It was refreshing to read Fr Nicholas King's reflections on the Bible's vision of marriage ("Uncomfortable truths", The Tablet, 20 September). Modern Catholic theology has often relied too much on ethics to establish the authentic pattern of marriage. Nowhere has this been more in evidence than on contraception.
In the run-up to the Synod on the Family we have now heard about practically every issue except the elephant in the theological sitting room: Humanae Vitae's prohibition of contraception, based upon so-called ethical principals.
Whenever reliable surveys are published, the results indicate consistently that more than 90 per cent of practising Catholics ignore the ban, because it does not carry conviction. If the forthcoming Synod evades that issue , all its other work will be wasted time. As a matter of moral integrity the bishops will have to produce a theologically convincing justification of the prohibition, or else they must send the whole encyclical "back to the drawing board".
Dr Michael M. Winter, London N19
The problem of Bishop Bonny’s position [noting a demise in collegiality between the end of the Second Vatican Council and the publication of Humanae Vitae] (The Tablet, 13 September) is that bishops at the Council were unlikely to challenge the papal teaching of Pope Pius XI or Pius XII, who had expressly forbidden the use of the Pill in a little known address to haematologists the year he died. The subsequent commission report did not make a convincing case for Pope Paul VI, nor was there a strong outcry from bishops when the commission report was published by National Catholic Reporter. The present generation of bishops were mostly appointed by Pope John Paul II and none were chosen because of their opposition to Humanae Vitae. Roman Catholic ethics are based on natural law as interpreted by the Magisterium in a classical sense of unalterable principles. It is unlikely that Pope Francis, having canonised Pope John Paul II, would indicate that he was wrong. More like he will advocate a gradual understanding of an unchangeable law.
Fr Simon Peat, London SW19
In his interview with Cardinal Kasper, Christopher Lamb quotes the cardinal as referring to Newman's "On consulting the laity in matters of faith (more accurately, "On Consulting the Faithful in Matters of Doctrine"), in which he maintains that the sense of faith of all the baptised must be taken seriously. Have we ever in modern times been aware of this? I have always thought that within living memory at least the People of God, as distinct from the hierarchy, were not consulted but have simply accepted that their function was to obey whatever came down from Rome;" Rome has spoken, the matter is closed."
I wonder though how often the laity did question, quietly at least, the 'magisterium' on matters concerning which they had never been consulted. Recently I came across a private letter of Christopher Dawson to his friend E.I. Watkin, in which he casually remarked, apropos of the encyclical Casti Connubii: "I must say, I cannot see if birth control is wrong, how vaccination can be right." If they were not consulted, did they feel bound by such teaching?
Kevin Dean, Blackburn, Lancs
Clifford Longley argues that because the techniques of natural fertility awareness can be used with such reliability that they "rival artificial contraception" (The Tablet, 20 September) then the intention is the same and that as far as the Pill is concerned one method does not feel any more unnatural than the other. I would certainly agree that a similarity of intention to avoid having a child underlies both methods.
But regardless of what it is felt, especially by the woman, that does not alter the very real and serious risk of the actual effect of hormonal contraception, the thinning of the lining of the womb resulting in its abortifacient effect of a newly conceived unique human being. Many mothers talk of feeling a change in their bodies very soon after the moment of conception – a sort of neurochemical sixth sense if you like, that something profound and miraculous is going on, but they await confirmation of the event when implantation occurs.
There is nothing natural (however deeply and sincerely felt the motive behind taking the Pill may be because of lack of full knowledge) about its intended outcome when a conception occurs. The tiny human person is expelled from the one place God intends it to be the most safe for nine months. Furthermore years of research by Erik Odeblad University of Umeå, Sweden, shows that for each year the Pill is taken, the cervix ages by an extra year. Without healthy cervical mucus the chances of pregnancy are low. Hence the chronic levels of sub fertility and infertility ... It is irrefutable science concurring with the "irreformable teaching" (vademecum to confessors 1997) of Humanae Vitae. As Cardinal Caffara recently said "exactly one month before his death in 1978 Paul VI declared, 'One day you will thank God and me for Humanae vitae' and now he will be beatified through his miraculous intercession in saving an unborn baby.
Edmund P Adamus, Director for Marriage and Family Life, Diocese of Westminster
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