One of the most controversial Church teachings, at least according to the secular press, concerns the immorality of artificial contraception.  This is not a new or novel teaching of the Catholic Church.  Until around 1930, every Christian denomination had always taught the truth that artificial contraception is intrinsically immoral.  Since then, almost every protestant denomination has caved in to the pressure of its sinful members and changed the teaching on this subject.  The Bible predicted that something like this would happen:

For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own likings, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander into myths.

(2 Timothy 4:3)

The Catholic Church has not given in to the urging of its sinful members in this area and continues to teach the truth as handed down by God.  The Catholic Church has had great teachers like Blessed Pope Paul VI and Pope Saint John Paul II to guide Jesus’ flock in the truth.  This was also promised by the Bible:

And I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.

(Jeremiah 3:15)

While some who want the Church to “stay out of their bedrooms” have sought teachers (little “t”) to suit their own likings and give them license to ignore this sound teaching, the Church, like Jesus, has stood firm in the Truth.  Further, this is certainly an area where the Church has great need to exercise its authority as Teacher (capital “T”).

In the field of conjugal morality the Church is Teacher and Mother and acts as such.

(Familiaris Consortio 33)

And the Church has repeatedly affirmed its definitive teaching in this area:

[T]here must be excluded as intrinsically immoral “every action which, either in anticipation of the conjugal act, or in its accomplishment, or in the development of its natural consequences, proposes, whether as an end or as a means, to render procreation impossible.”

(Familiaris Consortio 32, quoting from Humanae Vitae 14)

I plan to continue on this topic in future posts, focusing on one of the most beautiful and prophetic encyclicals ever written, Humanae Vitae.