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By its God-given nature, the reasoning goes, the sexual act is intended to produce children. The rhythm method, which first gained world-wide publicity in the early '30s, was eventually approved by the church because it does not directly interfere with the procreative purpose of sex, whereas any barrier put between the sperm and the ovum frustrates the natural design of the act. Equally sinful is sterilization, and when Pius XII, speaking to a group of hematologists in 1958, outlawed the oral steroid pills (TIME, March 20) when used as contraceptives, it was on the ground that they temporarily sterilize the female reproductive system.
Bad Joke. The argument makes little sense to most Protestants, who generally regard birth-control methods as morally neutral and the motive for using them all-important. Many lay Catholics also find the church's reasoning fallacious, and Pollster Lou Harris reported in February that by a 3-to-2 margin a sampling of U.S. Catholics wanted to see a change in their church's attitude toward birth control. Rhythm, they argue, is unreliable and moreover, its complement of thermometers, charts and calendar watching makes any theological defense of the method as "natural" seem like a bad semantic joke.
Many bishops and priests admit that there is some discrepancy between their teaching on birth control and the actual practice of Catholic couples. "It is the single most important cause for defection from the sacraments among the younger generation of German Catholics," says Theologian Werner Scholl-gen of Bonn University. U.S. bishops and priests have yet to give much attention to the problem, but Dutch Bishop Willem Bekkers of 's Hertogenbosch says: "If I see people in church not receiving the Eucharist, and I know they are the kind of people who should be, then I say this is reason for reconsidering the entire question."
Nature Can Change. The theological reconsideration currently being carried out by progressive European moralists begins with a rethinking of natural law as applied to marriage questions. Nature, they say, evolves in the encounter of men and institutions with the forces of history. Thus, the nature of marriage can change—from the polygamy practiced by the Hebrews with divine approval to the monogamous union now blessed by the church.
Instead of referring to primary (procreative) and secondary (concupiscent) ends in marriage, one theologian argues that the highest value is the "interpersonal relationship between man and wife," and that the purely biological is the lowest. Although the integrity of the sexual relationship depends upon the "harmonious presence" of all the values, a lower one—such as man's duty to help propagate the race—could be excluded temporarily for the sake of a higher one. This theologian believes that the contraceptive pills, like rhythm, do not interfere with the sacred char acter of the marital act, although mechanical birth-control devices may.