Command Performance Request

Julie asked that explain the Catholic Church’s position on birth control, since, to paraphrase her, Jesus never said anything about birth control in the Bible. While technically true, the Church’s position is more of a correlation of other truths that together add up to the belief that artificial birth control is immoral. I raided my Catechism of the Catholic Church to get the direct scoop, and I will quote from it as necessary.

Let me begin by clarifying that the Church is only against artificial methods of birth control, such as pills, condoms, diaphragms, etc. They have always maintained that natural methods such as Natural Family Planning are really just forms of abstinence and therefore not sinful. Also, this discussion applies to married persons as the Church teaches sex outside of marriage is also sinful. I will start there, with the teaching on sex in marriage.

Of course, marriage is the sacramental bond between a man and a woman. Interestingly, it is the only sacrament in the church which is performed by the participants to each other, where all others are conferred upon someone by a priest. Sex between married persons is a “sign and pledge of spiritual communion. Marriage bonds between baptized persons are sanctified by the sacrament.” In other words, Jesus said that man and woman become one in marriage and sex is not just a physical union, but a spiritual one as well. The purpose of marriage is two fold: it “helps to overcome self-absorption, egoism, pursuit of one’s own pleasure, and to open oneself to the other, to mutual aid and to self-giving”. The other purpose of marriage is to be fruitful and multiply.

Married couples are supposed to give totally of themselves. This is what Jesus means when He says the two will become one. Fruitfulness (the call this fecundity in the Catechism, I had to look it up) is “a gift, an end to marriage, for conjugal love tends to be fruitful.” A child isn’t something added to the marriage from outside but a result of the mutual love between spouses.

Therefore, couples that refrain from sex aren’t actually preventing the procreative act, merely postponing it. In using artificial birth control, you are preventing the procreative act. You are not giving of yourself fully since you are taking an active measure to prevent a child from being conceived. Essentially, you’re relying on human wisdom instead of relying on God, similar to Abraham in the Old Testament. Abraham was promised a son by God. So instead of trusting Him to give him a son through his wife, though barren, Abraham had a son through his concubine, thus thwarting God’s plan and relying on his own wisdom. The real key is that artificial birth control prevents a husband and wife from giving of themselves totally to the other, and is therefore sinful.

Now hopefully, this makes a little sense. Now comes my position. My wife and I practice birth control. We do this for several reasons. First, Natural Family Planning methods do not work with my wife since she has never had a period on a regular schedule in her entire life when not on birth control. Second, the two boys we have already take up all of our energy. One has ADHD and the other has PDD (form of autism). I’m not sure I can handle another child. Third, due to the irregularity of my wife’s period and the fact she’s a heavy bleeder prompted her doctor to put her on birth control to help her manage the symptoms.

Perhaps I should trust in the Lord more. I certainly do in many other areas of my life. However, in this area my wife and I agree. We’re not emotionally equipped to have any more children. The only other option is not to have sex until she reaches menopause and can no longer have children. That’s a LONG wait. So, I’ll suck it up on this one.

I haven’t spoken to my beliefs on sex outside of marriage. I do have a definite opinion on the matter, but will keep it to myself for now. Perhaps at a later date I’ll post about my position on the matter. This post is long enough.