ToDAY we live in a civilisation of contraception. The whole of our social structure is based on the assumption that contraception is right and is opposed only by moralist cranks.
Over 60 per cent of married couples in England use contraceptives; the proportion is greater in America and some Continental countries.
Many of the people who use. this means to limit their families are, apparently, good, sincere people. Some of the reasons which they give for doing so are, it is true, unacceptable to Catholics, as stemming from a materialistic philosophy of life (which used to be expressed by the catch phrase "better a Baby Austin than a baby"), but other motives are far removed from selfishness.
Genuine pressures
CATHOLICS themselves are subject to some of the genuine pressures that prompt non-Catholics to resort to artificial birth control. Often Catholics are not clear in their own minds about the subject. Some may rightly inveigh against the unnatural immorality of contracep Catholic teaching on birth control has come under fire in the general assembly of the World Council of Churches, and the Minister of Health has been telling the House of Commons that the contraceptive pill is available through the National Health Service. In response to a special request from a number of readers, we are printing two articles designed to clear up a number of difficulties and misunderstandings. This week, Fr. Arthur McCormack writes on the theological aspects of family planning, and the medical aspects will be discussed next week by Dr. John Marshall, Reader in Clinical Neurology in the University of London.