All this needs to be talked about – a lot – between now and the upcoming Synod.

Contraception’s Cascading Rampage

By Rick Fitzgibbons

The October 2014 Synod on Family’s statement on contraception – “We should return to the message of the Encyclical Humanae Vitae of Blessed Pope Paul VI, which highlights the need to respect the dignity of the person in morally assessing methods in regulating births,” [58] – is, to say the least, profoundly disappointing and inadequate. Humanae Vitae and the subsequent writings on marriage of St. John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI put forward far more than the mere need for “respect” on this crucial matter.

Fr. Mark Pilon recently wrote here about the theological and social dimensions of contraception. Those considerations are important and far-reaching. But as a Catholic psychiatrist who has worked for almost forty years with thousands of married couples, families, and youth, I’m convinced that it is medically and psychologically clear that the widespread use of contraceptives (roughly 75 percent, even of Catholic, couples) has also severely harmed marriage, families, children, the priesthood, the Church, and the larger culture.

A clear and scientifically irrefutable relationship exists between the use of contraceptives and the plague of divorce, with its life-long damage to millions upon millions of young people, loyal spouses, and their families worldwide. Many days in my work, I feel like an army medic on a battlefield strewn with people of various ages and conditions, severely wounded by something essentially ignored.

The failure to address the psychological and sociological science related to this damage needs to be corrected – and the subject directly confronted – in next October’s Ordinary Synod on the Family.

Contraceptive use increases marital mistrust, anxiety, anger, selfishness, and conflicts in communicating. Contraception is a way of saying to a spouse, via the language of the body, that, “I will withhold the total gift of myself to you and not trust you with our fertility.” As both personal anecdotes and statistics bear out, this momentous decision – contrary to rosy predictions of greater marital happiness when contraception was first legalized – has undermined the foundation for giving and receiving love from one’s spouse.

The growth in marriage from “me” to “we,” which St. John Paul II describes as an aspect of betrothed love in Love and Responsibility, is also dependent upon trusting the Lord with every aspect of one’s marriage. In using contraceptives, the couple is unconsciously communicating to the Lord, “We do not trust you with our fertility.”

This stance slowly and unconsciously weakens the ability to entrust all aspects of the marriage, children, and family life to the Lord. And a further consequence is that it makes it more difficult for the couples to turn to Him and seek his help for the numerous challenges and stresses in married and family life.

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