Le Monde des religions, November-December 2008 —
On the 40th anniversary of the encyclical Humanae Vitae, Benedict XVI firmly reiterated the Catholic Church's opposition to contraception, with the exception of "observing the natural rhythms of a woman's fertility" when a couple is experiencing "serious circumstances " that justify spacing births. These remarks naturally provoked a chorus of criticism highlighting, once again, the disconnect between the Church's moral doctrine and evolving social norms. This disconnect does not, in itself, seem to me to constitute a justified criticism. The Church is not a business that must sell its message at all costs. The fact that its discourse is out of step with the evolution of our societies can also be a healthy sign of resistance to the spirit of the times. The Pope is not there to bless the revolution in morals, but to defend certain truths in which he believes, even at the risk of losing some of the faithful. The real criticism that can be leveled at this condemnation of contraception concerns the argument used to justify it. Benedict XVI reiterated that excluding the possibility of giving life "by means of an action aimed at preventing procreation" amounts to "denying the intimate truth of conjugal love." By indissolubly linking the love of spouses to procreation, the Church's Magisterium remains consistent with an old Catholic tradition dating back to Saint Augustine, who distrusts the flesh and carnal pleasure, and ultimately conceives of sexual relations only from the perspective of reproduction. According to this view, can a sterile couple truly experience love? Yet nothing in the Gospels corroborates such an interpretation, and other Christian traditions, particularly Eastern ones, offer a completely different perspective on love and human sexuality. There is therefore a fundamental theological problem here that deserves to be entirely rethought, not because of evolving social norms, but because of a highly questionable view of sexuality and the love of spouses. Not to mention, of course, the often dramatic social consequences such rhetoric can have in impoverished populations, where contraception is frequently the only effective means of combating increasing poverty. Religious figures themselves, such as Abbé Pierre and Sister Emmanuelle—a young centenarian to whom I wish a happy birthday!—had both written to John Paul II along these lines. It is undoubtedly for these profound reasons, and not solely because of the revolution in morals, that many Catholics have deserted the churches since 1968. As Cardinal Etchegaray recently stated, Humanae Vitae constituted a “silent schism” in its time, so shocked were many of the faithful by the vision of married life conveyed by the papal encyclical. These disillusioned Catholics are not libertine couples advocating unbridled sexuality, but believers who love each other and don't understand why the truth of their love should be dissolved by a sexual life disconnected from the desire to have children. Apart from the most extremist fringes, no other Christian denomination, indeed no other religion, holds such a view. Why is the Catholic Church still so afraid of carnal pleasure? It's understandable that the Church emphasizes the sacred nature of the gift of life. But doesn't sexuality, experienced within authentic love, also constitute an experience of the sacred?