our sins and the suffering and death of Our Lord and One commits venial sin when

in when in a less serious

Savior. matter he does not observe the standard prescribed
Is Contraception and
In her Magisterial teaching of the faith and in
the witness of her saints, the Church has never
by the moral law, or when he disobeys the law in a Sterilization Always a
grave matter, but without full knowledge or
forgotten that "sinners were the authors and the without complete consent. (Catechism 1862) MORTAL Sin?
ministers of all the sufferings that the divine
Redeemer endured." Taking into account the fact Harm to Others The Catholic Church has always taught that
that our sins affect Christ himself, the Church does None of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to contraception and sterilization were sinful and that
not hesitate to impute to Christians the gravest himself. If one member suffers, all suffer together; those who engage in such practices with full
responsibility for the torments inflicted upon Jesus, if one member is honored, all rejoice together. knowledge and consent commit mortal sins,
a responsibility with which they have all too often Charity does not insist on its own way. severing their relationships with Jesus Christ.
burdened the Jews alone: Although the Catholic Church, through the
In this solidarity with all men, living or dead,
We must regard as guilty all those who continue
which is founded on the communion of saints, the Pope and the Magisterium, has been given the
to relapse into their sins. Since our sins made the
least of our acts done in charity rebounds to the authority to "bind and loose" and to declare what
Lord Christ suffer the torment of the cross, those
who plunge themselves into disorders and crimes profit of all. Every sin harms this communion. is sinful, in reality that authority is only to speak
crucify the Son of God anew in their hearts (for He (Catechism 953) for Christ, not to change what has already been
is in them) and hold Him up to contempt. Nor did divinely communicated. Unlike all of the other
demons crucify Him; it is you who have crucified Sin is a personal act. Moreover, we have a churches in existence, the Catholic Church has
and crucify Him still, when you delight in your responsibility for the sins committed by others never changed a moral teaching. This extreme
vices and sins. when we cooperate in them: constancy of teaching makes the almost 2,000
* by participating directly in them; year old Catholic Church unique among
Damage to our relationship with God * by ordering, advising, or approving them; institutions, offering strong evidence it is divinely
All sin harms our relationship with God. The * by not disclosing, or not hindering them when guided.
church distinguishes between two types of sins, we have an obligation to do so; What has been said by this unique institution
mortal and venial. * by protecting evil-doers. throughout the past twenty centuries?
The root of all sins lies in man's heart. The
kinds and gravity of sins are determined Thus sin makes men accomplices of one another 191 AD - Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor
principally by their objects. (Catechism 1873) and causes concupiscence, violence, and injustice of Children
The repetition of sins, even venial ones, to reign among them. Sins give rise to social "Because of its divine institution for the propagation
engenders vices, among which are the capital situations and institutions that are contrary to the of man, the seed is not to be vainly ejaculated, nor is
sins. (Catechism 1876) divine goodness. "Structures of sin" are the it to be damaged, nor is it to be wasted." (2:10:91:2)
Mortal sin destroys charity in the heart of expression and effect of personal sins. They lead
their victims to do evil in their turn. In an 307 AD - Lactantius - Divine Institutes
man by a grave violation of God's law; it turns
"[Some] complain of the scantiness of their means,
man away from God, who is his ultimate end and analogous sense, they constitute a social sin.
and allege that they have not enough for bringing up
His beatitude, by preferring an inferior good to (Catechism 1868-9)
more children, as though, in truth, their means were
Him. (Catechism 1855) When we weigh these consequences against in [their] power . . . .or God did not daily make the
For a sin to be mortal, three conditions must the fleeting pleasure of sin we can see why the rich poor and the poor rich. Wherefore, if any one on
together be met: "Mortal sin is sin whose object is Church teaches that sin is an act contrary to reason. any account of poverty shall be unable to bring up
grave matter and which is also committed with children, it is better to abstain from relations with his
full knowledge and consent." (Catechism 1783) Printed with ecclesiastical approval wife" (6:20)
Grave sin deprives us of communion with
God and therefore makes us incapable of eternal 325 AD - Council of Nicaea I - Canon 1
Pope John Paul II Society of Evangelists
life, the privation of which is called the "eternal P.O. Box 5584, Bakersfield, California 93388 "[I]f anyone in sound health has castrated [sterilized]
punishment" of sin. (Catechism 1472) E-mail: info@pjpiisoe.org Phone: 661 393-3239 himself, it behooves that such a one, if enrolled
www.pjpiisoe.org Pamphlet 062W among the clergy, should cease [from his ministry],
and that from henceforth no such person should be cruel lust, comes to this, that they even procure propose, whether as an end or as a means, to render
promoted. But, as it is evident that this is said of poisons of sterility [oral contraceptives] . . . procreation impossible. To justify conjugal acts
those who willfully do the thing and presume to Assuredly if both husband and wife are like this, they made intentionally infecund, one cannot invoke as
castrate themselves, so if any have been made are not married, and if they were like this from the valid reasons the lesser evil, or the fact that such acts
eunuchs by barbarians, or by their masters, and beginning they come together not joined in would constitute a whole together with the fecund
should otherwise be found worthy, such men this matrimony but in seduction. If both are not like this, I acts already performed or to follow later, and hence
canon admits to the clergy" dare to say that either the wife is in a fashion the would share in one and the same moral goodness. In
harlot of her husband or he is an adulterer with his truth, if it is sometimes licit to tolerate a lesser evil
375 AD - Epiphanius of Salamis - Medicine own wife" (1:15:17). in order to avoid a greater evil to promote a greater
Chest Against Heresies good, it is not licit, even for the gravest reasons, to
"They [certain Egyptian heretics] exercise genital 522 AD - Caesarius of Arles - Sermons do evil so that good may follow therefrom; that is to
acts, yet prevent the conceiving of children. Not in "Who is he who cannot warn that no woman may make into the object of a positive act of the will
order to produce offspring, but to satisfy lust, are take a potion [an oral contraceptive] so that she is something which is intrinsically disorder, and hence
they eager for corruption" (26:5:2 ). unable to conceive or condemns in herself the nature unworthy of the human person, even when the
which God willed to be fecund? As often as she intention is to safeguard or promote individual,
391 AD - John Chrysostom - Homilies on could have conceived or given birth, of that many family or social well-being. Consequently it is an
Matthew homicides she will be held guilty, and, unless she error to think that a conjugal act which is
"[I]n truth, all men know that they who are under undergoes suitable penance, she will be damned by deliberately made infecund and so is intrinsically
the power of this disease [the sin of covetousness] eternal death in hell. If a women does not wish to dishonest could be made honest and right by the
are wearied even of their father's old age [wishing have children, let her enter into a religious agreement ensemble of a fecund conjugal life. (14)
him to die so they can inherit]; and that which is with her husband; for chastity is the sole sterility of a
sweet, and universally desirable, the having of Christian woman" (1:12). 1994 AD - Catechism of the Catholic Church
children, they esteem grievous and unwelcome. "The regulation of births represents one of the
Many at least with this view have even paid money 1930 AD - Pope Pius XI - Casti Conubii (On aspects of responsible fatherhood and motherhood.
to be childless, and have mutilated nature, not only Christian Marriage) Legitimate intentions on the part of the spouses do
killing the newborn, but even acting to prevent their "Any use whatsoever of matrimony exercised in such not justify recourse to morally unacceptable means
beginning to live [sterilization]" (28:5). a way that the act is deliberately frustrated in its (for example, direct sterilization or contraception)."
natural power to generate life is an offense against (2399)
393 AD - Jerome - Against Jovinian the law of God and of nature, and those who indulge After reading the above statements it should be
"But I wonder why he [the heretic Jovinianus] set in such are branded with the guilt of a grave sin." clear that the Catholic Church does not leave much
Judah and Tamar before us for an example, unless 1965 AD - Pastoral Constitution on the Church "wiggle room" on this issue. It should also be clear
perchance even harlots give him pleasure; or Onan, in the Modern World - Gaudium et Spes, Vatican II that rumors that at some time in the near future the
who was slain because he grudged his brother’s Church will have to change this teaching are nothing
seed. Does he imagine that we approve of any Relying on these principles, sons of the Church may more than the wishful thinking of its disobedient
sexual intercourse except for the procreation of not undertake methods of birth control which are members.
children?" (1:19). found blameworthy by the teaching authority of the
Church in its unfolding of the divine law. (51) The Consequences of Sin
419 AD - Augustine - Marriage and Sin is an utterance, a deed, or a desire contrary to the
Concupiscence 1968 AD - Pope Paul VI - Humanae Vitae (Of eternal law. It is an offense against God. It rises
"I am supposing, then, although you are not lying Human Life) against God in a disobedience contrary to the
[with your wife] for the sake of procreating Equally to be excluded, as the teaching authority of obedience of Christ. (Catechism 1871)
offspring, you are not for the sake of lust the Church has frequently declared, is direct The Catholic Church teaches there are many
obstructing their procreation by an evil prayer or an sterilization, whether perpetual or temporary, consequences of sin. Among these are:
evil deed. Those who do this, although they are whether of the man or of the woman. Similarly
called husband and wife, are not; nor do they retain excluded is every action which, either in anticipation Christ's Suffering and Death
any reality of marriage, but with a respectable name of the conjugal act, or in its accomplishment, or in Passage 598 from The Catechism of the Catholic
cover a shame. Sometimes this lustful cruelty, or the development of its natural consequences, Church clearly describes the link between each of