Topic: Brief Look at Humanae Vitae and the Question of Artificial Birth Control

Date originally posted: January 15, 2002

Source of this posting: www.catholicqanda.org (live session)

Moderator who originally posted this source: R.Staley

Question: What does the Catholic Church teach about birth control after marriage?

Answer:

 Brief Look at Humanae Vitae and the Question of Artificial Birth Control

    One of the primary sources for the Church's teaching on birth control is Humanae Vitae, a 1968 encyclical letter of Pope Paul VI.  I encourage you to read and pray over this teaching.  We often think of birth control as a procreation issue.  The Church invites us to see it as a love issue.  Several points are made about the conjugal love between a husband and wife.  One, it is a human love, a product primarily of free will.  Two, conjugal love is total, a complete giving of your whole personhood to another person.  Three, it is both faithful and exclusive.  Four, it is fruitful, it looks beyond itself and seeks to raise up new lives.

    The highest expression of conjugal love between a husband and wife is the conjugal act.  The conjugal act is, one, unitive.  It unites husband and wife with the closest of bonds.  Two, the conjugal act is open to procreation.  It may or may not be procreative, but it is open to that possibility.

    These two meanings of the conjugal act, unitive and open to procreation, are inseparable.  Therefore, the Church teaches that artificial birth control is contrary to God's plan for married love.  Natural forms of birth control are generally allowed because the conjugal act remains both unitive and open to procreation.  The modern form of natural birth control has been proven to be as effective as any artificial means, and without the harmful side effects.

   There is much more that could be said on this topic.  I will make only one more point.   An encyclical is not infallible, but it is an official teaching from the Pope on the Church's understanding of God's revelation to all of us.  It should be given heavy weight by all Catholics.  However, if after forming their consciences (reading the document, talking to a priest, trying to understand the Church's position, praying to see its wisdom), a married couple still in their conscience cannot see that it applies to them, than the encyclical is not binding on them.