This article appears in the Feb 2006 edition of the Catholic Medical Quarterly
LETTER
Sir,
Your anonymous correspondent writes a graceful letter of resignation. He is certainly voting with his feet. It seems he is against the clear, constant teaching of the Church against artificial contraception. He is not alone.
I would say he is in line with much of modern society when he says `the Church has seriously undermined its rational position on abortegenic birth control, abortion and euthanasia'. This is the direct opposite of those of us who are convinced of a direct link between encouragement of artificial contraception and the incidence of abortion. It is the opposite of John Paul II's bracketing of both contraception and abortion under the modern `anti-life' mentality. It is also contrary to those increasing numbers of pastorally involved priests and catechetical leaders who are convinced that we cannot coherently preach Christian chastity to our parishioners, particularly our teenagers, without the full Catholic vision on sex and love.
In my opinion your correspondent's eloquent and sad resignation has, clearly unwittingly, struck yet another blow for the cause of secularisation and hedonism. I hope and believe that the CMQ will continue to stand with the Christ in his Church and remain counter-cultural and integrally pro-life on this issue.
Father Hugh MacKenzie
Guild Chaplain