Educational Resource
Human Love and the Sacredness of Sex (1980)
Human Love and the Sacredness of Sex by William A. Marra in International Review of Natural Family Planning, Volume IV, Number 4, Winter 1980
There might have been howls protesting the harshness of the position if Pope Paul's Humanae Vitae had condemned birth control by both contraception and "rhythm" (natural family planning) on the grounds that "both intend the use of sex for reasons other than its primary end, the procreation of children." Again, there might have been a chorus of praise mingled with relief if the pope had judged that contraception is the same as natural family planning (NFP) and both are morally acceptable. But in fact the pope declared only contraception to be morally evil; he explicitly declared that the use of "rhythm," for serious reasons, is perfectly licit.
Some of the many opponents of the encyclical profess indignation or at least confusion over what they term the inconsistency of the official Catholic position as taught once more by the magisterium. Given that contraceptives are sinful because they frustrate the end intended by God and nature in the use of sex, they ask just why NFP should be permitted. Those who use NFP not only hope for no child, they deliberately time intercourse so that procreation is unlikely to result. But if that is lawful, if couples can intentionally employ the marital act quite apart from its procreative purposes, how can one consistently maintain that the use of contraceptives is sinful? For this use has intercourse no other without end than NFP has, namely, the use and enjoyment of sexual intercourse without the consequence of conception.
Dr. William A. Marra earned both of his graduate degrees under Dietrich von Hildebrand (who has died since this article was first published in Homiletic & Pastoral Review, July 1974). He is associate professor of philosophy at Fordham University, New York, founder and chairman of the Roman Forum, and founder of Holy Innocents School in New Jersey.