Saturday, November 18, 2017

Public reminded: Contraception still a ‘grave moral evil’

Posted by Herbert Curia - Promoter at Saturday, November 18, 2017 0 comments

From the Website of CBCP
links: http://cbcpnews.net/cbcpnews/public-reminded-contraception-still-a-grave-moral-evil/

Public reminded: Contraception still a ‘grave moral evil’

MANILA – In spite of the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) recent assessment of 51 contraceptives deemed

“safe and non-abortifacient,” the public, regardless of creed, is reminded to uphold the sanctity of human life and thus reject contraception as a “grave moral evil.”

Pope Francis warning vs. contraception

In his dialogue with Filipino families on Jan. 16, 2015, the Holy Father cited Pope Paul VI who “had the strength to defend openness to life in his prophetic encyclical on human life, Humanae Vitae.”

“As early as 1968, Pope Paul VI already upheld the teaching, for many centuries maintained by all Christians, that contraceptive practice was a grave moral evil, said Fr. Roberto A. Latorre, recalling an important point of Pope Francis’ visit to the Philippines two years ago.

According to the priest, Pope Paul VI issued the encyclical Humanae Vitae (HV) (On the Transmission of Human Life) to uphold the moral truth that “each and every marriage act must be open to life (HV, 11).”

Negative effects of contraception

The years that passed since the release of Humanae Vitae coincided with the general breakdown in morals associated with the so-called sexual revolution, observed the theologian.

“Pope Paul VI somehow foresaw this revolution when he warned us of the negative effects of the widespread use of contraception. He saw that contraception would be the cutting edge of the ‘general lowering of morality’ (HV, 14),” he added.

According to the priest, the distortion of sexual values is a direct consequence of “the distortion of conjugal love linked to contraceptive practice.”

“Paul VI even foresaw how some governments can abuse their power and tyrannically dictate the behavior of citizens because of contraception,” said Latorre, who once served as executive secretary of the Episcopal Commission for the Doctrine of the Faith of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP).

The priest also warned of the ongoing reversal of values in the fields of human sexuality and family life.

“This revolution has made steady progress, from the free love practiced by isolated hippie communities in the 1960s, to the rising gay movement seeking to normalize ‘homosexual marriages’ and to the different social engineering attempts to legislate sexual promiscuity,” he said.

“At present, the sexual revolution is taking a toll on human society in the form of increase in pornography, promiscuity, marital infidelity, divorce, abortion, sexually transmitted disease, and unhappiness in general,” added Latorre.

Power of truth

The priest called on the faithful to transform society through the “power of the doctrine of Christ and of the Church.”

To fill the “vacuum of ignorance and confusion” among present day Catholics, Latorre composed “A Catechesis on Contraception,” which serves as a concise exposition of the Church’s teaching on contraception.

“Catechesis on Contraception” is available at the Paulines bookstores and digital versions can be downloaded at the Primacy of Reason website. CBCPNews