All Christian churches condemned contraception for most of the two thousand years of Christianity until the Anglican bishops yielded to pressure in 1932.

The Catholic Church teaches that every action, in anticipation of the conjugal act, during or after, that prevents conception of a baby is "intrinsically evil," that is to say, it is always wrong no matter what the reason.

In today's worldview of life this may seem very harsh but this is because of the way people think. Westernized cultures have become hedonistic, individualistic, pessimistic, materialistic and relativistic, to name a few "istics".

One of the results arising from this thinking is that difficulties are rejected instead of being seen as opportunities for growth; and self-sacrifice is absolutely out. Pleasure is the highest good.

Formerly, children were mostly seen as a gift from God. In the increasingly pleasure-seeking cultures of today children could be viewed as an embarrassment or inconvenience. The need for child-free sexual gratification has become more prevalent than ever before.

The Catholic Church has sought to help people understand that sexual intercourse between married couples is co-participation in God's creative act of bringing a new human being into existence.

• It is also an act of love: the giving of each spouse totally to the other and receiving the gift of each other without any need of barriers.
• Our fertility (the ability to conceive children) is who we are as man or as woman. Through our fertility we are able to share in the mystery of God's creating persons for the furtherance of the human race.
• We are also able to see the continuation of our love for our spouse in the new baby. Therefore our fertility is the part of ourselves that shares in God's life: love and creativity (as the fruit of love).

Contraception then is a denial of the gift of oneself to the spouse and therefore a denial of one's love for the other. Children are all about love, God's and the human person's.

This denial can reduce the conjugal act to an act of lust - using the other for personal pleasure - and therefore a denial of the very nature we human beings, created in the image of God, shares with our Creator - love.

Pastors recognise the struggles, often heroic, that families endure in bringing up children. The Church supports the need for responsible parenthood and the spacing of children for good reasons.

• God has provided natural means for the spacing of children and the woman's fertility cycle is now better understood.
• The Catechism of the Catholic Church declares: "Periodic continence, that is, the methods of birth regulation based on self-observation and the use of infertile periods, is in conformity with the objective criteria of morality." (2370)

Experience, endorsed by Sacred Scripture, teaches us that overcoming obstacles and making sacrifices are important for Jesus' disciples to grow in character and virtue, in other words, to grow in holiness which is God's will for us: " Be holy for I, Yahweh your God, am holy " (Lev 19:2).

Need more information or have comments? Please feel free to contact us at Emmanuel Community - 628-1064, 628-1586.