Episode Transcript  

One

Pope St. Paul VI: A Prophet for Our Time

Today is the Feast of Pope St. Paul VI, the Holy Father who led the Church through the Second Vatican Council and in 1968 gave the world one of its most courageous and prophetic documents: Humanae Vitae. In it, he reaffirmed what the Church has always taught—marriage, sex, and children belong together, and in that order. When these three are united, love is fruitful, society flourishes, and human dignity is honored. But when they are separated, individuals suffer and society unravels.

As a young man, I didn’t understand this. Most people still don’t. That’s why we need to reflect seriously on what Paul VI foresaw and why he was right. He warned that the widespread use of contraception would lead to: A collapse in sexual morality. A breakdown of marriage and family life. The degradation of women into objects of pleasure. Government coercion, pressuring poor nations to embrace contraception, sterilization, and abortion in exchange for financial aid.

He foresaw that once sex was separated from its God-given meaning, people would begin to believe they had total control over their bodies, as if our bodies had no design, no purpose, no Creator. This illusion of sovereignty paves the way for abortion: “It’s my body, I can do what I want, even with the life inside me,” and for gender ideology, “I can redefine my identity, my gender, and even the meaning of my relationships.” When we lose sight of the body as a gift from God with a purpose, we begin to remake ourselves in our own image rather than in His.

This wasn’t alarmism or rigidity, it was prophetic clarity. Though many dismissed Humanae Vitae in 1968 as out of touch or even harmful, every warning has since proven true. Paul VI wrote, “Let men consider how easily this course of action could open wide the way for marital infidelity and a general lowering of moral standards... Another effect is that a man who grows accustomed to the use of contraceptive methods may forget the reverence due to a woman, and... reduce her to being a mere instrument for the satisfaction of his own desires.” (Humanae Vitae, 17)

That’s exactly what happened, and it continues to unfold today. What he saw coming, the rest of the world denied. But truth doesn’t change just because we don’t want to hear it.

Two

How Contraception Undermines Marriage and Society

God designed sex to be the body language of the marriage vows. Through it, a husband and wife say with their bodies what they promised at the altar, “I give myself to you freely, totally, faithfully, and fruitfully.” It is a physical expression of a permanent, life-giving gift of self, ordered to union and the creation of new life. This is the God-given meaning and purpose of sex, written into our bodies and fulfilled in the covenant of marriage. But what happens when we reject this meaning?

Contraception contradicts it. It holds back fertility, turning sex into something centered on pleasure, not self-gift or openness to life. Once sex is no longer ordered toward children, it loses its natural connection to marriage. If sex no longer requires a vow, if it’s just about pleasure, then why wait for marriage? People begin to say, “Why get married if I can have sex without commitment?” And if children are no longer seen as blessings, they begin to be treated as burdens, or accidents to be avoided. Once children are seen as optional, the family loses its meaning and purpose.

Since contraception became widespread in 1968, marriage rates have fallen by over 60%, and divorce, cohabitation, and fatherless homes have risen dramatically. What God joined together, sex, marriage, and children, contraception tears apart. And when we tear apart the foundation of the family, society itself begins to collapse. That collapse is all around us.

Three

Contraception Leads to Divorce and Abortion

The word matrimony literally means, “the call to motherhood.” Its root is matriarchy, motherhood. This tells us that the very meaning of marriage is tied to the woman’s capacity to give life. If we remove the call to motherhood from the sexual equation, then the goal of sex becomes pleasure.

Once pleasure becomes the main goal of sex, rather than love and life, people begin to use each other. Sex stops being a total gift of self and becomes a way to get what I want. When the pleasure fades, the relationship fades. That’s why contraception is not just linked to infidelity and divorce, it often sets the stage for both.

Since contraception became widespread, divorce has skyrocketed. Why? Because contraception changes the meaning of sex. It turns love into use. And when sex becomes about pleasure instead of self-gift, people become replaceable. When the pleasure fades, the temptation is to discard the person and look for someone who gives more pleasure.

Contraception is also a direct precursor to abortion. Why? Because no method of contraception is foolproof. When it fails, abortion becomes the backup plan. If a child wasn’t welcome before conception, he or she won’t be welcome after. Even the U.S. Supreme Court recognized this connection: abortion rights depend on contraception rights. Until we confront the lie of contraception, we will never uproot the logic that sustains abortion.

Four

A Demographic and Spiritual Crisis

It takes 2.15 children for each woman to keep your population at zero growth. The birthrate in America is now between 1.6 and 1.7 births per woman, well below the replacement level of 2.1. While many factors contribute to this decline, widespread contraception, sterilization, and abortion have played a major role in separating sex from its natural openness to life and discouraging the desire for children.

No society can economically sustain itself if it will not have children. No society can sustain itself in any fashion if it doesn’t have children. The refusal to have children is societal and cultural suicide. We are quite literally making ourselves extinct.

There comes a point, demographically and culturally, when reversing population decline becomes nearly impossible, because the number of young people, the economy, and the culture itself no longer support recovery. By the end of this century, it is quite possible that both European culture and Christianity in Europe will be nearly extinct, not because of an Islamic invasion, but because Europeans rejected Jesus and refused to have children.

Don’t you see, my friends, that the devil wants to destroy the fundamental cell of society, marriage and family, so that he can destroy everything else? The devil has one obsession: to destroy whatever God creates, especially marriage and the family. No one is forcing us to do this, we are killing ourselves.

When we break apart marriage, sex, and babies, we end up redefining all three: Babies become a clump of cells we can get rid of, sex becomes simply an exchange of pleasure in which gender is meaningless and changeable, and marriage becomes a governmental stamp of approval on whatever your preference of pleasure exchange might be.

This was all predicted in 1968 when Pope Paul VI prophesied the devastating consequences of contraception in Humanae Vitae.

Five

Learn, Share, and Receive Mercy

Unfortunately, no one explained the teaching of Jesus on sexual morality to me. As a young man, I thought contraception was the responsible thing to do. But when I was 23 and I was living a very sexually immoral life, a friend handed me a book on Catholic moral theology. I read it, and I was angry—not because I disagreed, but because I knew it was true. And I was angry that no one had shared this truth with me sooner.

If you are like me and want to learn what and why Jesus and the Church teach about marriage and sexual morality, I encourage you to go to askchristopherwest.com. If you know a person like me, be willing to do what my friend did, share a resource with them. Christopher West has great resources, invite them to go to askchristopherwest.com.

Finally, if you are or were like me, don’t beat yourself up for the past or the present. Simply turn to Jesus and tell Him you want to live love His way, the authentic way, and then go to Confession, where Jesus the Merciful Healer will forgive you and give you all the grace you need for a transformed life.

Suggested Resolutions:

Choose one resolution for today to help you grow closer to God, or create your own. Here are some ideas to inspire you.

• No matter where you’re at with contraception and sexual morality, don’t let it stop you from turning back to confession and realigning your beliefs to God’s design for human sexuality and the conception of human life.

• Consider going to askchristopherwest.com or sharing this resource with others who might be in need of more education on this topic.

Not Conservative. Not Liberal. Just Christian.

Trust in media is at an all-time low (shocking… we know), but let’s keep “walking around completely uninformed” as a backup plan.

The Pour Over provides concise, politically neutral, and entertaining summaries of the world’s biggest news paired with reminders to stay focused on eternity. Subscribe in just one click!

If you enjoyed this meditation, subscribe below.