VATICAN CITY, July 11, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – “I think clearly we
can see that the economic crisis which we are observing in the western
world is a direct consequence of 1968, of the rejection of Humanae Vitae
(the encylical that reiterated the Catholic teaching against
contraception), of the rejection of the Church’s teaching, and the
approval of the sexual revolution, which has caused a demographic
crash.” Those were the words of Rev. Wojciech Giertych OP, the
Theologian of the Papal Household, in a recent interview with
LifeSiteNews.com in which the highly-placed prelate related some
fascinating history and projections. (See video of this part of the Giertych interview)
Beyond pointing out the reality of people working less and living
longer, which creates economic instability, Fr. Giertych discussed “the
moral issue of spending money and throwing the debt on the next
generation, on a generation which has been partly aborted, which has not
met with the generosity of the parents,” and described it as “the
preparation of a violent conflict between generations.”
“I am seeing this brewing, certainly in Europe,” added Fr. Giertych.
“In America at least you have a public debate about the morality of
extending the public debt and throwing the responsibility on the future
generation.”
Children living in poverty because their parents experienced a tragedy
or war, can live with their circumstances, understanding the calamity
that led to their state, he explained. He contrasted that, however,
with "a vast segment of society saying we are poor compared to what the
generation of our parents had, not because there was some catastrophe,
but because the generation of our parents consumed all the [wealth] and
threw the responsibility on us.”
The papal theologian drew attention to the violent youth protests and
mass unemployment across Europe. “They are generally demonstrating
saying, ‘We have the right to receive’, because their parents received
grants for their studies, they received cheaper housing, and so they
have this sense of entitlement which is a consequence of socialism –
somebody has to give.”
Fr. Giertych warned “ultimately there will be a violent conflict.”
He said: “And the states are finally saying, ‘We cannot give. There is a
limit, you know. How far can we go?’ And of course the state may
produce money and be more and more in debt, but ultimately there will be
a violent conflict, and euthanasia is one aspect of this conflict,
which is a direct consequence of the expulsion of the transmission of
life and the living out of sexuality. Ultimately it boils down to
contraception – it’s a consequence.”
The Church, he said, will have an answer for the youth, one
they will need to and be glad to hear. “I think there will come a moment
where the young people will need to hear, will be glad to hear from the
Church a voice which will be on their side, and a voice which will
point to the egoism of the hedonist generation that has distorted
society,” he said. “And it has distorted society beginning at a very
important focal point, which is sexuality… and we are seeing the
consequences.”
We began our discussion with the Papal theologian how the Catholic Church could defend its ‘hard teaching’ on contraception.
Fr. Giertych emphasized that the issue is about a reality that applies
to everyone. He explained, “it’s not only a question of being in sync
with Church teaching, it’s being in sync with reality, with the nature
of the human person and the nature of love, which we received from God,
whereas the Church’s teaching is showing us the way towards that supreme
love.”
For Fr. Giertych there is nothing difficult about the answer of why the
Catholic Church forbids contraception. “Because it distorts the human
sexuality, and elevates the moment of sexual pleasure, whereas it denies
the fundamental finality of sexuality, which is the transmission of
life,” he said. “Sexual activity has been created, devised by God, as a
way of transmitting life and expressing love, whereas contraception
separates the transmission of life which it excludes, and then focuses
uniquely on the pleasure, which generates, as a result, egoism.”
“The main reason why the Church says ‘no’ [to] contraception,” said Fr.
Geirtych, “is that it destroys the quality of love, and marital love,
which is a way of expressing the graces of the sacrament of matrimony,
which is a way of living out the divine charity which is infused in the
body and soul of the spouses.”
He explained that “marital love is to be of the supreme quality” but
“contraception boils down to the saying of the spouse, ‘There’s
something in you that I love, but there’s something in you that I hate,
and I hate the fact that you can be a mother. So I require that this
will be poisoned.’ Well, this is not love. It is not possible for a
husband to say to his wife, ‘I love you truly,’ if at the same time he
demands that she poisons in her body the capacity to transmit life, to
be a mother.”
“That distortion of sexuality,” he said, “distorts human relationships, distorts the entire living-out of human sexuality.”
He added:
"When sexuality is not tied with the virtue of chastity, which trains the person how to integrate the sexual desire within charity, then everything is rocked. And certainly we are seeing this once contraception became so easily available. We’re seeing, successively, the distortions of sexuality, and problems on the level of human relationships, of marriages breaking down, of a violent aggressiveness of women who are discovering that they are being abused as a result of contraception, and so they’re landing in an aggressive feminism, with rage against men. Contraception is leading to abortion, because it treats the potential child as an enemy, and if something goes wrong and a child is conceived then the child is easily aborted."
