Letter to NY Times
This was written as a response to a New York Times article. They require free registration to view the article, and I can not guarantee that the article will still be available when you read this.
To the editor:
I am writing in response to the November 13, 2003 article in the New York Times concerning the statement of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops on the use of contraception.
It seems that many have the misconception that, if something is accepted by society, then there must not be anything morally wrong with it. Therefore, there is this notion that many Catholics feel that the "church is out of step with their daily lives." My answer is that the Church is way out of step with many aspects of our daily lives. That is not really an issue. The real question is: who should change? The real answer is: it is we who should change our lives! The Church is not a political party, nor is she an organization designed to affirm all of our personal choices. The Church was founded by Christ, is the Body of Christ, and can only teach what is received from Christ regardless of public opinion. Therefore, the Church teachings are the standard by which we should weigh how we are living. Therefore, if the Church is out of step, it is we who should get back in step with the Church. Not to do so will certainly mean the loss of our souls.
I find it interesting that much of our major media today has the assumption that "The Church opposes contraception; therefore there is something wrong with the Church." Has it ever occurred to anyone in the media that maybe there is something wrong with contraception? Society accepts it presumes that it will solve many social ills related to a perceived overpopulation. However, the Church in her wisdom knows that contraception is not a solution to any problem. In recent years, there have been several works to explain why the Church's teaching on human sexuality is a positive good (e.g. John Paul II's Theology of the Body, works of Janet Smith and Christopher West). However, these get little attention from the secular media, and the media goes right on portraying the Church's teaching as some outdated list of arbitrary rules.
David Ancell