The Ban on Contraceptives

The RH Bill contains provisions that allow or encourage use of contraceptives for purposes of population control. However, the Catholic Church considers that contrary to the prime end of marriage which is a union designed for the preservation of the human race through the procreation and education of children.

Since for Christians the voice of the Holy Father is crucial because it guides towards truth and right, let us listen to some official words of the Holy Father because, being successor of the first Pope, he enjoys the support from heaven above. To St. Peter, the first Pope, Jesus said: “Simon, son of Jonah, you are a happy man! Because it was not flesh and blood that revealed this to you but my Father in heaven. So I now say to you: You are Peter and on this rock I will build my Church. And the gates of the underworld can never hold out against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven: whatever you bind on earth shall be considered bound in heaven; whatever you loose on earth shall be considered loosed in heaven” (Mt. 16:17-20).

Since the Popes have succeeded Peter, they also enjoy the assistance of the Holy Spirit in official pronouncements since this is what Jesus promised. Pope Pius XI in the encyclical Casti Connubii [VII] states: “Any use whatsoever of matrimony exercised in such a way that the act is deliberately frustrated in its natural power to generate life is an offense against the law of God and of nature, and those who indulge in such are branded with guilt of a grave sin.”

The teaching of the Church has not changed. On 12 November 1988, Pope John Paul II (already now beatified as Blessed John Paul II) addressed the final session of a three-day meeting of 300 Catholic moral theologians at the Pontifical Lateran University to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Humanae Vitae. There, he summarized the Church’s teaching against birth control in a single sentence: “No personal or social circumstances have ever or can ever justify such an [contraceptive] act.” During this talk, the Pope also firmly stated that the ban on contraception “cannot be questioned by the Catholic theologian,” much to the consternation of dissenting theologians in the Western world. I dare ask therefore to anyone who dares: Who are you to dare dissent from the official stand of the Popes when this alone enjoys the assistance of heaven above and the guarantee of truth. Presupposing our human weakness and limitations, let us at least be open in the quest for the truth. After all, Jesus had assured us—“everyone who seeks always finds” (Mt. 7:8).

At least, be sincere to God, yourself and others in the laborious and honest quest for the truth.