Catholic Popes declare that sex is solely for procreation. Artificial contraceptives are sinful and only the natural, rhythm method may be used.
“[Contraceptives] are ruin of morals...the conjugal act…is a personal action, which, according to the word of the Scriptures, effects the union ‘in one flesh alone’”. - Pope Pius XII, Time, 1965
“Low cost preventatives are already universally available for naughty little girls who want to use them…any high school kid...probably knows about Saranwrap [for makeshift condoms] from the kitchen” and “the pill…prevents reproduction by changing the time sequences in the body’s function. The rhythm method depends on the secretion of progesterone from the ovary. The pill duplicates this action...the physiology of the rhythm method is identical to that brought about by the steroid compound” - John Rock, Cited in New York Times, 1963
"How do they know...after all, they are celibates...they don't know love, they don't know marriage ...and they speak to people as if they were God" Interview with Margaret Sanger on Catholic stand on Birth Control
Pope Paul VI (Click to Enlarge)
In 1968, Pope Paul VI further denounces contraceptives in Humanae Vitae (Of Human Life)
“Direct interruption of the generative process has already begun…to be absolutely excluded as illicit means of regulating birth" - Pope Paul VI, Cited in New York Times, 1968
Pope Paul VI (accusing non-conformists) : “They are crucifying the church”
John Rock:“The hierarchy has made a terrible mistake”
American Catholic women did not care what the Pope proclaimed. By 1980, 28% of American Catholic women were taking the Pill. Catholic mother of four: “I don’t confess that I take the pill…because I don’t believe it is a sin.”
CLICK TO ENLARGE New York Times (Jul 30, 1968) headline and exerpts from Humanae Vitae