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Pat,
Let's look at the history of the artificial birth control issue. (Note that we are referring to *artificial* birth control. Natural birth control has always been permitted.)
Still, another line of argument worth considering is based on the idea that contraception, widespread even at the time of Jesus, was euphemistically referred to as "using magic" or "using Casti Connubii drugs," and Paul and John both prohibit the use of pharmakeia (literally "drugs" or "potions" but variously translated as "secret potions," "magic," and "witchcraft"). Notice in this connection the wording of the Didaché (60–100 A.D.), mentioned earlier as the first extra-biblical Christian conduct book:
"You shall not use magic. You shall not use drugs. You shall not procure abortion. You shall not destroy a new-born child."
(Didache 2:1)
Think and Believe by Frederick W. Marks, (Steubenville, OH: Emmaus Road Publishing, 2012), p. 63 |
So we see evidence that at least hints at this all the way back to the first century. Artificial birth control was forbidden all the way through history, by all Christian denominations, until 1930, when the Anglicans, in their 1930 Lambeth conference, permitted it under very limited circumstances. The Catholic Church's position on artificial birth control was reaffirmed by Casti Connubii in the same year.
When a papal commission was formed by Pope John XXIII to discuss the issue of birth control, eminent historian John Noonan was invited to give a lecture on the history of the church's teaching on contraception. In his book on contraception, Noonan shows that historically the Christian church has, at least until 1930, always taught that contraception was immoral. He summarizes his findings in the introduction: "The teachers of the Church have taught without hesitation or variation that certain acts preventing procreation are gravely sinful. No Catholic theologian has ever taught, 'Contraception is a good act.' The teaching on contraception is clear and apparently fixed forever."
Aquinas and the Theology of the Body: The Thomistic Foundations of John Paul II's Anthropology, by Thomas Petri ed. by Matthew Levering and Thomas Joseph White, Thomistic Ressourcement Series (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2016), VII, 46–47 |
In fact, the universality of the Christian moral prohibition on contraception was such that it was illegal in many places in the U.S. This was not addressed until 1965 with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling, Griswold vs. Connecticut. This pertained to the Connecticut Comstock Act of 1873. According to Wikipedia,
| 'The law made it illegal to use "any drug, medicinal article, or instrument for the purpose of preventing conception...". Violators could be "... fined not less than fifty dollars or imprisoned not less than sixty days nor more than one year or be both fined and imprisoned"'. |
Connecticut is not exactly known for being a culturally backward state.
When "The Pill" was introduced in the 1960s, many people wanted it and wanted Pope St. Paul VI to abolish the pre-existing position on artificial birth control, allowing the use of The Pill. A pontifical commission met from 1964 to 1966 to study the issue. In 1968 Pope Paul VI issued an encyclical titled Humanae Vitae when he once again, to the consternation of many, reaffirmed the Church's constant teaching on marriage and the exclusion of artificial birth control, even with The Pill.
Eric |
