Now that the health plan/contraception and Komen Foundation/Planned Parenthood controversies are behind us (more or less), let’s step back and take a little deeper look at the birth control issue.
Odd term, “birth control,” emphasis on “control.” The Catholic Church hierarchy (i.e. the Vatican, cardinals and bishops) want to control the reproductive choices of the Catholic laity. The laity, meanwhile, have claimed control of those choices. Not entirely, of course, because no form of birth control is foolproof (except, ironically, abortion, but that’s another argument). Nonetheless, couples want to have as much control as possible over when they bring life into the world. And why not? It’s a big step, not to be taken lightly.
The position of the Catholic Church is that using artificial contraception is immoral.
Wait, that’s not true.
It’s merely the official position of the Catholic hierarchy, a small minority of the Catholic Church. According to the Second Vatican Council, the Church is “the people of God” — all the people, not just the hierarchy. And most lay Catholics believe that artificial contraception is not immoral. Surveys have established that the vast majority of Catholic women use, have used or will use artificial contraception. In other words, most Catholics support and practice planned parenthood. Since the Church is the people, the Church has spoken: Artificial contraception is not immoral. In fact, used responsibly, it is a moral good.
But the hierarchy, aka the “Magisterium,” continues to insist that birth control is immoral — and always has been.
Which isn’t true either.
This has only been the Catholic hierarchy’s teaching since 1930, when Pope Pius XI issued his encyclical, Casti Connubii, in response to advances in rubber technology, which suddenly made condoms and diaphragms reliable and available. Before that, widespread artificial contraception didn’t really exist. This is a very recent teaching indeed.
It was reaffirmed by Pope Paul VI in 1968 in his encyclical, Humanae Vitae, in spite of the fact that an official papal commission, appointed by the pope to study the birth control question, strongly recommended that the teaching be changed. Catholic thought has long held that if a canon of Church law or a teaching of the Magisterium is not “received” by the Church proper (the people, remember), then it is rendered invalid. In this instance, Catholics have spoken in very convincing fashion over the last 44 years: Artificial contraception is not immoral.
Nevertheless, the American bishops were beside themselves with outrage when the Obama administration recently ruled that Catholic universities and hospitals should (like everyone else, which seems only fair) be required to offer contraception coverage in their health plans (as many Catholic institutions already do). Not required to offer contraception itself, you understand, just covered so it’s available to all families who want to practice responsible planned parenthood.
“This is an issue of conscience!” the bishops thundered, “a matter of religious liberty!”
By which they apparently mean only the conscience and liberty of the hierarchy, not the conscience and liberty of most lay Catholics (and non-Catholic staff members of these institutions) who want to practice planned parenthood — a moral good, remember, in their eyes.
As it happens, Vatican II also had a lot to say about religious liberty and matters of conscience. The Declaration on Religious Freedom, Dignitatis Humanae, an official Council document approved by the overwhelming majority of bishops in 1965, makes it quite clear that the ultimate authority in matters moral is the individual’s conscience — not the Pope, not the Magisterium, not the Church hierarchy. An individual’s conscience should be informed (by Church teaching, scripture and tradition), but the ultimate choice is between the individual and God — as it should be.
The hierarchy doesn’t like the U.S. government telling them what to do. The Catholic laity, in turn, has refused to allow the hierarchy to tell them what to do. What works for the hierarchy, likewise works for the lowerarchy. Would you have it any other way?
The Catholic hierarchy needs to listen to the teaching of its laity on this one, not the other way around. Artificial contraception (i.e. pre-conception birth control) is a moral good when practiced responsibly. The current teaching of the Vatican is based on an outdated notion called “natural law” — that the only purpose of sex is the transmission of life and the authorities have divined (they’re a little fuzzy on this part) that God wants it that way.
As always, Church bureaucrats get in trouble when they use the word “only.” It is perfectly valid to teach that transmission of life is the “primary” purpose of sex, but for most Catholics, it is not the “only” purpose. Myriad realities make responsible planned parenthood a greater good than unplanned pregnancies.
As a people, Catholics are growing up. It is no longer acceptable to most couples of conscience that we always and everywhere accept pregnancy at nature’s whim. Most believe a wise and benevolent deity would want us to be responsible partners and participants in the reproductive process. There is no disrespect for life with artificial contraception, as there is with abortion. Abortion is post-conception birth control, a wholly different matter.
The Catholic Church’s teaching needs to grow up, just as Catholics have grown up.
The appearance of “the pill” in 1960 was a Promethean moment in the history of human development. In Greek mythology, Prometheus went up to Mt. Olympus and stole fire. In retribution, he was punished by jealous gods, but the deed was irreversible and his act of thievery made the lives of all human beings immeasurably better. It was worth the consequences.
Now human beings have taken control of their reproductive processes, and the self-appointed “enforcers” of God’s will are still trying to punish us for it. They want the control back. But this change, too, is irreversible, and most of us believe that God would want it that way. He (and She) wants us to grow up.
It’s time for the Catholic hierarchy to grow up, too.