control is that the ever-present fixation on
sexual sins has always been intensified, and the Church’s prohibitions
reiterated more forcefully, when developments outside the Church produced a
favorable condition (a force vector) in the direction of anything deemed a
sexual sin. So, for instance, there was some heightened concern over sexual
sins when condoms made their appearance in the middle of the seventeenth
century. We are still living through a much more intensified wave of
concern about contraception that resulted from the appearance of “the pill” (and
some related developments since). Although “the pill” was not approved for use
in the United States until 1960, it was being tested when Pius XII gave the
Church’s grudging approval to the rhythm method in 1951. Since the Church
approved rhythm, the focus has no longer been on a couple’s intent to avoid
having children (although the Church insists that any couple using natural birth
control must always maintain the intention of ultimately having the “right”
number of children for that couple). The intent to avoid having children at a
particular time is now okay. In 1951, the RCC’s focus moved from the intent of
the couple not to produce children to the effects that various “artificial”
contraceptive techniques of birth control have on the integrity of the sex act.
Some of the Church’s greatest blunders have been in documenting
the thinking of its popes, often by publishing encyclicals. Let’s review the
case of the 1968 encyclical, Humanae Vitae, that condemned artificial
contraception. Within a few weeks of the issuance of Humanae Vitae, the
encyclical had been loudly criticized by thousands of good Catholics around the
world, including several bishops. In the years immediately following, most
bishops took the occasion of Humanae Vitae to teach primacy of
conscience. They taught that, if a Catholic gave serious consideration to the
teaching of the encyclical and still disagreed with it, that individual's own
conscience should be his/her guide, and the person would be no less a Catholic.
No papal encyclical had ever before been the occasion for the wide-spread
teaching of primacy of conscience. Polls consistently show that between
three-quarters and nine-tenths of Catholics disagree with Humanae Vitae’s
position on artificial contraception, and most married Catholics do not feel
guilty when they ignore the teaching of the Church and use artificial
contraception. But there is still a minority of Catholics that believes in
following the dictates of the Church in this area. (The story of Humanae
Vitae, for those not familiar with it, can be learned from chapter six of
Garry Wills' excellent book, "Papal Sin," available in paperback.)
A
central issue the Church has to deal with in the area of artificial
contraception is the Church's previous claims that contraception violates
natural law, law which humans are able to arrive at by the use of reason alone.
If it is so natural to arrive at the law against contraception, why didn’t the
Greeks, who first recognized and defined natural law, know this? Why didn’t the
Jews of biblical times know this? Why didn’t Jesus and the authors of the NT
know this? Why are the Catholic Popes and Curia virtually the only society in
the world that knows this natural law?
Perhaps most reasonable of all to ask is, why didn’t the
special Pontifical Commission on Sexuality that was established by Pope John
XXIII and that reported to Pope Paul in 1965 know of the natural law against
contraception?
That Pontifical Commission was made up of well-educated
people who certainly understood the concept of natural law, and who would
certainly be capable of using their reason to arrive at it. They were people
who, in large part, were picked specifically because they were Catholics in good
standing. They were people whom, it was believed, could be counted on to arrive
at a report favorable to the Church’s past position. In fact, they had all
accepted the Church’s ban on contraception in the past. They began their work
on the Commission in agreement with papal thinking, and very respectful of the
papacy and the Church’s authority.
Let’s
look at the final votes of that Pontifical Commission. There were three
separate votes at the final session in 1965. The sixteen bishops on the
Commission voted nine to three in favor of ending the Church’s prohibition on
contraception [three bishops abstained, and one – the current Pope, John Paul
II, – was absent]. The nineteen theologians on the Commission voted fifteen to
four in favor of ending the Church’s prohibition on contraception. And the non-Episcopal
members of the Commission voted thirty to five in favor of ending the Church’s
prohibition on contraception.
Pope Paul VI was furious when the votes of the Commission were
made public. No wonder. Very few on the Commission agreed with him. So much
for contraception being opposed to natural law, law which humans are supposed to
be able to reach by the use of reason alone.
Here
is some testimony provided the Pontifical Commission on Sexuality. It was
provided by a person who was both a husband and a scholar. “Rhythm destroys the
meaning of the sex act; it turns a spontaneous expression of spiritual and
physical love into a mere bodily sexual relief; it makes me obsessed with sex
throughout the month; it seriously endangers my chastity; it has a noticeable
effect upon my disposition toward my wife and children; it makes necessary my
complete avoidance of all affection toward my wife for three weeks at a time. I
have watched a magnificent spiritual and physical union dissipate and, due to
rhythm, turn into a tense and mutually damaging relationship. Rhythm seems to
be immoral and deeply unnatural. It seems to me diabolical.”
What did this husband-scholar’s wife say? Here’s some of
her testimony. “I find myself sullen and resentful of my husband when the time
of sexual relations finally arrives. I resent his necessarily guarded affection
during the month and I find that I cannot respond suddenly. I find, also, that
my subconscious dreams and unguarded thoughts are inevitably sexual and time
consuming. All this in spite of a great intellectual and emotional
companionship and a generally beautiful marriage and home life.” [Quotes of
this husband and wife are from: Robert Blair Kaiser, "The Politics of Sex and
Religion: A Case History in the Development of Doctrine, 1962-1984" (Leaven
Press of "The National Catholic Reporter," 1985), pp, 95.]
I do
not know whether this couple used a thermometer, or whether they measured
mucus. But, while those activities might turn the ineffective use of "rhythm"
into the more effective “natural family planning” (NFP), I don't believe they
would have significantly altered this couples overall negative experience with
the Church's grudgingly-approved method of birth control.
With experiences like those surrounding the Pontifical
Commission on Sexuality and Humanae Vitae, certain phenomena, like the
dwindling supply of priests and declining church attendance, are easy to
understand. It is handwriting on the wall. The institutional Church is losing
moral credibility and force. There are huge areas, e.g., in promoting equality
of the sexes, where the Church dramatically lags behind a very large part of the
civilized world. And the problem isn't only that the Church is often not
seen as a part of the solution. The Church itself is viewed as a large
contributor to the problem.
From what I see, even after Pope John Paul's long-standing application of litmus tests to candidates for appointment to bishop, the magisterium still does not approve of the Church's ban on artificial contraception. The bishops are just not allowed to speak honestly regarding the issue. Assuming that the magisterium, the Church's teaching authority, resides in the bishops, I believe that the Catholic Church’s magisterium has not supported the Church’s position on contraception for some time. And I think Pope Paul VI knew it too. That is why Paul VI intervened personally in Vatican II’s handling of the issue, deliberately sabotaging the hard work of a Vatican II committee. When word got to Pope Paul VI that a Vatican II committee of bishops was preparing a document that would be in strong disagreement with the Church’s ban on contraception, he had his Secretary of State deliver a letter to the Vatican II committee that demanded the insertion of four "modi" (emendments). The "modi" included a condemnation of contraceptive devices and a declaration of the authority of Casti Connubii. [The final document, which just barely followed the instructions of Pope Paul VI, was Gaudium et Spes (1965).]
Such is now the state of the Church. The pope can exercise such control over a council of the world's bishops! How different from the case of the first ecumenical council (Nicaea, 325 A.D.), when the pope, although a bishop, wasn't even invited!
Many people
feel that the Church’s teachings regarding sex and gender, past and present,
would be entirely different if either men became pregnant or women ran the
Church. Such might very well be the case. The domination of [mostly] celibate
males in the Church has not been a factor favorable to the consideration
of many of the issues that are of greatest concern to women.
Let’s look at just one example of the Church’s treatment of
women. This is a very interesting example, because it is one in which there was
an unusual degree of celibate male support given to the ecclesiastical
consideration of women's issues - just not quite enough. The U.S. bishops
performed okay, the Vatican terribly.
In 1983 the U.S. bishops set out to prepare a letter addressing the
concerns of women. There was a six-bishop drafting committee led by Bishop
Joseph Imesch of Joliet, Illinois. A group of seven women consultants served to
assist the bishops. Over the next two years approximately 75,000 women provided
input to the committee in meetings held in dioceses, on college campuses, and on
military bases. In 1992, after an eight-year period marked at many points with
Vatican meddling, the bishops voted on the final draft. One hundred
thirty-seven bishops voted in favor, and 110 voted in opposition. It was the
first time that the U.S. bishops had voted to reject a pastoral letter
they had prepared. (A two-thirds vote is required for the approval of a
pastoral letter, the most authoritative document the U.S. bishops are permitted
to write.)
At a 1991 meeting held at the Vatican (between the second and
third drafts), Vatican officials assigned to work with the U.S. drafting
committee charged that the pastoral drafting committee had not spoken
"sufficiently as bishops," but simply related the concerns of women. Some of
the Vatican consultants also charged that the drafting committee had only
consulted "radical feminists." Within the context of Christian feminism and
Christian feminist theology, the "radical feminists" are contrasted with
"reformist feminists." The “radical feminists” are often thought of as
post-Christian (in a derogatory sense) or non-Christian; the “reformist
feminists” are usually deemed Christian. So much for the input of 75,000
women. The Vatican officials, in effect, dismissed them as "radical"
post-Christian (derogatory sense) or non-Christian feminists.
One can only wonder how many of those 75,000 women, and how many of
their children, are practicing Catholics today. Isn’t the Church is driving
people away?
[I grew up in the parish of Our Lady of Hope in Springfield, Massachusetts.
During my youth there were several Masses simultaneously on two floors of the
church several times each Sunday morning. And both floors were generally close
to capacity in Catholics. I visited the church a few years ago. I learned that
there are now far fewer Masses, only one floor is used, and the one sanctuary
still in use is generally only about one-third full. You can visit the church,
on Carew St. in Springfield, and check it out.]
The unfortunately credible story of the sabotaging of the U.S.
bishops' important effort to write a pastoral letter addressing the concerns of
women is told on pages 234-245 of Thomas C. Fox's excellent book, Sexuality
and Catholicism (George Braziller, Inc., 1995). Another important book
regarding sex and gender that most Catholics should read is Uta
Ranke-Heimemann’s “Eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven: Women, Sexuality, and the
Catholic Church.” If they ever make me pope, these books will be required
reading for Catholics. Kind of like the opposite of the Index of forbidden
books.
The latter book is currently out of print, but it is usually pretty
easy to find a used copy via the internet by going through “Bookfinder” or some
similar website. A used copy usually costs only about five or six [U.S.]
dollars. But, if necessary, you should mortgage your house to buy one.
George Desnoyers
Pittsfield, Massachusetts