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Recourse
to Infertile Periods
16. Now as We noted
earlier (no. 3), some people today raise the objection against this particular
doctrine of the Church concerning the moral laws governing marriage, that human
intelligence has both the right and responsibility to control those forces of
irrational nature which come within its ambit and to direct them toward ends
beneficial to man. Others ask on the same point whether it is not reasonable in
so many cases to use artificial birth control if by so doing the harmony and
peace of a family are better served and more suitable conditions are provided
for the education of children already born. To this question We must give a
clear reply. The Church is the first to praise and commend the application of
human intelligence to an activity in which a rational creature such as man is
so closely associated with his Creator. But she affirms that this must be done
within the limits of the order of reality established by God.
If therefore there are well-grounded reasons
for spacing births, arising from the physical or psychological condition of
husband or wife, or from external circumstances, the Church teaches that
married people may then take advantage of the natural cycles immanent in the
reproductive system and engage in marital intercourse only during those times
that are infertile, thus controlling birth in a way which does not in the least
offend the moral principles which We have just explained. 20
Neither the Church nor her doctrine is
inconsistent when she considers it lawful for married people to take advantage
of the infertile period but condemns as always unlawful the use of means which
directly prevent conception, even when the reasons given for the later practice
may appear to be upright and serious. In reality, these two cases are
completely different. In the former the married couple rightly use a faculty
provided them by nature. In the latter they obstruct the natural development of
the generative process. It cannot be denied that in each case the married
couple, for acceptable reasons, are both perfectly clear in their intention to
avoid children and wish to make sure that none will result. But it is equally
true that it is exclusively in the former case that husband and wife are ready
to abstain from intercourse during the fertile period as often as for
reasonable motives the birth of another child is not desirable. And when the
infertile period recurs, they use their married intimacy to express their
mutual love and safeguard their fidelity toward one another. In doing this they
certainly give proof of a true and authentic love.
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