Background briefing:

In 1968, Pope Paul VI issued Humanae Vitae, a teaching document for Catholics subtitled "on the regulation of birth". This re-affirmed the traditional ban of the Roman Catholic Church on the use of artificial contraception within marriage. It caused shock waves in the Catholic world and beyond. Calls for the Church to re-examine its stance on birth control with the arrival of the pill in the ealry 1960s had led a previous Pope to set up a 72-member commission to re-evaluate the Church's ban on artificial contraceptives. Early reports from the commission suggested the ban would be liberalised and that the use of contraceptives by married couples was not "intriniscally" evil. Public outcry was therefore widespread when the document was eventually published and the ban re-affirmed.. Forty years later, Faith Online re-examines the issue for the modern Catholic

Mention the Catholic Church and contraception in the same sentence and the vitriolic response is like a gag reflex. Automatic and without thought.

In fact, few have actually read Humanae Vitae – the Church’s teaching on sex and marriage. If people actually did, along with John Paul II’s The Theology of the Body, which expounds it further, they would struggle to find fault in it.

The Church has always seen sex in marriage as the ultimate expression of selfless giving. However, this selflessness can only be achieved through the couple’s openness to both the unitive and procreative aspects of sex.

Humanae Vitae states that “the husband and wife through the mutual gift of themselves develop that union…in which they perfect one another co-operating with God in the generation and rearing of new lives”.

This does not mean that every sexual act must aim for a baby. This would be ludicrous given that a woman ovulates on only one day per menstrual cycle. What it does mean is that to respect the natural law of conception is to co-operate with God.

Artificial contraception is wrong because it is saying ‘no’ to God. Effectively: "Thanks for the white wedding but we don’t trust you enough not to give us more than we can handle".

To believe in God’s involvement, one needs prayer and an understanding of marriage as a sacrament with Christ at its centre. However, to begin to understand the truth of the teaching, one needs only to be open. Faith and reason are inseparable.

True natural family planning is 99.8 per cent effective. NaproTechnology, the system my husband and I use, is a tracking system observing bio-markers, successfully used by couples looking to conceive following failed IVF.

However, NFP takes both partners, work and trust - but it builds an incredibly strong foundation for one’s relationship.

Abstaining from sex for around five days a month, which will safely cover the ovulation period, enables a couple to relate to each other in different ways. It is also not a bad thing to practice self-control. NFP promotes the mentality that says although we want to determine the size of our family, to fall pregnant outside this plan would not be catastrophic – ultimately children are a gift.

The Pill is about control. So when pregnancy does "accidentally" happen, and it does, how many couples are mentally and emotionally equipped to deal with it? How many women will resort to abortion? What are the consequences on the relationship?

Humanae Vitae states that women are to be treated with dignity and respect. The Pill not only ensures that women are always available but are ultimately responsible for avoiding pregnancy. I know plenty of non-Catholic women who welcomed pregnancy as an excuse not to have sex!

Society’s determination to ignore the truth about Church teaching has lead to even more damage. The Catholic Church is still blamed for the AIDS crisis in Africa, despite the fact that Catholics make up only around 13 per cent of the population on that continent. Are we really expected to believe the preposterous hypothesis that the remaining 87 per cent of this culturally and religiously diverse continent looks to an old white man in a cassock in Rome to determine their sexual morality? In predominantly Catholic Uganda, successful abstinence-based programmes reduced HIV infections from over 20 per cent of the population the early 90s to roughly six per cent today whereas South Africa, one of Africa’s most secular countries using programmes based on condom use, has one of the continent’s highest rates of HIV infection.

Another argument against Church teaching has been its ‘consequences’ on African women whose partners have contracted HIV and insist on sleeping with their wives without using condoms, allegedly because of Catholic teaching. Should the Church be throwing condoms, (which only delay contracting the disease) at these women or should it be condemning the behaviour of these men? Didn’t the marriage end the day they forcibly put their wives at risk from a disease that ultimately kills?

Church teaching on sex and marriage works and there are countless couples in the UK who are living proof. Society’s alternative has led only to divorce, family break-up, abortion and heart-ache. When will it wake up to the reality of the Emperor’s new clothes?

Click here to access Humanae Vitae

Theology of the Body