Birth control: a change of heart
I note from your report (“Scholars call for end to church ban on artificial contraception”, News from Britain and Ireland, 24 September) that there are signs of a change of heart in the Vatican on this topic, which was much on our minds when I got married in 1966.

In 50 years I have never come across anyone who has claimed to be using the rhythm method, but on considering it at the time it seemed to me that with the necessity of having calendars and thermometers as ancillary equipment at the bedside, one’s sex life would have to be organised like a military campaign – so that actually the rhythm method would turn out to be the most artificial method of all and cause more anxiety and uncertainty to boot.

“Artificial” is a very loaded word; we do not describe travelling by air or motor car as “artificial” modes of transport compared with walking, or an electric cooker as more “artificial” than an open fire. And the use of the word “natural” in advertising is all but meaningless. It is a buzz word, and artificial is a boo word.