CATHOLICS AND BIRTH CONTROL
SIR,-My original article established one thing if nothing else, that birth control is a subject which arouses strong reaction from Catholics. (I don't ex- pect you would have had much response had I written about or cast doubt upon the conception of limbo.) 'You may well feel that it is time to ring the curtain down on the subject in your own correspondence columns. But the debate will still rage on, as it is cur- rently raging in the columns of papers as different as the Observer and the Catholic Herald. until a sat:s- factory solution is found.
The truth of the matter is that theologians did not have to think about the problem previously. Nature took its cburse. 'Increase and multiply' made sense in a world underpopulated. There are hopeful signs, however, that the Church is prepared to examine its position (and Erika Fallaux as good as admits the initiative must come from the laity). It is gratifying to see that the Dutch hierarchy are not as sure as John Coggrave apparently is about the immorality of the contraceptive pill, for they are to raise the matter and seek guidance at the Vatican Council.
Mrs. Erika Fallaux has obviously so perfected her technique by using the safe period with complete success for over two years, that the difference be- tween this arid some mechanical device is very small, more wsthetic than moral. Perhaps if she has five children her attitude will change. Personally I would never have dreamed of using it for my first years of marriage, regarding its use as selfish. But a certain stage arrives—und it varies with individuals—when you have produced as many children as your nervous energy and pocket will support. At that moment con- trol becomes necessary as much in the interests of the children as parents.
The point I have been trying to make is that too much of Catholic thought reduces sex to the satisfac- tion of an appetite. One hears talk (and marriages even being dissolved) because one of the parties re- fused to give the other 'his rights.' There are no such things as rights. I have never had intercourse when it was not equally desired by my wife, if love is not mutual it is worthless and shoddy. The sexual act of love is not an isolated action; it is the culmination of a feeling. It can be completely unpremeiitated and start with a slight gesture of affection. I have a friend who has just had her sixth child by caesarean section. She must not have any more children, the doctors have insisted.
If one is to follow the logic of some of your cor- respondents' arguments, the husband must not dis- play physical affection, for this can too easily lead to sexual intercourse and it is much too risky to rely on the safe pericd. Is he to be denied this expression of affection?
But, as 1 said, there are signs of a break-through. 1 have another friend with five children whose hus- band is a non-Catholic. He uses a contraceptive de- vice. She has found an understanding Jesuit confessor who advises her to have intercourse, on the grounds that she is not taking the contraceptive action.
The Church has had to modify its attitudes and teaching in the light of scientific discoveries (Galileo, Evolution and Genesis, Freud, etc.) or even as a result of increased social consciousness (slavery, the death penalty, the nuclear bomb) and in good time she will be obliged to reinterpret the divine truths in the light of the population explosion.
A CATHOLIC PARENT
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