A group of more than 400 prominent Catholic scholars released a statement yesterday that strongly supports the Church’s teaching on human sexuality as articulated in the 1968 papal encyclical, Humanae Vitae.
According to the Catholic University of America, the statement entitled, “Affirmation of the Catholic Church’s Teaching on the Gift of Sexuality,” rejects recent calls for this teaching to be changed. The statement was issued as a rebuttal to the “Wijngaards Statement,” in which critics of the Church’s teaching had called for acceptance of contraception.
“We, the undersigned scholars, affirm that the Catholic Church’s teachings on the gift of sexuality, on marriage, and on contraception are true and defensible on many grounds, among them the truths of reason and revelation concerning the dignity of the human person,” the statement reads.
“Scholarly support for the Church’s teachings on the gift of sexuality, on marriage, and on contraception has burgeoned in recent decades. Moreover, institutes and programs supporting that teaching have been established all over the world. Even some secular feminists and secular programs have begun to acknowledge the harms of contraception.
The statement goes on to crticize the Wijngaards Statement, entitled “On the Ethics of Using Contraceptives” which urges the Church to change its teaching on contraception and issue an “official magisterial document” allowing the use of non-abortifacient contraceptives for family planning purposes.
“The Wijngaards Statement, unfortunately, offers nothing new to discussions about the morality of contraception,” the scholars opine. “And, in fact, repeats the arguments that the Church has rejected and that numerous scholars have engaged and refuted since 1968.”
The scholars go on to say that the Wijngaards Statement seriously misrepresents the authentic position of the Catholic Church. Among its most erroneous claims is that neither Scripture nor natural law offers any support for the Church’s teaching that contraception is never compatible with God’s plan for sexuality and marriage.
“During the past half century, there has been an enormous amount of creative scholarly thinking around the Church’s teaching on contraception, thinking that includes profound reflections on the Theology of the Body, personalism, and natural law. In addition, there has been extensive research on and analysis of the negative impact of contraception on individuals, relationships, and culture,” the scholars argue.
However, the Wijngaards Statement, rather than engaging recent scholarship in support of the Church’s teaching, misdirects the conversation from the start by claiming that the argument against contraception in Humanae Vitae is based primarily on “biological laws.”
This is not so, the scholars argue. “Humanae Vitae instead focuses, as it should, on the person’s relationship to God and to other persons.”
Some of the world’s most recognized Catholic scholars have signed on to the affirmation of Church teaching on contraception, including Women of Grace® board member Monica Migliorino Miller, PhD, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, Madonna University (MI); Janet Smith, professor of moral theology at Sacred Heart Seminary in Detroit; Helen Alvare, JD, Professor of Law, Scalia Law School at George Mason University; John Garvey, the president of Catholic University; John Haas, the president of the National Catholic Bioethics Center; Father Wojciech Giertych, OP, theologian of the pontifical household; and George Weigel, biographer of St. John Paul II.
Click here to read the full text of “Affirmation of the Catholic Church’s Teaching on the Gift of Sexuality.”
Click here to read “On the Ethics of Using Contraceptives.”
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