SIR,—May another Catholic join in? Mrs. Fallaux's letter is touching
and obviously deeply sincere. But she doesn't know what it is all about yet. After her lovingly planned first baby arrives, she'll probably want to breast-feed. No periods for six months per- haps ... or longer. No safe periods either. Then after the second baby, her periods may well become erratic, the safe periods shorter, the abstinence longer, the fulfilment more precarious. After the third baby (and don't forget that six months or so of absolute abstin- ence after each) regularity in periods may be still more difficult to establish, It could quite easily be eighteen months before her rhythm normalises . . . before she knows when is safe. Perhaps a `mistake' occurs during this time (after all, she loves her hus- band). It is after the fourth baby, looking gloomily forward to the worries of re-establishing any rhythm, that she and her husband will begin to wonder just why rubber caps in the vagina are thought to be more `artificial' than thermometers in the same place . . . and find the answers wanting.
I speak from experience.
No. Mrs. Fallaux is naive. Mr. Derrick's arguments are more profound and convincing. The Church is defending a truth. That sex is about children, is for making families. It's a truth the world is losing. And sheer human observation teaches us that people who know it are happier than those who deny it.
The Church believes at the moment that to accept contraceptives is to accept the validity of a total sep- aration of sex from procreation. And sees clearly and wisely that such a total separation would be wrong. Naturally she has fought contraceptives. But I be- lieve a new morality of contraceptives is being worked out, which gives them a valid role within parenthood. The Church is a slow-moving institution and has had only a few decades to think about the matter.
Meanwhile, I as a Catholic think artificial contra- ceptives are lick in certain circumstances and use them. And my confessor accepts this. This last state- ment will shock you Catholic readers more than any- thing else in this whole correspondence. But the Church is slowly moving. We must all pray that it moves faster. And thank you, sir, for your help in ventilating this issue.
A CATHOLIC MOTHER
(Name and address supplied)
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