The current debate over health insurance and contraception has raised interesting questions for people of faith, particularly Catholics. I’m past menopause, and so contraception is not an issue for me. Yet I’m interested in it—in the same way I remain interested in pregnancy or childbirth. Avoiding or embracing pregnancy is the stuff of real life—the vivid centerpiece of youth and middle age. As a woman, a mother, and a Catholic, I’m part of it. I remember the drama, the excitement, the fear. Pregnancy, childbirth, and breastfeeding are intense experiences. For the sustained nature of the physical bond, nothing compares. But it begins with sex, and sex is never simple.
And so it is unsettling when men who may never have experienced sex feel qualified not just to speak about it but to pronounce on it with certainty. In an article in the New York Times (February 18), Fr. Roger Landry, a priest in my old diocese of Fall River, Massachusetts, is quoted as saying, “What happens in the use of contraception, rather than embracing us totally as God made the other, with the masculine capacity to become a dad, or the feminine capacity to become a mom, we reject that paternal and maternal leaning.”
Well, no, Fr. Landry, we don’t. We don’t reject it. We make a decision about it. We recognize that pregnancy is a possibility, and we decide whether this is the right time for us to have a baby. We acknowledge that we are more than just potential (or actual) parents. One of the surest signs of youth—in any profession—is an unswerving adherence to literal interpretations. New teachers cling to the curriculum, whether or not the class is getting it. Young doctors focus on the clear x-ray, unable to see the patient in front of them writhing in pain. Parish priests preach the letter of the law, while their parishioners refuse to follow rules created without reference to the reality they know. But the rules aren’t just unrealistic. They are often irrelevant, based on incorrect or incomplete information.
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Fr. Landry goes on to say, “Contraception…make[s] pleasure the point of the act, and any time pleasure becomes the point rather than the fruit of the act, the other person becomes the means to that end. And we’re actually going to hurt the people we love.” At one level, this is insightful and nuanced. When he laments how frequently such objectification happens to women in sexual relationships, Fr. Landry sounds almost feminist. And he is right that a relationship that’s only about the pursuit of pleasure is demeaning and ultimately hurtful.
He is wrong, though, to assume that using contraception automatically makes “pleasure the point of the act.” This is how adolescents think. Teenagers dream of constantly available sex, uninhibited by any possibility of pregnancy. That priests would talk the same way about sex between a husband and wife who have chosen to use contraception reflects inexperience and adolescent projection.
Adults understand that good sex, with or without contraception, goes deeper than pleasure. It is complex and demanding. And pleasure isn’t necessarily a part of it. Any human encounter requiring honesty and surrender has the potential for both revelation and pain. The communication, healing, and strengthening that good sex ensures is foundational to a marriage. Pure pleasure the point of the act? What is Fr. Landry talking about?
Distrust of pleasure is one hallmark of the church’s teaching about sex. This is odd because, as Catholics, we also believe that “eye has not seen nor ear heard the wonders God has prepared for those who love Him.” But that aside, what is the church’s antidote to the dread prospect of people having too much fun in bed? Children.
The thing is, children are also a deep source of pleasure, joy, and fun. The bishops, while recognizing this truth, nonetheless focus on babies as natural results of the biological act, as consequences and responsibilities—not as persons who are sought after and gladly welcomed. (Indeed, people who seek too vigorously to have children are also criticized as trying to play God, to control what should be divinely ordained.)
I understand what is behind the bishops’ anxiety over designer parenthood—the demand for too much control over what kind of children we have. And I agree that sexual license is a serious threat to happiness, order, and the good of the human community.
But every human activity has the potential to become unbalanced. Having children mindlessly, year after year, as former generations of Catholics did, is just as harmful to the social good as the refusal to connect sex with pregnancy. Visit India, Fr. Landry. Talk with the women here who are treated purely as producers of sons.
To defend contraception within marriage is not to defend sexual license. Married couples who have pledged a lifetime of commitment to each other and their families have the right and the duty to make their own decisions about contraception. The church’s role is to help them arrive at the decision that is right for their lives. It is not to dictate one-size-fits-all rules that have no foundation in practical experience.
The church has made a spectacle of itself by promoting an immature version of sexuality that is missing the sinew of lived experience. It used to frighten people into submission. Now it simply makes them smile a little sadly. I’m a prolife Catholic who practiced only Natural Family Planning. But I’m smiling, too. Because I’m sad for my church.
Ed, I didn't think any modern Catholic believed in the inerrancy of the Bible, Old Testament or New. I haven't since I noticed that the Gospel of Matthew says Jesus was born in Bethlehem, then went with Mary and Joseph to Egypt and later to Nazareth, while the Gospel of Luke says Jesus, Mary and Joseph went from Bethlehem to Jerusalem to Nazareth without mentioning Egypt at all. The most ardent defender of inerrancy ought to have trouble reconciling these two accounts.
Where you and I and a lot of other posters part ways is that you apparently trust that the everything popes and bishops say and write must be infallible because they're guided by the Holy Spirit. Really? Was the Holy Spirit telling popes and bishops to hide pedophile priests and lie about their undergoing "treatment," and to ignore the victims?
History records atrocities committed by people of all religious faiths in accordance with what they were sure was God's will. Since popes and bishops have normal human frailties, surely some have "heard" a voice of the Holy Spirit that wasn't actually there.
Michael and Janet,
First, learn the meaning of fundamentalist before tossing the word about incorrectly and making fools of yourselves. I'm orthodox. I understand what the development of doctrine is and i know the difference between doctrine, discipline, and papal opinion. I know when it's fair game to question a pope and when what he says reflects an unalterable divine truth no longer in doubt, when the question has been decided. None of your posts indicate either of you do. You think conscience trumps doctrine. How convenient. You remind me of James Randi (The Amazing Randi - google him) who told me the reason he doesn't believe in God is because he doesn't want there to be a God. An honest atheist. You offer no better reasons for eshewing the Church's teachings on mearless Fridays or no artificial contraception. Your main debating tools are mockery and the sophomoric ad hominem attack. Lay out the defenses of your positions. Then we can talk.
The fact that you would give the meatless Fridays rule and the ban on contraception the same weight shows that you might be the one having problems makng the proper distinctions. Doesn't matter; I have a feeling even the pope might find your ecclesiolatry troubling. Or maybe it's "magisteriolatry.". Makes no difference; both are rooted in fear and in an insatiable craving for security in the wrong things.
Ed:
I try to be respectful of your orthodox views despite my disagreement with them. I don't believe Janet or myself have written anything foolish as you claim. I have been studying moral theolgy for more than 4 years, full time, and have two prominent moral theologians as mentors. I may not be an expert, but I do know what I am talking about and can substantiate my argumentation. Most importantly, I study the moral theories and argumentation put forth by both sides of the theological debate.
It is not I alone who believes that conscience trumps doctrine, it was Vatican II that reminded us that an informed conscience, giving respect and adequate reflection to Church teachings, constant prayer, frequent receipt of the sacraments and an opennes to further education and the guidance of one's spiritual advisor....is the ultimate moral authority. There is legitimate philosophical and theological arguments that are a sound basis for a disagreement on certain Church doctrines, such as contraception. According to you, there are none and you believe it is not fair game to question the doctrine of contraception.
It is obvious to me that you don't know what you are talking about when it comes to the underlying principles and history of contraception, or the theological debate that has been going on for 44 years.
You have a right to your opinion, but don't disparage those that disagree with the Chruch over the teachings about contraception. Despite what your think, those that disagree can love God and be faithful Catholics. I have laid out my arguments against contraception. You have looked but have not seen, you have read but have not understood. You have ignored all examples I have laid out to demonstated how the moral absolute of contraception, inclusive of its pastoral practices, is a doctrine of inconsistency and insensibility.
I even laid out some of the issues in the post-Vertitatis Spendor debate regarding contraception in one of by blogs, and referenced for further study and detail two most recent outstanding essays, by William Murphy and Joseph Selling published in Theological Studies, the most prestigious Catholic Theological Journal in the U.S. Both essays represent the best of scholarship from both sides.
As for your references to meatless Fridays, and some of your other assetions of certitude, I will let those that have read your comments to be the judge about who has made foolish arguments.
If you want to have a discussion, go back and reread the many comments I have made that directly addressed your remarks. Then, we can proceed to have an intelligent conversation.
Janet:
The book I referenced was not written by Patty Crowley. The author is Robert McClory...his book is "Turning Point: the inside story of the PBCC and how HV changed the life of Patty Crowley and the future of the church." It is a great read.
Michael J. Barberi,
"Ed does not see the suffering, moral dilemma and conflict that some of these sexual teachings are causing millions of Catholics." How do you know what I see and don't see? You don't. So I'll tell you. The morality of an act is intrinsic to the act, independent of whether someone who commits the act is aware of it or has a tough time living the Faith. I never judge the person, just the act in light of the Church's teachings. Christ never promised an easy life, just a marvelous afterlife for those who listen. You misrepresnt what I do say and infer what I don't say. Not everything the pope says is doctrine. Paul VI rejected what the majority said because they were wrong. Doctrine isn't decided by a show of hands but by its internal truth. What you have going for yourself in these discussions is an ignorance of the nature of the Church, the papacy, doctrine, infallibility - these for starters. I give you the benefit of the doubt that your defense of your claims doesn't arise from a hardened heart, the sin aganst the Holy Spirit. There's a lot more hope that those who don't know what they're talking about will see the light than there is for those who refuse to see the light.
Angela Stockton - inerrancy of the bible; infallibility, etc.
The bible as the inspired word of God is inerrant by its very nature, but this inerrancy has nothing to do with how the underlying truths of scripture are expressed. The bible is a library of books written over the course of 1,000 years by many authors, inspired by the Holy Spirit, using a variety of literary styles - allegory, history, poetry, song, parable, apocalyptic writing, etc. The literal truths of the bible lie behind the printed word. Genesis has two different creation accounts that talk about the cosmos being created in 6 days. How to explain the seeming discrepancies? Simple - the writer (or writers) used allegorical language that people of the time would've understood in order to state a deeper truth, that God created everything from nothing. including a first set of parents who somehow disobeyed God bringing death and suffering into the world. Whether or not they lived in a garden with a serpent and an apple tree nearby isn't the point or literal truth of the story. If you and I witness the same sporting event and you say there were 40,000 people in the stands and I say there were 50,000, does that have any bearing on the fact that the event took place? When Christ says faith is like a mustard seed, does he mean it literally looks like a mustard seed or is he using a metaphor to teach the lesson that even a small amount of true faith can do great things?
As for infallibility, I'll say it again - I never said that everything a pope or bishop says is infallible. Far from it. Technically it's the Church as a divine institution that's infallible when it comes to matters of faith and morals. But when the Church says something is a doctrine, it is saying that this something is part of God's eternal truth necessary for our salvation and not something made up by the Church.
Janet,
Yes or no - does the Church have the right to make binding laws under its Christ-given power to bind and loose? If you guess the right answer, then you'll know where meatless Fridays, no artificial contraception, no abortion, women priests, etc, stand in the grand moral scheme of things.
Michael,
I wouldn't place too much faith in the vast majority of American moral theologians. Many of them think they're a co-existing magisterium. I've been studying theology since before HV hit the headlines. But time spent with one's nose in books doesn't mean beans if one's guide isn't Christ's gospel as understood through the teaching authority of the Church. Look at sad Hans Kung. You uttered three very important words - an informed concience. We must always strive to conform our consciences to the mind and heart of the Church. You keep bringing up the debates on settled issues. Once a moral question has been decided, what is there to debate? Doctrine isn't about to be undone. I'll ask you one question - what's it like to take a doctrine for the purpose of finding a loophole that convinces you that you're exempted from heeding it?
Michael B:
Your patience is Job-like.
I suspect even quoting Ratzinger about the primacy of conscience cannot persuade, but no matter, really.
“Over the pope as the expression of the binding claim of ecclesiastical authority there still stands one’s own conscience, <b>which must be obeyed before all else, if necessary even against the requirement of ecclesiastical authority.</b>
This emphasis on the individual, whose conscience confronts him with a supreme and ultimate tribunal [God], and one which in the last resort is beyond the claim of external social groups, even of the official Church, also establishes a principle in opposition to increasing totalitarianism. Genuine ecclesiastical obedience is distinguished from any totalitarian claim which cannot accept any ultimate obligation of this kind beyond the reach of its dominating will.”
Joseph Ratzinger, Part I, Chapter 1, Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, Vol. V of COMMENTARY ON THE DOCUMENTS OF VATICAN II, ed. Herbert Vorgrimler (New York: Herder and Herder, 1969, p. 134)
Thank you for your education on so much in these posts. I profit immeasurably.
Michael B: I have the right book...just referred to it as the "Crowley" book because it is centrally about their experiences on the PBCC. Thanks again.