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“Everyone does it, so what’s the big deal?” Taking the pill, getting “fixed”, getting a shot of Depo-Provera…there’s a myriad of choices for contraception. The expectation in today’s modern society is that everyone uses artificial birth control at some point in their lives, be they married or not. Right?
Many years ago, I would have agreed with all of the above. I was not a rebellious Catholic, just an ignorant one. But the guilt of my ignorance rests on more shoulders than just mine. I was surrounded by contraception Catholics who discussed their birth control as easily as they spoke of which brand of toothpaste they used. And then there was the Catholic clergy. There was nary a homily I heard that even hinted of the Catholic teaching on human sexuality. Understandably, it’s not an ideal topic for an audience of all ages. And, truthfully, I did not always make it to Mass, so maybe I missed the “Talk” one Sunday. Had I kept up on Catholic teaching, I would have been aware of the “Theology of the Body”. This was the first major teaching Pope John Paul II gave in 129 short talks between 1979 and 1984. This project was a Biblical reflection on the meaning of human embodiment, particularly as it concerns human sexuality.
I was not aware of the “Theology of the Body” because I was not a good Catholic back in the day. Nor did I pay much heed to Natural Family Planning in which couples regulate births without recourse to unnatural methods that interfere with the way God designed our fertility. But I expected a popular priest at my parish in Montana to be up on all things Catholic. Unfortunately, he was not. As both a priest and doctor, his parishioners and patients looked up to him. He let them down by stating, “It’s not realistic to expect couples to follow the Pope’s teachings on birth control.” Continue reading here…
