[Maximilian]

I find the same problem with all these articles: there is no reference to any Church teaching prior to Humanae Vitae. Was the Catholic Church invented in 1968? Where is St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, great moral theologians like St. Alphons Ligouri, Pope Leo XIII, Pope Pius XI, Pope Pius XII, even (shudder) Vatican II? It seems that they've all be relegated to the memory hole.

So none of the above arguments can ever be convincing because they amount to personal opinions, whether they are the opinions of Fr. Pavone, Janet Smith or even JPII. None of them carry the authoritative stamp of the Catholic Church. All are arguing from contemporary bases dating back no more than 35 years. When limited to those arbitrary boundaries, no voice is more authoritative than any other, not even the pope, as we have found out by seeing that 98% of Catholic couples use birth control.

By definition, the ordinary magisterium amounts to what has been taught always and everywhere. If the Church refuses even to publish this information about what has always been taught, then there is no authority to bind men's consciences.

[sitetest]

Dear Maximilian,

"I find the same problem with all these articles: there is no reference to any Church teaching prior to Humanae Vitae. Was the Catholic Church invented in 1968? Where is St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, great moral theologians like St. Alphons Ligouri, Pope Leo XIII, Pope Pius XI, Pope Pius XII, even (shudder) Vatican II? It seems that they've all be relegated to the memory hole."

I agree.

What ultimately persuaded me of the Church's position was not Humanae Vitae in isolation, nor even of any particular teaching. But by learning about ALL the teachings condemning artificial contraception, I eventually had to ask the question, "How can I deny that this is the constant, consistent teaching of the authoritative Magisterium of the Catholic Church, stretching all the way back nearly to the Apostles?"

Which raised another question, "How can this not be a binding teaching? How is this not virtually the model of binding teaching of the ordinary Magisterium?"


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