Letters

Dr Mobbs replies ...

Frank Mobbs

Contents - Oct 2013 - Buy a copy now Editorial: Postscript on the Australian elections - Peter Westmore Pope Francis to consecrate world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary - Peter Westmore News: The Church Around the World Frassati Australia and the New Evangelisation - Fr Paul Chandler OSCE Conference: The new face of religious intolerance - Bishop Mario Toso The Catholic Church is holy, despite its members' sins - Audrey English Interview: Why science needs faith - Professor Dominique Lambert The priesthood and the Catholic faith - Fr John O'Neill PP Church of Divine Mercy in Singapore: an amazing discovery - Kazimierz Kozlowski Blessed Jacinta Marto: heroine of Fatima - Cedric Wright Letters: Dr Mobbs replies ... - Frank Mobbs Letters: Exaggeration? - Noel Keith Roberts Letters: Humanae Vitae - Ron Graham Letters: Moral failure - John Wynter Letters: Harmful effects - Richard Grant, Willie Chenhall, Maryse Usher Letters: Creator's plan - Clare Ryan Letters: Culture of life needed - Fr Bernard McGrath Letters: Anti-religious bigotry - Peter Kamsma Events: Spiritual Exercises in Bowral, December 2013 Books: A Book of Saints and Heroes, Heroines, by Joanna Bogle - Val Prendergast (reviewer) Books: COURAGE AND CONVICTION, by Joanna Bogle - Peter Westmore (reviewer) Books: ON THE LEFT BANK OF THE TIBER, by Fr Gerald O'Collins SJ - Frank Mobbs Books: THE FREEDOM OF LOVE, by Rafael de Santiago - Br Barry Coldrey (reviewer) Support: Launch of 2013 Fighting Fund - Peter Westmore Books: Order books from www.freedompublishing.com.au Reflection: Bishop Fisher: Young Catholics must be Christ in the world - Bishop Anthony Fisher

My letter (August AD2000) criticised Anne Lastman's article (" Humanae Vitae: still prophetic after 45 years", July AD2000) for her exaggerations and for her failure to show that rejection of Humanae Vitae is the cause of certain evils, such as the increased frequency of abortion.

Her argument is of the form of a logical fallacy known as post hoc ergo propter hoc (after this therefore because of this), e.g., after the rejection of Humanae Vitae the abortion rate rose, therefore the rejection caused the rise. But consider China which has a very high abortion rate. Statistics are hard to come by but Wikipedia gives a figure of 13 million each year, a third of all abortions worldwide. The rate is an effect not of a 'contraceptive mentality' but of the Chinese government's penalising those who bear more than one child.

Anne Lastman's exaggerations are manifest, e.g., "the rejection of the encyclical lurched society into a condition of perhaps irretrievable morass''; " Humanae Vitae was a document emanating directly from the mind and heart of God" (How does she know this?); and "contraception is a deception and blasphemy against life". These unbalanced claims weaken her argument.

A better explanation of the increase in frequency of teenage sexual intercourse, abortion, destruction of embryos and divorce is that millions of people have come to believe that these acts are not always sinful or immoral. For example, they believe that a foetus is not a person, so killing it does not harm anyone. Most of such people will never have heard of Humanae Vitae, so are not rejecting it.

Again Anne Lastman indulges her penchant for exaggeration: "Contraception is a sin because in its intent it says 'no' to God." Really? The practitioner may never have heard of God or does not believe in God.

As for contraception promoting abortion, I would think true the proposition, "The fewer the conceptions the fewer the abortions." Contraception has prevented billions of births, so the number of those who could be aborted has been drastically reduced.

Does contraception diminish love between couples (married or not)? Consider two groups of men: Anglican bishops, and priests of some Orthodox Churches. The overwhelming majority are married. I have no entry to their bedrooms, but I suppose most practise contraception because their Churches do not forbid it.

I find it hard to believe they are defying God and that they do not love their wives. Indeed, they may be acting in harmony with the teaching of Humanae Vitae, art. 13: "It is in fact justly observed that a conjugal act imposed upon one's partner without regard for his or her condition and lawful desires is not a true act of love, and therefore denies an exigency of right moral order in the relationships between husband and wife."

FRANK MOBBS (DR)
Point Frederick, NSW

Reprinted from AD2000 Vol 26 No 9 (October 2013), p. 14