Bulletins

June 23, 2019

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Would that everyone knew contraception to be an offense against God and woman. I am not saying simply that I wish everyone knew that the Church teaches that contraception is evil. Most people who care about the teaching of the Church already do know that. Right? In 1968 Pope St. Paul VI provoked a reaction that has yet to relent when he taught in Humanae Vitae:

“Therefore We base Our words on the first principles of a human and Christian doctrine of marriage when We are obliged once more to declare that the direct interruption of the generative process already begun and, above all, all direct abortion, even for therapeutic reasons, are to be absolutely excluded as lawful means of regulating the number of children. Equally to be condemned, as the magisterium of the Church has affirmed on many occasions, is direct sterilization, whether of the man or of the woman, whether permanent or temporary.

“Similarly excluded is any action which either before, at the moment of, or after sexual intercourse, is specifically intended to prevent procreation—whether as an end or as a means.”

The Catechism of Pope St. John Paul II repeats the same dogma of the Church with very different footnotes.

CCC 1652 “By its very nature the institution of marriage and married love is ordered to the procreation and education of the offspring and it is in them that it finds its crowning glory

Children are the supreme gift of marriage and contribute greatly to the good of the parents themselves. God himself said: “It is not good that man should be alone,” and “from the beginning [he] made them male and female”; wishing to associate them in a special way in his own creative work, God blessed man and woman with the words: “Be fruitful and multiply.” Hence, true married love and the whole structure of family life which results from it, without diminishment of the other ends of marriage, are directed to disposing the spouses to cooperate valiantly with the love of the Creator and Savior, who through them will increase and enrich his family from day to day.

Believers need to understood why this is true and why, therefore, the Church teaches it. Are married couples required to have as many children as possible? No. Are married couples required to try to conceive? No. Married couples are bound, however, to ensure that their intimacy is a real and complete consummation of the vows spoken at their wedding. The intimacy of married couples is thereby always the renewal of their wedding vows. God bless every marriage and every family! Abundantly!

Fr. Christopher J. Pollard

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” (Heb 13,8)