July 25th marked the 40th anniversary of Pope Paul VI's encyclical Humanae Vitae, an event lauded by conservatives and despised by many moderns. The encyclical is regarded as a condemnation of birth control, but this is far from the truth. While it condemned artificial means of birth control, it allowed that there exist lawful means of limiting the number of children in a family. This leaves open the possibility of "Catholic" birth control.
St. Thomas taught us to judge the substance of any act by its "final cause," i.e., the ultimate reason for the act, the end desired. The final cause of birth control is to limit the number of children. Hence, NFP, natural family planning, should be called by what it is: birth control.
Is it licit, then, for parents to limit family size? Cardinal Ottaviani addressed this very issue during the Vatican Council. You will recall how he headed the Holy Office under Pope Pius XII, and how he warned the world that the Novus Ordo Missae deviated from the Council of Trent (click here) Hear the Cardinal (emphasis added):
I am not pleased with the statement in the text that married couples may determine the number of children they are to have. Never has this been heard of in the Church. My father was a laborer, and the fear of having many children never entered my parents’ minds, because they trusted in Providence. [I am amazed] that yesterday in the Council it should have been said that there was doubt whether a correct stand had been taken hitherto on the principles governing marriage. Does this not mean that the inerrancy of the Church will be called into question? Or was not the Holy Spirit with His Church in past centuries to illuminate minds on this point of doctrine?
It is also worth noting that HV obscured the traditional teaching on the ends of marriage (click here), so that children need no longer be the primary end. In the final analysis, Humanae Vitae, rather than being a defense of the Faith, actually provided implicit justification for "Catholic" birth control.
Here's an interesting perspective from 1948, 20 years before HV. [From Integrity the Magazine, "Raising Your Children" (compiled by Angelus Press, 1995), by Rev. Hugh Calkins, O.S.M.]
"Catholic couples have gone hog-wild in the abusive employment of Rhythm [the precursor of NFP]. ...It's becoming a scandal to their sincere neighbors. ...The thing is out of hand. A method meant to be a temporary solution of a critical problem has become a way of life, a very selfish, luxury-loving, materialistic way of life.
"So there has sprung full-grown from pagan propaganda this vicious Rhythm mentality -- a state of mind that won't trust God.
"But as Fr. Lavaud, O.P., has said: `We cannot see an adaptation to nature in something which is, in effect a trick to frustrate nature.'"
18 kids, great article:
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080726/18_children_080726/20080726?hub=TopStories&s_name=