Abortion, Contraception and the Church Fathers (Catholic teaching unchanged for 2000 yrs)

NC Register ^ | February 16, 2012 | FATHER MITCH PACWA SJ

[NYer]

The recent indignity by which the Obama administration wants to mandate everyone, including all Catholic institutions or their insurers, to pay for contraception, sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs, has raised the issue of Catholic teaching on these issues.

Some commentators have mistakenly asserted that the Catholic ban on these practices only goes back to Humanae Vitae (On the Regulation of Birth), by Pope Paul VI in 1968, or as far back as Casti Connubii (Of Chaste Wedlock), by Pope Pius XI in 1931.

The latter encyclical was written in response to the change of moral doctrine by the Anglican Church, which undermined centuries of Protestant condemnation of contraception by permitting it at the Aug. 15, 1930 Lambeth Conference.

Paul VI wrote Humanae Vitae in response to the then newly invented birth control pill, rejecting it as a legitimate means of contraception for Catholics. However, these encyclicals, along with the 20th century’s nearly 100 other Vatican statements condemning artificial birth control, were simply restating the continuous history of moral theology on this topic.

Catholics do well to know this history of moral teaching on contraception and abortion to back up our position against the mandate, as well as to know better how to live the Catholic faith. Therefore, we will present some of the texts from the patristic (early Christian) sources to demonstrate how early was the Christian rejection of these practices, known widely in the Greco-Roman world.

The earliest reference to contraception and abortion is in the Didache, a document from the second half of the first century or early second century. Didache reads: “You shall not practice birth control, you shall not murder a child by abortion, nor kill what is begotten” (2).

[NYer]

Fragment of the Didache

[NYer]

Not only did many of the great theologians address abortion and contraception, but so did some councils. The Council of Elvira in Spain (305) decreed two canons forbidding the sacraments to women who committed abortion: “If a woman becomes pregnant by committing adultery, while her husband is absent, and after the act she destroys (the child), it is proper to keep her from Communion until death, because she has doubled her crime” (63). Canon 68 reads: “If a catechumen should conceive by an adulterer, and should procure the death of the child, she can be baptized only at the end of her life.”

[Mrs. Don-o]

bttt

[cvq3842]

I think this is an interesting philosophical debate, and it has awakened some thoughts in me.

I enjoy the company of the opposite sex as much as anyone. (I will forego the details.) But I never really thought about this aspect before: if someone’s taking a pill, or using what is essentially the equivalent of surgical gloves (do I have to spell it out?) in connection with an activity, that doesn’t sound like the definition of “intimacy” to me. Sounds like the opposite! On some level, it makes the execrise seem kind of silly, or pointless in a way. Like going wading in the ocean but wearing a full deep-sea diver’s suit.

No, I am not starting a crusade to ban birth control. but it’s interesting for me to realize that some of the ideas I have taken for granted are changing.

I don’t know if this makes sense. please delete if inappropriate.

[ApplegateRanch]

(Catholic teaching unchanged for 2000 yrs)

TEN TIMES older than the outdated Constitution; and both written by dead white men! That PROVES the teaching is out of date, and needs to CHANGE! /SARC

[NYer]

I am not starting a crusade to ban birth control. but it’s interesting for me to realize that some of the ideas I have taken for granted are changing. I don’t know if this makes sense.

On the contrary, it makes perfectly good sense.

Few realize that up until 1930, all Protestant denominations agreed with the Catholic Church’s teaching condemning contraception as sinful. At its 1930 Lambeth Conference, the Anglican church, swayed by growing social pressure, announced that contraception would be allowed in some circumstances. Soon the Anglican church completely caved in, allowing contraception across the board. Since then, all other Protestant denominations have followed suit. Today, the Catholic Church alone proclaims the historic Christian position on contraception.

Evidence that contraception is in conflict with God’s laws comes from a variety of sources that will be examined in this tract. Read More

Thanks for the post and ping!

[St_Thomas_Aquinas]

-—No, I am not starting a crusade to ban birth control. but it’s interesting for me to realize that some of the ideas I have taken for granted are changing.
I don’t know if this makes sense. please delete if inappropriate-—

The Spirit is working in you, if I may be presumptuous. You’re absolutely correct.

One aspect of the argument against artificial means of contraception (or artificially induced sterility, as I prefer to call it), that Pope John Paul II emphasized, is that the act of contracepting makes the marital act a lie. “I love you, but not enough to give myself completely to you.”

Seriously, Google “Humanae Vitae.” It’s actually a very easy read. The pope bases his arguments in nature. In fact, he never appeals to divine revelation.

I’ve been where you’ve been.

[cvq3842]

Thanks!

[cvq3842]

Thanks very much, and thanks in advance for any other replies.

Yes, people can be taught, but realizing it and truly understanding the point has to come from within. And it finally did for me.

I appreciate the comments, and the encouragement!

Maybe one human being improved his world-view today. Only a few billion more to go! But that’s how things happen, one mind at a time, one soul at a time. :)

[Tax-chick]

In addition to saying to your spouse, “To be honest, I like the orgasm, but I don’t want to be “that” close!” contraception also says to God, “Hey, you made us wrong!”

Most creatures engage in sexual activity only as a reproductive function, but humans have reached the point of wanting to use their sexual faculties only in ways that can’t produce offspring. It’s “species suicide.”

[Brian Kopp DPM]

The devil was often depicted in medieval days as a rabid dog chasing and biting his own tail.

Likewise Obama, in launching this HHS intifada against the Church, is having unintended and wholly unexpected consequences. Its forcing people to look at these issues again, or for the very first time. And instead of separating people from these traditional views on contraception, it will lead to a renaissance of these views.