Abstract
A polarization characterized by disrespect for opposing viewpoints can be found not only in US politics but also within the Catholic Church. As an example, this essay explores the approach to birth control as expressed in statements by two competing Catholic groups, one progressive and one conservative. The author judges both statements to be excessively one-sided but appeals especially to the progressive group to recognize how the phenomenon of natural family planning as it has emerged over the past fifty years calls for recognition and respect. For the sake of the unity of the church, each side is called upon to fight against polarization as it defends what is of value in its own positions.
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Notes
- 1.
Ezra Klein, Why We’re Polarized (New York: Avid Reader Press, 2020).
- 2.
Ibid., 232.
- 3.
Ibid., 96.
- 4.
Ibid., 46.
- 5.
“Academic Report on the Ethical Use of Contraceptives,” (previously issued as drafts with various titles). Wijngaards Institute for Catholic Research, posted October 2016, https://www.wijngaardsinstitute.com/statement-on-contraceptives/ (accessed February 11, 2020); see also Jamie Manson, “Catholic Church’s Total Ban on Contraception Challenged by Scholars,” National Catholic Reporter, 21 September 2016, https://www.ncronline.org/blogs/grace-margins/catholic-churchs-total-ban-contraception-challenged-scholars (accessed February 11, 2020).
- 6.
“Affirmation of the Church’s Teaching on the Gift of Sexuality,” signed by many Catholic scholars, 21 September 2016, https://trs.catholic.edu/humanae-vitae/index.html (accessed February 11, 2020). See also Carol Zimmermann, “Scholars Reaffirm Catholic Teaching against Artificial Birth Control,” Catholic News Service, 21 September 2016.
- 7.
John Paul II’s writings on this subject can be found in Man and Woman He Created Them: A Theology of the Body, translated by Michael Waldstein (Pauline Books and Media, 2006 [1986]). Scholarship supporting the authors of the Response can be found in Why Humanae Vitae Is Still Right, edited by Janet E. Smith (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2018).
- 8.
These methods are now often referred to collectively as “fertility awareness based methods of family planning.” For an explanation of the variety of such methods including their effectiveness, costs, advantages, and difficulties, see Simcha Fisher, “Moving Beyond the Rhythm Method,” America, 3 February 2020, 18–25.
- 9.
Julie Hanlon Rubio, “Beyond the Liberal/Conservative Divide on Contraception: The Wisdom of Practitioners of Natural Family Planning and Artificial Birth Control,” Horizons 32 (2005): 270–294. See also Mary Ellen Konieczny, Charles C. Camosy, and Tricia C. Bruce, eds., Polarization in the U.S. Catholic Church: Naming the Wounds, Beginning to Heal (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2016).
- 10.
In a 2005 dissertation, sociologist Brian Starks found that, when compared with members of other traditions, a significantly higher percentage of Catholics tend to see differences between liberal and traditional views as healthy. See “Contemporary Catholic Identities: Ideology and Politics among American Catholics” (Ph.D. Dissertation for Indiana University, 2005). In a recent conversation, Starks told me that he does not know of any more recent studies that follow-up on this question. In our age of polarization, I fear this fact of 2005 may no longer be the case.
- 11.
Lauren Clark and Sarah M. Stitzlein, “Neoliberal Narratives and the Logic of Abstinence Only Education: Why Are We Still Having This Conversation?” Gender and Education 30 (2018): 322–340. Note: I have no objection to highlighting abstinence within a more comprehensive approach to sex education and health care.
- 12.
Stephen R. Schloesser documents how the negative lay reception of Humane Vitae was shaped by fifty years of lay movements that stressed internalizing authority, personal mysticism, and social action. See “1918–1968–2018: A Tissue of Laws and Choices and Chance,” Theological Studies 79 (2018): 487–519. See also Leslie Woodcock Tentler, Catholics, and Contraception: An American History (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2004).
- 13.
Klein, Polarized, 249–268.
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Doyle, D.M. (2021). The Unity of the Church and Birth Control in an Age of Polarization. In: Chapman, M.D., Latinovic, V. (eds) Changing the Church. Pathways for Ecumenical and Interreligious Dialogue. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-53425-7_13
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