Not so as Fr. Euteneuer explains in the first of a series of video emails explaining common contraception msiconceptions. As I said in the comments section of my previous post on this subject, the Sean Hannity contraception flap is not just about Sean and Fr. E. knows it. That is what prompted this video series. As he mentioned in on his blog under the post ‘Hannity Lessons Learned’:

One final lesson learned. There are literally millions of Catholics out there who, like Mr. Hannity, haven’t the slightest idea about Church doctrine on critical issues and are living in a de facto state of contradiction concerning their own religious faith.

Indeed, the statistics show that over 90% of Catholic couples practice contraception despite the Church’s consistent teaching against it. Fr. E. attributes this to the ‘malaise of religious education’ that resulted after Vatican II. Something that I can attest to, having had nine years of Catholic education. It’s not that I didn’t learn that the Church was against contraception, I always knew that, but I never learned any real good reasons why the Church was opposed to it.

So in his first video Fr. addresses the argument that contraception will prevent abortions. This was one of the reasons that Mr. Hannity gave for why he favors contraception, he would rather people use contraception than have abortions. But does this rationalization hold up? Not when you consider the fact that about 60% of abortions take place because the contraceptive device that was used, failed. And, not only does the use of contraception increase and promote promiscuity, but it perpetuates the ‘abortion mentality’ of rejecting the child – not to mention the abortifacient effect of the birth control bill.

To truly understand and appreciate the Church’s opposition to contraception one must understand her view of the sanctity of human sexuality. As Fr. E. points out, contraception kills not only life, but also love, robbing people of the only gifts that they can really give, the gift of self and the gift of life. The Church holds that sexual intercourse within the covenant of Marriage is to be an act of total self-giving. This beautiful view of marital intercourse means that man and wife come together in a special way to renew their marriage commitment to give themselves entirely to each other. This total self-giving includes our fertility. To borrow from Christopher West in his book The Good News About Sex and Marriage:

The choice to withhold one’s fertility during intercourse, or to refuse to receive it as a gift in one’s spouse, is a contradiction of the deepest essence of conjugal love right at the moment when it should find its most sincere expression. Precisely at marriage’s ‘moment of truth,’ the truth is exchanged for a lie.

There is so much more to contraception and the culture of death that I won’t go into now. I will keep you posted as Fr. Euteneuer comes out with more video emails. Check out the resources on contraception at the Human Life International website, which includes the protestant perspective. Also check out the HLI article, Contraception the Love Killer.

From the Popes:

Pius XI – CASTI CONNUBII
Paul VI – HUMANAE VITAE
John Paul II – FAMILIARIS CONSORTIO