Evil of contraception and difficulties with the NFP

[Guest guest]

Hello,

here is a question of my friend:

" Can I ask you for help? For a long time, I have a pressing

theological and existential problem with the Catholic teaching that

any informed and deliberate contraception is a mortal sin. It can be

found, e.g., here: " The Church has always taught the intrinsic evil

of contraception, that is, of every marital act intentionally

rendered unfruitful. This teaching is to be held as definitive and

irreformable. Contraception is gravely opposed to marital

chastity ... " (Vademecum for Confessors 2:4.) Or here: " any use

whatsoever of matrimony exercised in such a way that the act is

deliberately frustrated in its natural power to generate life is an

offense against the law of God and of nature, and those who indulge

in such are branded with the guilt of a grave sin. " ( Casti

Connubii, 56.)

Thus, when done with adequate knowledge and consent, any

contraception is a mortal sin. The Catechism of the Catholic Church

states: " For a sin to be mortal, three conditions must together be

met: " Mortal sin is sin whose object is grave matter and which is

also committed with full knowledge and deliberate consent. " " (CCC

1857)

Well, I know about many serious, praying, pious, informed, married

Catholics with children who have steadily tried to learn and use NFP,

but have had gross difficulties with it during circa one year after

the childbirth. During this time, they haven't been able to determine

reliably whether the woman is fertile or not. It's the period after

childbirth when the woman breastfeeds and her first after-childbirth

menses haven't come yet. So, they decided to contracept during this

period using condoms or coitus interruptus. They know about the

teaching of the Church. Some of the are even theologians, so they are

probably informed about the teaching of the Church. Of course, they

could abstain, but the psychological and emotional motives for not

abstaining have been pressing (by which I do not want to imply that

they've been completely morally rehabilitating).

Now, (1) I know some of these people, even these theologians, quite

well. And I have big difficulties with believing that their sin is

mortal. E.g., I can hardly believe that after using a condom they are

in such a spiritual state that if they died immediately, they would

be, just because of that, (probably) damned. That would seem to me

like an inadequate punishment, to say the least. Of course, my

intuition can be wrong. What do you think?

(2) If the intuition is right, what then? Could we say the following?

The degree of awareness of wickedness (to which CCC 1857 alludes)

varies in time, which holds even for extraordinarily informed

subjects, like those theologians. So, maybe - or even plausibly - the

degree of knowledge of such a theologian in the given time (when he

contracepts) is, at least sometimes, not sufficient for mortal sin.

On the other side, in case the theologian would count on this

manoeuvre with clear mind ( " right now I know its a grave sin, so

let's darken my mind to lower the level of my responsibility " ), his

sin would be grave.

What do you think?

Thank you very much! "

Comment: After 8 years of studying almost all available NFP methods,

I think the post-partum period is " our " gratest weakness. For many

couples it is a source of confusions, doubt, extended abstinence and

temptation for using contraceptives. Some of them leave the NFP and

never come back. Remember the case of Sam and Bethany Torode:

http://www.openembrace.com/

I think this period is a challenge for future research of great

importance.

Karel Skocovsky, Ph.D.