The Catholic Church has in recent years played an ever more important social role in people’ lives and it has throughout the twentieth century it has entered some very interesting conversations which have a very direct impact on the way people live their lives. One of the most controversial decisions taken by taken was passed on by the Papal Encyclical Humanae Vitae which clarified the Church’s position on contraception and what those implications were on the church’s competence or role in interpreting Natural Law. Natural Law is something of a slippery subject and one that many different theologians and philosophers have attempted to explain and wrestle with. The Church’s invocation of natural law in short makes the issue of contraception one that is clear and something which the church has the power to rule on. This rightfully created much debate and this paper is an attempt in part to deal with some of the debates on the Church’s position on contraception and its connection natural law as it relates to its decision on Humanae Vitae.
The Papal Encyclical Humanae Vitae, on human life was promulgated by Pope Paul VI in order to attempt to clarify the Church’s position on contraception. The Church applied its belief in the “her magisterium to interpret the natural moral law.” (Humanae Vitae) The Church believed that the it was its role “in urging men to observance of the precept of the natural law.” Which it claims that its doctrine which teaches that every “marital act” should if possible have a connection to procreation. Furthermore, the encyclical reinforces the “inseparable connection, established by god” between the unitive and procreative act of marriage.” (Humanae Vitae) The points made by the Church here is important because it so heavily leans on the logic of natural law thought and its logic to argue against contraception.
The Church’s arguments against contraception as it argued in Humanae Vitae teaches that contraception goes against “Natural law.” Natural law in this case is applied as a way of applying a “rational standard for dividing actions into "good" and "bad" ones - a standard springing from man's natural reason - and that's why it is first of all a philosophical issue.” (Rhonheimer 20) One of the most important things which must be taken as significant is the so-called “inseparability principle.” There is something which can’t be separated about contraception or the meaning of marriage.
Rhonheimer posits the idea that critics of Humanae Vitae teaches “as long as contraception is adopted in the context of a marital life which is open in its totality to its procreative meaning.” (Rhonheimer 22) That is to say that marriage is in “totality” about procreation and that ultimately there are two meanings of marriage, procreation and its unitive purpose. This in itself makes the Natural law basis of the reasoning behind the encyclical contingent on many different reasoning for its application. The structure of Natural law is something which is inescapably important about any discussion surrounding the morality or immorality of contraception.
In short, the act of contraception according to both Pope Pius XII and Pope John VI is that it is immoral because it is not something which man should have the ability to interfere with. Which is to say the act of procreation in in both works of man and works of nature are “the essence and integrity of the marital act.” This is the essence of the argument made by the Church that procreation is something natural which man should have no role in stopping (Kelly 30) Additionally, Kelly posits the idea that the arguments made by the Church is that “contraception is intrinsically immoral is basically this: contraception is an attack on the inviolable divine plan for the beginning of human life. (Kelly 31) Natural law in this sense is applied as a way of rationalizing the procreative act as a series of natural events and it argues that doing anything to stop these naturally occurring events would be in opposition to the natural order of things. This is a strong argument and one that can be dealt with but relies too much on Natural law thought as a way of creating inviolable principles. This is the basis of the Church’s thinking but it can easily be refuted.
Richard H. Beis argues that as a matter of fact that Thomist natural law does not actually agree that contraception is intrinsically evil. Second, the position that “contraception is intrinsically evil is logically inconsistent with the very nat-ural law theory on which it claims to be based.” Third and finally, Thomist natural lay “may even demand the practice of contraception. (Beis 277) The third and final claim is the most interesting an the one that I want to expand on. Beis claims that as opposed to the standard thinking that “Thomist natural law ethics is a naturalistic ethic and when we further recall that this ethic is concerned with the realization of hu- man nature as a whole.” (Beis 282) As a consequence of this, is that there many other factors which can lead us to determine “moral goodness or evil of contraception in terms of Thomist natural law,” (Beis 282) These considerations are actually very important to determining the course of action that should be taken as a way of fulfilling humanity’s promise.
There are many different reasons why natural law thought can be applied to the thinking behind the Church’s decision on banning contraception in Humanae Vitae but there also many other cases which can easily use natural law to dismantle its argument by attempting to prove that natural law is not something which is just can be used to go against human nature but something which can help humans improve their lives and their marriage. There is more to marriage than just procreation and more to sex than just procreation and this goes against the Church’s thought on these matters. These facts are simple and they create a strong long logic for the natural law reasoning for the Church’s opposition to contraception but in the simplest possible terms there is strong conclusion to be reached regarding these points and that is the ultimate point which must investigated given the logical structure of natural law which can be used to challenge these conclusions.
Works Cited
Beis, Richard H. "Contraception and the Logical Structure of the Thomist Natural Law Theory." Ethics 75.4 (1965): 277-284.
Kelly, Gerald. "Contraception and natural law." Proceedings of the Catholic Theological Society of America 18 (2012).
Paul, V. I. "Humanae vitae." (1969). http://w2.vatican.va/content/paul-vi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-vi_enc_25071968_humanae-vitae.html
Rhonheimer, Martin. "Contraception, Sexual Behavior, and Natural Law Philosophical Foundation of the Norm of Humanae Vitae." The Linacre Quarterly 56.2 (1989): 7.
