Teaching of the Catholic Church on contraception
The following documents are among the main texts of the Catholic Church’s Magisterium expressing her teaching on conception, life, contraception and abortion:
1968 - Humanae Vitae, Paul VI
1974 - Declaration on induced abortion, Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
1981 - Familiaris Consortio, John Paul II
1987 - Donum Vitae, Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
1995 - Evangelium Vitae, John Paul II
2008 - Dignitatis personae, Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
Below are quotes from these documents that are particularly relevant in the framework of this seminar.
Fertilization and human life in its origin:
“As soon as the ovule is fertilized, a new life begins, which is neither the father’s nor the mother’s, but that of an entirely new human being that develops in itself. It will never be rendered human if it is not already human at that moment”. (Declaration on induced abortion)
“To this perpetual evidence … modern genetic science brings valuable confirmation. It has demonstrated that, from the first instant, there is established the program of what this living being will be: a man, this individual man with his distinguishing aspects already well-determined. From the moment of fertilization, the adventure of a human life has begun; each of whose major capacities takes time to find its place and to be in a position to act”. (Declaration on induced abortion)
“From the moment of conception, the life of every human being is to be respected in an absolute way because man is the only creature on earth that God has ‘wished for Himself’ and the spiritual soul of each man is ‘immediately created’ by God; his whole being bears the image of the Creator. Human life is sacred because from its beginning it involves ‘the creative action of God’ (…) God alone is the Lord of life from its beginning until its end: no one can, in any circumstance, claim for himself the right to destroy directly an innocent human being”. (Donum Vitae, Introduction, 5)
“The fruit of human generation, from the first moment of its existence, that is to say from the moment the zygote has formed, demands the unconditional respect that is morally due to the human being in his bodily and spiritual totality. The human being is to be respected and treated as a person from the moment of conception; and therefore from that same moment his rights as a person must be recognized, among which in the first place is the inviolable right of every innocent human being to life”. (Donum Vitae, I,1)
Union and procreation
“The Church (…) teaches that each and every marital act must of necessity retain its intrinsic relationship to the procreation of human life. This particular doctrine, often expounded by the Magisterium of the Church, is based on the inseparable connection, established by God, which man on his own initiative may not break, between the unitive significance and the procreative significance which are both inherent to the marriage act. The reason is that the fundamental nature of the marriage act, while uniting husband and wife in the closest intimacy, also renders them capable of generating new life—and this as a result of laws written into the actual nature of man and of woman”. (Humanae Vitae, 11-12)
Contraception, abortion, sterilization
“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”. (Humanae Vitae, 14)
“In order to facilitate the spread of abortion, enormous sums of money have been invested and continue to be invested in the production of pharmaceutical products which make it possible to kill the foetus in the mother’s womb without recourse to medical assistance. On this point, scientific research itself seems to be almost exclusively preoccupied with developing products which are ever more simple and effective in suppressing life and which at the same time are capable of removing abortion from any kind of control or social responsibility”. (Evangelium Vitae, 13)
“When couples, by means of recourse to contraception, separate these two meanings that God the Creator has inscribed in the being of man and woman and in the dynamism of their sexual communion, they act as ‘arbiters’ of the divine plan and they ‘manipulate’ and degrade human sexuality-and with it themselves and their married partner-by altering its value of ‘total’ self-giving. Thus 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”. (Familiaris Consortio, 32)
“The elimination of the embryo before implantation, in the form of intentional abortion, is therefore a crime against the person, in actual fact a homicide. (…) In anthropological, philosophical, moral and theological terms, the value of the human being is the same, irrespective of the phase of the vital cycle at which it finds itself”. (Monsignor Suaudeau)
“It is the duty of physicians, moralists, confessors and educators to enlighten the opinion of the faithful and the public in general, denouncing the semantic dupery which has led to acceptance of the ‘morning-after pill’ in national parliaments. This dupery has unfortunately frequently neutralized the reactions of those with a responsibility for legislative and moral direction in our society. While there is a duty to underline the moral gravity of the act of post-coital ‘contraception’, confessors are confronted with the problem of enlightening consciences in this regard, taking account of the intractable ignorance which may be encountered in this regard in some penitents”. (Monsignor Suaudeau)
Spacing births
“Others ask on the same point whether it is not reasonable in so many cases to use artificial birth control if by so doing the harmony and peace of a family are better served and more suitable conditions are provided for the education of children already born. To this question We must give a clear reply. The Church is the first to praise and commend the application of human intelligence to an activity in which a rational creature such as man is so closely associated with his Creator. But she affirms that this must be done within the limits of the order of reality established by God.
If therefore there are well-grounded reasons for spacing births, arising from the physical or psychological condition of husband or wife, or from external circumstances, the Church teaches that married people may then take advantage of the natural cycles immanent in the reproductive system and engage in marital intercourse only during those times that are infertile, thus controlling birth in a way which does not in the least offend the moral principles which We have just explained.
Neither the Church nor her doctrine is inconsistent when she considers it lawful for married people to take advantage of the infertile period but condemns as always unlawful the use of means which directly prevent conception, even when the reasons given for the later practice may appear to be upright and serious. In reality, these two cases are completely different. In the former the married couple rightly use a faculty provided them by nature. In the later they obstruct the natural development of the generative process. It cannot be denied that in each case the married couple, for acceptable reasons, are both perfectly clear in their intention to avoid children and wish to make sure that none will result. But it is equally true that it is exclusively in the former case that husband and wife are ready to abstain from intercourse during the fertile period as often as for reasonable motives the birth of another child is not desirable. And when the infertile period recurs, they use their married intimacy to express their mutual love and safeguard their fidelity toward one another. In doing this they certainly give proof of a true and authentic love”. (Humanae Vitae, 16)
“When, by means of recourse to periods of infertility, the couple respect the inseparable connection between the unitive and procreative meanings of human sexuality, they are acting as ‘ministers’ of God’s plan and they ‘benefit from’ their sexuality according to the original dynamism of ‘total’ self-giving, without manipulation or alteration”. (Familiaris Consortio, 32)