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Often, a kindly priest has blessed the decision or guided them along a path that can, unfortunately, lead either to a dead end, or off a cliff. These couples deserve honest, loving dialogue, not finger-pointing. Liberals stress that God is love; conservatives, that God is truth. Both are half-right. The appearance of Our Lord Jesus Christ reveals that God is both love and truth ( Jn. 1:14).
     
    Let contracepting couples, therefore, and those who would share with them the fullness of Christian teaching, remember that God is a just and merciful Father and that bashing with truth is as bad as excusing with love.
     
    ----
    1 ^ Frank Sheed, The Church and I (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1974), 238.
     
    2 ^ Leaving aside for the moment the tiny minority conceived through in vitro fertilization.
     

ABBREVIATIONS
     
    Old Testament
     
Gen.
Genesis
Ex.
Exodus
Lev.
Leviticus
Num.
Numbers
Deut.
Deuteronomy
Josh.
Joshua
Judg.
Judges
Ruth
Ruth
1 Sam.
1 Samuel
2 Sam.
2 Samuel
1 Kings
1 Kings
2 Kings
2 Kings
1 Chron.
1 Chronicles
2 Chron.
2 Chronicles
Ezra
Ezra
Neh.
Nehemiah
Tob.
Tobit
Jud.
Judith
Esther
Esther
Job
Job
Ps.
Psalms
Prov.
Proverbs
Eccles.
Ecclesiastes
Song
Song of Solomon
Wis.
Wisdom
Sir.
Sirach
Is.
Isaiah
Jer.
Jeremiah
Lam.
Lamentations
Bar.
Baruch
Ezek.
Ezekiel
Dan.
Daniel
Hos.
Hosea
Joel
Joel
Amos
Amos
2 Jn.
2 John
Obad.
Obadiah
Jon.
Jonah
Mic.
Micah
Nahum
Nahum
Hab.
Habakkuk
Zeph.
Zephaniah
Hag.
Haggai
Zech.
Zechariah
Mal.
Malachi
1 Macc.
1 Maccabees
2 Macc.
2 Maccabees
    New Testament
     
Mt.
Matthew
Mk.
Mark
Lk.
Luke
Jn.
John
Acts
Acts of the Apostles
Rom.
Romans
1 Cor.
1 Corinthians
2 Cor.
2 Corinthians
Gal.
Galatians
Eph.
Ephesians
Phil.
Philippians
Col.
Colossians
1 Thes.
1 Thessalonians
2 Thes.
2 Thessalonians
1 Tim.
1 Timothy
2 Tim.
2 Timothy
Tit.
Titus
Philem.
Philemon
Heb.
Hebrews
Jas.
James 1 Pet.
1 Pet.
1 Peter
2 Pet.
2 Peter
1 Jn.
1 John
2 Jn.
2 John
3 Jn.
3 John
Jude
Jude
Rev.
Revelation
    Church Documents
     
CC
Casti Connubii
DV
Dei Verbum
FC
Familiaris Consortio
GS
Gaudium et Spes
HV
Humanae Vitae

 
    Chapter One
     

How We Got Here
Roots of Rejection, Seeds of Hope
     
    And if the bugle gives an indistinct sound, who will get ready for battle?
—1 Corinthians 14:8
     
    How did we get here? How did the cultural ethos change so radically from the early 1960s, and how did it reverberate so powerfully within the Catholic Church? While polling data is not always perfectly reliable, one universally accepted truth is that a majority of today’s Catholics “have a problem with” the Church’s teaching against contraception. Anecdotal evidence suggest it’s somewhere near ninety percent.
     
    It was not always so. Among the laity and established theologians alike, there was a firm consensus until the mid-1960s that the condemnation of artificial birth control was a closed, settled issue. 1 Even those who later abandoned the ancient position of the Church and became well-known as vocal dissenters were, in the early Sixties, solidly committed to Catholic orthodoxy on this issue. These include Karl Rahner, SJ; Father Andrew Greeley; Richard McCormick, SJ; Josef Fuchs, SJ; and others.
     

The Turbulent Wait
    A shifting of the ground began after the close of Vatican II in 1965 during the long wait for the publication of an official, not-yet-named document on birth control. 2 Some still claim that the dramatic abandonment of a commonly held doctrine was somehow the voice of the Holy Spirit speaking through the “voice of the laity.”
     
    The short answer to this is to repeat that the Catholic Church is not a democracy. If it were, then the Church of Christ would have spun itself into the Church of Arius in the fourth century, since a large majority of the faithful held to the Arian heresy. 3 What is more, in the face of bad polling numbers, Jesus would have backed down from His teaching about the Real Presence in the Eucharist. 4 Ironically, groups dissenting on contraception were led and organized