In a talk at the end of May, Pope Benedict said that what we are witnessing today is a great crisis of faith. “In past decades,” the Holy Father observed, “it was still possible to find a general Christian sensibility which unified the common experience of entire generations raised in the shadow of the faith which had shaped culture. Today, unfortunately, we are witnessing a drama of fragmentation which no longer acknowledges a unifying reference point; moreover, it often occurs that people wish to belong to the church, but they are strongly shaped by a vision of life which is in contrast with the faith.”

Nowhere is this fragmentation more evident than in the area of human sexuality. The recent vote in New York State to redefine marriage further loosens any norm of sexual ethics in our country and, as one commentator puts it, “promot[es] as innocent — and even ‘liberating’ — forms of conduct that were traditionally regarded in the West and many other places as beneath the dignity of human beings as free and rational creatures.”

When marriage is arbitrarily redefined contrary to its intrinsic meaning as a relationship of sexual complementarity and procreativity, then there is nothing to stop whatever form of sexual liberation people may seek. Movements are already afoot to legalize polyamorous sexual ensembles of three or more partners.  By the logic of “gay marriage” there are no principles from which to argue against such initiatives.

Polls suggest that Catholics are not only indistinguishable from their neighbors when it comes to these issues, but sometimes even worse. Even if we insist, as we should, that there is a difference between practicing, churchgoing Catholics and non-practicing nominal Catholics, it must still be acknowledged, in the words of Pope Benedict, that many in the church “are strongly shaped by a vision of life which is in contrast with the faith.”

There are many who don’t like to hear it, but the fact remains that dissent against church teaching on contraception (upheld by all Christians until the early 20th century) initiated a relentless erosion among Catholics of the inseparable connection, established by God, between the sexual act and the procreation of children, thus paving the way for pre-marital sex, cohabitation, same-sex partnerships, and whatever still awaits us in our “brave new world.”

People sometimes ignore the fact that the church not only forbids what is immoral, but also promotes what is helpful when it comes to people’s moral concerns and dilemmas. There are alternatives to chemical drugs or invasive procedures that subvert the meaning of the conjugal act and procreation.

July 24-30 was Natural Family Planning Awareness Week. What this means is that there is a morally licit way, recognized and promoted by the church, for couples to realize their goals if, in the words of the Catechism, “[they] wish to space the births of their children,” provided that “their desire is not motivated by selfishness but is in conformity with the generosity appropriate to responsible parenthood.” (n. 2368)

Natural Family Planning (NFP) is a holistic approach very different from the “rhythm” or “calendar” methods of long ago. NFP is not a contraceptive. It does nothing to suppress or block conception. Instead couples adjust  heir behavior according to their family planning intention using the naturally occurring signs and symptoms of a woman’s cycle. NFP thus avoids the moral evil of using the “language of the body” to tell a lie, as Blessed Pope John Paul so vividly expressed it.

I want to thank all the dedicated couples in our diocese who offer instruction in NFP and promote it. It is my hope that we will be able to do much more in this area to help couples and to counteract the contraceptive mentality which has eroded the very meaning of human sexuality.

Another example is a promising and morally licit procedure that has been developed as an alternative to in-vitro fertilization (IVF) for couples who are having difficulty conceiving a child. On July 1 the Wall Street Journal reported on a technology already licensed in Britain and undergoing approval in the United States. It involves a fertility monitor reported to have a success rate as least as effective as IVF, at a fraction of the cost, and without the objectionable moral aspects of IVF.

These two contrasting moral situations — the regulation of procreation, on the one hand, and overcoming barriers to procreation, on the other — remind us of the seriousness of the sexual act. Blessed Pope John Paul the Great did not hesitate to say that married couples are “co-creators” with God. In the marriage act, which is of divine institution, one man and one woman invite God and help God to bring a new human being into existence endowed with an immortal soul. Each of us is an immortal being of infinite value, and the act of having children is of supreme importance for life and for the world.

Dr. Janet E. Smith, a nationally-known Catholic speaker and writer on these issues, says this: “If people were conscious of the extreme significance of the sexual act, they could not possibly be as cavalier about it as they now are … Our sexually out of control culture and divorce culture has led 68 percent of children born in the U.S. to being born out of wedlock or born into households that will fragment through divorce. One out of four pregnancies is aborted. Those who understand the church’s teaching on sexuality know that to a great extent it is shaped by a concern for the well-being of … children.”

July 25 was the 43rd anniversary of Pope Paul VI’s prophetic act of upholding Christian teaching on contraception in his encyclical letter Humanae Vitae. Everything that he foretold about the effects of contraception has come true. Where do we stand, spiritually and morally, in the midst of the “drama of fragmentation which no longer acknowledges a unifying reference point,” and in which so many people “wish to belong to the church, but are strongly shaped by a vision of life which is in contrast with the faith?”

A happy and restful summer to all.