Contraception: Why Not? (part 12)

This post is part of a series by Professor Janet E. Smith.

Slide: Humanae Vitae

Humanae Vitae was issued in 1968.  It is fair to say that it dropped on the world like a bomb.  It marked the beginning of a huge divide in the Church.  Major theologians held press conferences and told Catholics they did not need to live by this decision, that it was based on inadequate understanding of natural law and that Catholics were free to do what their consciences told them to about contraception.  It is certainly true that Catholics are obliged always to act by their conscience.  But we must remember that the conscience is not an individual’s opinion.  The conscience is really the place within – it’s called the inner sanctuary – where a person talks with God and tries to find out what God deems to be right.  A judgment of the conscience should not be what the individual judges to be right, but what God judges to be right.  If a Catholic is confused about contraception, he or she needs to ask: What does God think about contraception?

But how do we know what God thinks? Catholics naturally look to the Church to learn what God thinks since Catholics belong to a church that claims to be guided by God, the Holy Spirit.

After one of my talks, a woman told me that her conscience was perfectly comfortable with contraception.  I told her I didn’t want to be judgmental but there’s a problem with that statement.  If the conscience is the sanctuary where God speaks to a person, where the Holy Spirit guides us, what she is saying is that the Holy Spirit has managed to tell her that contraception is moral.  That same Holy Spirit did not manage to inform Pope John Paul II that contraception is moral.  Pope John Paul II was on his knees praying for more hours in any given day than most of us are in a month’s time.  And he certainly did not want to place burdens on people.  In his prayer he undoubtedly asked the Holy Spirit: What do you want me to tell your people?  How do I guide them?  How do I bring them closer to Christ?  We know he did not hear the Holy Spirit tell him to teach that contraception is moral.

After his death the media coverage was incredible.  Surprisingly, it was favorable for the most part.  But there was the occasional editorial that actually said that John Paul II was responsible for more deaths than Hitler, Stalin and others because he would not allow the distribution of condoms to stop the spread of HIV.  That is a claim I find really puzzling because, as far as I understand it, most of those who are in danger of transmitting the HIV are fornicators, adulterers, and individuals engaging in homosexual acts.  So are these people really not using condoms because the Holy Father says they shouldn’t?  And tomorrow if the Holy Father stood on the balcony of St. Peter’s and said; “All you fornicators, all you adulterers, and all those of you who are engaging in homosexual acts, you can now use a condom,” would it change anything?

Are there governments and social service agencies that aren’t distributing condoms because the Catholic Church says they aren’t?  As a matter of fact, one researcher, from somewhere in South America, did a study that shows that the countries that are the most Catholic have the lowest HIV rate.  And those in which the most condoms are distributed are the ones that have the highest HIV rate.  The data that has been compiled about this issue is not suggesting that the policy of the Church is wrong.  There is only one country in the world that has had a decline in the spread of HIV and that is Uganda.  Uganda is the only country in the world that has made abstinence and fidelity its primary message in attempting to stop the spread of HIV.  So I don’t understand why it is that people want one of the few if not the only institution that is saying abstinence is the surest way to prevent the spread of any sexually transmitted disease, to say something else.

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