Catholics on birth control: banned view

A Statement by a member of the Papal Commission on Birth Control that it is not necessarily sinful for Catholics to practise contraception in marriage, has not been published in the New Zealand Catholic press. In Australia and England, however, it is the ground of some controversy.

Cardinal Doepfner, a vice-chairman of the Commission on Birth Control (which presented its report to the Pope two and a half weeks ago), made the statement.

The Cardinal says that when a couple trying to "build up their marriage in Christian responsibility for each other and for the serious good of the child, believe that in such a distressing situation they cannot forgo contraceptive intercourse, they cannot simply be accused of abuse of marriage."

This directive goes on to say:

"Responsible partners who see themselves obliged to contraceptive intercourse, not lightly and habitually, but rather as a regrettable emergency solution, may take it that by doing so they do not exclude themselves from Communion."