Stewardship and Birth Control
By
Director of Stewardship, Heartland Parishes of
Let’s face it, the most divisive issue in the Church over the last forty years has been birth control. It is also a stewardship issue. Are we going to be disciples of the Church or disciples of the world? If the polls are right, and I sure hope they are wrong, a significant majority of Catholic adults favor the use of artificial birth control.
Unfortunately, most Catholics are unaware of the profound arguments the Church gives for its teachings against contraceptives. We accept and understand the “simple” explanations that the world offers, but we have been less willing to examine the wonderful “truths” that our Church sets forth. If, however, we follow both sets of arguments to their logical conclusions, the Church’s arguments are compelling. The world’s arguments break down. History has proven, once again, that the Church, in Her wisdom, is right.
Very few Catholics have ever read “Humane Vitae, the prophetic and thought-provoking encyclical letter published in 1968 by Pope Paul VI. Although it is concise in its less than 20 pages, its wisdom and beauty are too profound for me to effectively synthesize in the space I am allowed.
But Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger can. In his book the Ratzinger Report, he describes this “grave moral crisis” in terms of a “series of ruptures.” I will try to synthesize what he writes, without deleting or adding too much.
The first rupture is between sexuality and marriage, which contraception has clearly facilitated. Separated from marriage, sex loses its point of reference.
Next, we have a separation of sex from procreation. Not surprisingly, this rupture also goes adrift in the other direction, procreation without sexuality. The result is an effort by mankind to transform man, to biologically manipulate him as we do with other “things.” Man, then, becomes nothing other than a “product” planned according to one’s pleasure.
With sexuality that is no longer linked to motherhood and procreation, it logically follows that every other form of sexuality is of equal worth. The “libido” of the individual becomes the point of reference for sex.
No longer having an objective point of reference to justify it, sex seeks its objective in the gratification of desire…in the most satisfying subjective answer of the individual. As a consequence, pre-marital sex, adultery, abortion, homosexual acts, child sex, and even bestiality become almost inalienable rights.
This is where we, the Church, and the world stand today. All because we did not – and stubbornly will not – listen to “Peter, “ the Vicar of Christ on Earth, the Holy Father. Many Catholics, as individuals, have apparently decided that we know more than the Church that Jesus established on Peter, “the rock.” That same Church that Jesus promised would guide us until the end of time.
God has hardened our hearts. We are very much like Pharaoh in the Book of Exodus. We refuse to listen. We go to Communion not even realizing we are in grave sin, and thinking there will be no consequence. But there are consequences to us and to the world! Some have been described above. More will come – individually and communally – unless we turn away from this sin and turn to God…unless we convert.
Stewardship is about much, much more than money.