An Unhealed Wound

Article

That love which makes youth beautiful has for its aim and issue a creative act, the founding of a family

From “Religion and Sex”

By G. K. Chesterton

May 28, 2018

Bioethics

Article

From “Contraception and the Council”

For the first time, as the culmination of a slow evolution, a council gave authoritative teaching on coital purpose

By John T. Noonan

May 28, 2018

Article

“The Symbol of Birth Control,” editorial

The birth control debate is the great symbol of the Church’s attempt to come to terms with its own history

By The Editors

June 3, 2018

Article

From “The Encyclical Crisis”

Those who contradict this encyclical must do it out of love for the whole Church, out of love for those whose faith is endangered

By Bernhard Häring

June 3, 2018

Bishops

Article

This is no time to leave the Church, but a time to make it what it should be

From “An Alternative Proposal”

By Daniel Callahan

June 3, 2018

Article

From “The Troubling Spirit”

Sectarianism of “party men” is what threatens the Church—the Catholic Church—today

By William Clancy

June 3, 2018

Article

“Anniversary Waltz,” editorial

Rather than enhancing the church’s teaching on sexuality, the encyclical unwittingly undermined it

By The Editors

June 3, 2018

Article

From “Sex: How Odd of God”

Humanae vitae was a regressive moment in Catholic history and the history of human sexuality

By Robert G. Hoyt

June 3, 2018

Article

From “A Disembodied ‘Theology of the Body’”

A theology of the body ought at least to have feet that touch the ground

By Luke Timothy Johnson

June 3, 2018

Article

From “A Bitter Pill”

A historian explains how silence on contraception drove a regrettable wedge between the clergy and laity on sexual morality

By Leslie Tentler

June 3, 2018

Theology

Vatican II

Article

From “Indefensible: Moral Teaching after ‘Humanae Vitae’”

Humanae vitae damaged not only the respect of the faithful for the Church's moral teaching, but also the integrity of Catholic moral theology itself

By Michael Dummett

June 3, 2018

Article

From “Does Method Matter? Contraception and Catholic Identity,” Part I

To understand human sex is to focus first on its effects on whole persons, not on its biological outcome

By Lisa Fullam

June 4, 2018

Women in the Church

Article

NFP gets us where it hurts. It requires us to abstain from pleasure on somebody else’s terms

From “Does Method Matter? Contraception and Catholic Identity,” Part II

By Christopher C. Roberts

June 4, 2018

Article

From “Contraception and Honesty”

What the ‘Humanae vitae’ debate is—and is not—about

By Peter Steinfels

June 4, 2018

Bishops