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"Thus the couple, while giving themselves to one another, give not just themselves but also the reality of children who are a living reflection of their love, a permanent sign of conjugal unity and a living and inseparable synthesis of there being a father and a mother." John Paul II, Familiaris Consortio, Article 14.

20th CENTURY RESPONSE FROM ROME

POPE PAUL VI

POPE JOHN PAUL II

In 1968, many Catholics had hoped that Pope Paul VI would condone the already widespread practice of using "The Pill". When he reaffirmed traditional Catholic opposition, millions of Catholics obeyed their own conscious instead. Within the next decade an overwhelming number of Catholics said one could be a good Catholic and still contracept.

In his prophetic encyclical against contraception (Humanae Vitae, 1968), Pope Paul predicted that contraceptive use would encourage man to lose respect for woman, considering her "as a mere instrument of selfish enjoyment, and no longer as his respected and beloved companion." Through abortion and contraception, women have been degraded to an object of sexual use. Many relationships now are devoid of any authentic interest in the other, because abortion and contraception have opened an even wider door for manipulation. But this can never be Christian love. As Pope Paul VI told Jean Guitton, "... when one has passed beyond that stage of egoism, when one has truly understood that loved is shared joy, a mutual gift, then one comes to what is truly love."

Speaking at the 1993 World Youth Day in Denver, Colorado, the Holy Father called contraception "inherently evil." He challenged our country with these words: "America, you must come out of your comfortable lifestyles now and you must come out into the streets and into the public places and you must shout the Gospel of Life from the rooftop. Do not be afraid. Jesus Christ is with you."

Pope John Paul II points out in his encyclical Evangelium Vitae that the "contraceptive mentality" has become a breeding ground for abortion: "Such practices are rooted in a hedonistic mentality unwilling to accept responsibility in matters of sexuality, and they imply a self-centered concept of freedom, which regards procreation as an obstacle to personal fulfillment," the Pope writes. "The life which could result from a sexual encounter thus becomes an enemy to be avoided at all costs, and abortion becomes the only possible decisive response to failed contraception."

The following quote from the Holy Father is very profound, and is worth re-reading: "the innate language that expresses the total reciprocal self-giving of husband and wife is overlaid, through contraception, by an objectively contradictory language, namely, that of not giving oneself totally to the other. This leads not only to a positive refusal to be open to life but also to a falsification of the inner truth of conjugal love, which is called upon to give itself in personal totality." John Paul II, Familiaris Consortio, Article 19.

"Children are the incarnation of married love; the material overflowing of two becoming one. Love is always life-giving, always open to the other, always expansive. Those who love find no greater joy than to extend love to others. Children are the natural extension of the love of spouses—the visible sign of the fruitfulness of self-emptying love—and a means of ever deepening joy in marriage. ... I say to you both, mothers and fathers: you have been called to the exalted mission of cooperating with the Creator in the transmission of life (Letter to Families, n. 8); do not be afraid of life! Together proclaim the value of the family and of life. Without these values, there is no future worthy of man!" John Paul II, 14 October 2000, A Message of Life and Hope.

"In marriage man and woman are so firmly united as to become—to use the words of the Book of Genesis—"one flesh" (Gen 2:24). Male and female in their physical constitution, the two human subjects, even though physically different, share equally in the capacity to live "in truth and love". This capacity, characteristic of the human being as a person, has at the same time both a spiritual and a bodily dimension. It is also through the body that man and woman are predisposed to form a "communion of persons" in marriage. When they are united by the conjugal covenant in such a way as to become "one flesh" (Gen 2:24), their union ought to take place "in truth and love", and thus express the maturity proper to persons created in the image and likeness of God.

The family which results from this union draws its inner solidity from the covenant between the spouses, which Christ raised to a Sacrament. The family draws its proper character as a community, its traits of "communion", from that fundamental communion of the spouses which is prolonged in their children. "Will you accept children lovingly from God, and bring them up according to the law of Christ and his Church?", the celebrant asks during the Rite of Marriage. The answer given by the spouses reflects the most profound truth of the love which unites them. Their unity, however, rather than closing them up in themselves, opens them towards a new life, towards a new person. As parents, they will be capable of giving life to a being like themselves, not only bone of their bones and flesh of their flesh (cf. Gen 2:23), but an image and likeness of God—a person.

When the Church asks "Are you willing?", she is reminding the bride and groom that they stand before the creative power of God. They are called to become parents, to cooperate with the Creator in giving life. Cooperating with God to call new human beings into existence means contributing to the transmission of that divine image and likeness of which everyone "born of a woman" is a bearer." John Paul II, Letter to Families, 1994 during the Year of the Family.

They [John and Jesus] were both alive while still in the womb. Elizabeth rejoiced as the infant leaped in her womb; Mary glorifies the Lord because Christ within inspired her. Each mother recognizes her child and each is known by her child who is alive, being not merely souls but also spirits. Tertullian (c. 160 - 240)

Why sow where the ground makes it its care to destroy the fruit? where there are many efforts at abortion? where there is murder before the birth? for even the harlot thou dost not let continue a mere harlot, but makest her a murderer also. You see how drunkenness leads to whoredom, whoredom to adultery, adultery to murder; or rather something even worse than murder. For I have no name to give it, since it does not take off the thing born, but prevents its being born. Why then dost thou abuse the gift of God, and fight with His laws, and follow after what is a curse as if a blessing, and make the chamber of procreation a chamber for murder, and arm the woman that was given for childbearing unto slaughter? For with a view to drawing more money by being agreeable and an object of longing to her lovers, even this she is not backward to do, so heaping upon thy head a great pile of fire. For even if the daring deed be hers, yet the causing of it is thine. Hence too come idolatries, since many, with a view to become acceptable, devise incantations, and libations, and love potions, and countless other plans. Yet still after such great unseemliness, after slaughters, after idolatries, the thing [fornication] seems to belong to things indifferent, aye, and to many that have wives, too. John Chrysostom (347-407) - Homily 24 on Letter of Paul to the Romans.

Council of Elvira (c. 305)
"Canon 68: If a catechumen should conceive by an adulterer, and should procure the death of the child, she can be baptized only at the end of her life."

Council of Ancyra (314)
"Canon 21: Women who prostitute themselves, and who kill the child thus begotten, or who try to destroy them when in their wombs, are by ancient law excommunicated to the end of their lives. We, however, have softened their punishment and condemned them to the various appointed degrees of penance for ten years."

Respect for Human Life - The witness of sacred history
2259 In the account of Abel's murder by his brother Cain, Scripture reveals the presence of anger and envy in man, consequences of original sin, from the beginning of human history. Man has become the enemy of his fellow man. God declares the wickedness of this fratricide: 'What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the ground. And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand.'
2260 The covenant between God and mankind is interwoven with reminders of God's gift of human life and man's murderous violence:
For your lifeblood I will surely require a reckoning... Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for God made man in his own image.
The Old Testament always considered blood a sacred sign of life. This teaching remains necessary for all time.
2261 Scripture specifies the prohibition contained in the fifth commandment: 'Do not slay the innocent and the righteous.' The deliberate murder of an innocent person is gravely contrary to the dignity of the human being, to the golden rule and to the holiness of the Creator. The law forbidding it is universally valid: it obliges each and everyone, always and everywhere.
2262 In the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord recalls the commandment, 'You shall not kill' and adds to it the proscription of anger, hatred and vengeance. Going further, Christ asks his disciples to turn the other cheek, to love their enemies. He did not defend himself and told Peter to leave his sword in its sheath.