Birth Control and the Church

Anthony Kowalski has this to write in response to Mark Shea's article we ran on HSI titled Cooperating with the Creator: Birth Control and the Church. Readers are welcome to comment.

The article has some fine points in it, but is clearly written for a very conservative base. While I applaud some of its insights, I am uncomfortable with suggesting that young married couples need to first check the period of fertility before considering love-making.

Don't get me wrong, I have never purchased nor used contraceptives in my life, nor have I ever practiced artificial birth control of any kind. Yet my appreciation for the beauty of God's love and the sublimity of the marriage act leads me to a different approach in advising married couples. Self-discipline is of course necessary in all areas of life. But I tend to be much more understanding of married couples and the conclusions to which they are led in conscience during the course of their sexual and marital life. I can no longer be apodictic and absolute in such matters. I find frequently that those who speak in absolutes regarding sexual activity don't really know what they are talking about.

I recognize the "gratia supponit natura" argument and the biblical interpretations contained in this article. But I have become weary of such argumentation. And as for the scientific world, I find more to praise about the advances in science than to condemn. I have moreover come to admire the writings of Huston Smith (retired professor at Berkeley) who argues for the need for the mystical and the spiritual in our lives, and the broad and necessary insights which they bring, while respecting and seeing no contradiction with the scientific advances of our time. I will return to the article again in the future. For now, that is all I wish to say about it.