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It is important to remember that Pope Pius XI is writing ‘Casti Connubii’ in the year 1930. Ninety five years have passed since this encyclical was written and yet, its teachings are as relevant today as they were then. The modernists within the Catholic Church use deceptive phrases and artifices to undermine traditional Catholic Church teaching, all the while claiming that they are not trying to change Church teaching. They will often tell us that the Catholic Church has to adapt to a modern scientific understanding of human nature especially with regard to sexuality. In other words, the Catholic Church has to change her teaching in order to conform to the erroneous opinions of the pseudo scientists who care nothing for the supernatural world.
“What is it that has been? The same thing that shall be. What is it that has been done? The same that shall be done. Nothing under the sun is new, neither is any man able to say: Behold this is new: for it has already gone before in the ages that were before us.” (Ecclesiastes 1:9-10)
The book of Ecclesiastes tells us that there are no new sins, no new great moral discoveries to be made. Pope Pius XI is well aware of this and he now forcefully reaffirms the constant teachings of the Catholic Church on the use of matrimony. He also warns Catholic priests to protect the flock of Christ entrusted to their care from the dangerous errors being promoted regarding human sexuality.
“We admonish, therefore, priests who hear confessions and others who have the care of souls, in virtue of Our supreme authority and in Our solicitude for the salvation of souls, not to allow the faithful entrusted to them to err regarding this most grave law of God; much more, that they keep themselves immune from such false opinions, in no way conniving in them. If any confessor or pastor of souls, which may God forbid, lead the faithful entrusted to him into these errors or should at least confirm them by approval or by guilty silence, let him be mindful of the fact that he must render a strict account to God, the Supreme Judge, for the betrayal of his sacred trust, and let him take to himself the words of Christ: “They are blind and leaders of the blind: and if the blind lead the blind, both fall into the pit.(Matthew 15:14) (Casti Connubii 57)
In my own married life there have been at least three priests who have contradicted Catholic Church teaching on the use of contraception. What I find interesting about this is that the three priests I am thinking of, all directed their erroneous teachings to my wife and not to me. Much like the serpent in the Garden of Eden.
Another priest declared to us that Catholic Church teaching on contraception was not infallible because there had not been an infallible declaration specifically on the matter. At the time I did not know enough about my Catholic faith to correct his error. I knew that this teaching was infallible but at this time, I wasn’t able to articulate why it is infallible. This priest has since become a Bishop in Ireland and I have had to raise with him the matter of the promotion of contraception by an organisation within his diocese which had a Catholic priest in charge, but to no avail.
Thank God, we have also met priests who fully uphold traditional Catholic Church teaching and who encouraged us to stay strong despite the pressures. The Dominican, Fr Seán Cunningham R.I.P., deserves a special mention in this regard.
Pope Pius XI well understood this problem of dissent from Catholic Church teaching although it was not as widespread in his day.
“As regards the evil use of matrimony, to pass over the arguments which are shameful, not infrequently others that are false and exaggerated are put forward. Holy Mother Church very well understands and clearly appreciates all that is said regarding the health of the mother and the danger to her life. And who would not grieve to think of these things? Who is not filled with the greatest admiration when he sees a mother risking her life with heroic fortitude, that she may preserve the life of the offspring which she has conceived? God alone, all bountiful and all merciful as He is, can reward her for the fulfilment of the office allotted to her by nature, and will assuredly repay her in a measure full to overflowing. (Luke 6:38) (Casti Connubii 58)
Thirty two years after the publication of ‘Casti Connubii’, an example of the heroic fortitude mentioned by Pope Pius XI of a mother laying down her life to save her child was given by Saint Gianna Beretta Molla.
Saint Gianna Molla had a fibroma in her uterus when she was pregnant with her fourth child, Gianna Emanuela. She refused both an abortion and a hysterectomy and asked the doctors to concentrate on saving the child. As a doctor herself, Gianna was well aware of the risks involved. Gianna Emanuela was born on Holy Saturday, the 21st April 1962 and her mother, Saint Gianna Molla, died the following Saturday, 28th April 1962.
Pope Saint John Paul II said the following of Saint Gianna Molla at the sermon for her canonisation.
“Gianna Beretta Molla was a simple, but more than ever, significant messenger of divine love. In a letter to her future husband a few days before their marriage, she wrote: “Love is the most beautiful sentiment the Lord has put into the soul of men and women”.
Following the example of Christ, who “having loved his own… loved them to the end” (John 13:1), this holy mother of a family remained heroically faithful to the commitment she made on the day of her marriage. The extreme sacrifice she sealed with her life testifies that only those who have the courage to give of themselves totally to God and to others are able to fulfil themselves.
Through the example of Gianna Beretta Molla, may our age rediscover the pure, chaste and fruitful beauty of conjugal love, lived as a response to the divine call!”
This heroic witness puts to shame those who denigrate the sacramental beauty of Holy Matrimony under the guise of a false compassion, by promoting the use of contraception which defiles the marriage bed.
Pope Pius XI continues to examine this problem and clearly shows that he is aware of the difficulties that married couples are faced with.
“Holy Church knows well that not infrequently one of the parties is sinned against rather than sinning, when for a grave cause he or she reluctantly allows the perversion of the right order. In such a case, there is no sin, provided that, mindful of the law of charity, he or she does not neglect to seek to dissuade and to deter the partner from sin. Nor are those considered as acting against nature who in the married state use their right in the proper manner although on account of natural reasons either of time or of certain defects, new life cannot be brought forth. For in matrimony as well as in the use of the matrimonial rights there are also secondary ends, such as mutual aid, the cultivating of mutual love, and the quieting of concupiscence which husband and wife are not forbidden to consider so long as they are subordinated to the primary end and so long as the intrinsic nature of the act is preserved. (Casti Connubii 59)
Again we see that the secondary ends of marriage are subordinate to the primary end of children. The Pope shows that he understands the fallen nature of man and the dangers of unrestrained lust, which must be guarded against even within marriage. The Catholic Church presents men and women with the beauty and magnificence of heroic sacrificial love and urges them to use the means given by the Catholic Church to attain to sanctity of life.
Pope Pius XI now addresses other difficulties which may arise in married life and warns of the dangers of replacing one difficulty with another more serious difficulty. Mortal sin! He points to trust in Divine Providence as the solution to all of our problems.
“We are deeply touched by the sufferings of those parents who, in extreme want, experience great difficulty in rearing their children.” (Casti Connubii 60)
“However, they should take care lest the calamitous state of their external affairs should be the occasion for a much more calamitous error. No difficulty can arise that justifies the putting aside of the law of God which forbids all acts intrinsically evil. There is no possible circumstance in which husband and wife cannot, strengthened by the grace of God, fulfil faithfully their duties and preserve in wedlock their chastity unspotted. This truth of Christian Faith is expressed by the teaching of the Council of Trent. “Let no one be so rash as to assert that which the Fathers of the Council have placed under anathema, namely, that there are precepts of God impossible for the just to observe. God does not ask the impossible, but by His commands, instructs you to do what you are able, to pray for what you are not able that He may help you.”” (Council of Trent – Session VI, – Chapter 11) (Casti Connubii 61)
Those who promote the use of contraception and those who use contraception in order to prevent children coming into existence, clearly show a lack of trust in God’s providence and in His loving care for us.
“This same doctrine was again solemnly repeated and confirmed by the Church in the condemnation of the Jansenist heresy which dared to utter this blasphemy against the goodness of God: “Some precepts of God are, when one considers the powers which man possesses, impossible of fulfilment even to the just who wish to keep the law and strive to do so; grace is lacking whereby these laws could be fulfilled.”” ( Condemned by Pope Innocent X – ‘Cum occasione’, May 31, 1653) (Casti Connubii 62)
Pope Pius XI wants married couples to realise that they can trust God to help them in all the difficulties of married life. There is never any justification for using contraception, which the Catholic Church teaches is intrinsically evil. But such is the nature of fallen man that where contraception fails, he is prepared to commit even greater crimes against God and against life in order to be able to continue a life of hedonism.
“But another very grave crime is to be noted, Venerable Brethren, which regards the taking of the life of the offspring hidden in the mother’s womb. Some wish it to be allowed and left to the will of the father or the mother; others say it is unlawful unless there are weighty reasons which they call by the name of medical, social, or eugenic “indication.” Because this matter falls under the penal laws of the state by which the destruction of the offspring begotten but unborn is forbidden, these people demand that the “indication,” which in one form or another they defend, be recognized as such by the public law and in no way penalized. There are those, moreover, who ask that the public authorities provide aid for these death-dealing operations, a thing, which, sad to say, everyone knows is of very frequent occurrence in some places. (Casti Connubii 63)
The warnings of Pope Pius XI were ignored and we have now arrived at a time where, as mentioned in the last article, the leading cause of death in the world is abortion. The murder of the innocents!
“As to the “medical and therapeutic indication” to which, using their own words, we have made reference, Venerable Brethren, however much we may pity the mother whose health and even life is gravely imperilled in the performance of the duty allotted to her by nature, nevertheless what could ever be a sufficient reason for excusing in any way the direct murder of the innocent? This is precisely what we are dealing with here. Whether inflicted upon the mother or upon the child, it is against the precept of God and the law of nature: “Thou shalt not kill:” (Exodus 20:13)
The life of each is equally sacred, and no one has the power, not even the public authority, to destroy it. It is of no use to appeal to the right of taking away life for here it is a question of the innocent, whereas that right has regard only to the guilty; nor is there here question of defence by bloodshed against an unjust aggressor (for who would call an innocent child an unjust aggressor?); again there is not question here of what is called the “law of extreme necessity” which could even extend to the direct killing of the innocent. Upright and skilful doctors strive most praise-worthily to guard and preserve the lives of both mother and child; on the contrary, those show themselves most unworthy of the noble medical profession who encompass the death of one or the other, through a pretence at practicing medicine or through motives of misguided pity. (Casti Connubii 64)
“All of which agrees with the stern words of the Bishop of Hippo in denouncing those wicked parents who seek to remain childless, and failing in this, are not ashamed to put their offspring to death: “Sometimes this lustful cruelty or cruel lust goes so far as to seek to procure a baneful sterility, and if this fails the foetus conceived in the womb is in one way or another smothered or evacuated, in the desire to destroy the offspring before it has life, or if it already lives in the womb, to kill it before it is born. If both man and woman are party to such practices they are not spouses at all; and if from the first they have carried on thus they have come together not for honest wedlock, but for impure gratification; if both are not party to these deeds, I make bold to say that either the one makes herself a mistress of the husband, or the other simply the paramour of his wife.” (St Augustine – ‘De Nuptiis Et Concupiscentia‘) (Casti Connubii 65)
St Augustine was writing around the year 418 or 419. There is nothing new under the sun and the Catholic Church has always condemned abortion.
To be cont’d…
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