War on Women

“Who are you going to buy flowers for?” a fellow seminarian asked coyly on March 8 my first year as a student in Rome. I did not know what he was getting at, but I had noticed the many people at street corners selling flowers that morning. He explained that it was International Women’s Day, on which men buy flowers for women, to show their respect and appreciation. In America, this custom is overshadowed by the celebration for sweethearts on St. Valentine’s Day, and for mothers on Mother’s Day, but in other countries, any woman may be honored with flowers on “Women’s Day.” Do we hold women in honor in modern society? It seems rather that our culture is showing them a grave dishonor.

In the last year our nation experienced a very public debate about free contraceptives, sterilization, and abortion-inducing drugs for all working women, paid for by employers—even if they have religious objections. Even if they work for religious institutions, like Catholic hospitals and schools. In the minds of many politicians and shapers of society, such procedures and pills are considered essential “preventive services,” a necessary part of basic healthcare. It is important to make the argument that religious liberty is being trampled in violating the convictions of religious organizations and individuals. That approach has been at the forefront of opposition to the Contraceptive Mandate.

But there is also another debate which has not been aggressively pursued, even though it is more fundamental. It is precisely the debate about contraception. The other side wants to engage us in that debate, thinking they can shame and ridicule our position into irrelevance. I think we should take them on in this fight, because we can certainly win, if we are as cunning as serpents, and innocent as doves.

“There is a War on Women!”—this is how some politicians and media spokespersons framed the issue when the US Catholic Bishops spoke to Congress two years ago. They are exactly right. But they are totally mistaken about which side they are on. The unfolding of events have brought the battle lines into high relief. The stakes could not be higher.

The Blessed war strategist John Paul II described the two competing sides: Between those who favor artificial contraception and those who oppose it, there “is a difference which is much wider and deeper than is usually thought, one which involves in the final analysis two irreconcilable concepts of the human person and of human sexuality… [One] involves accepting the cycle of the person, that is the woman, and thereby accepting dialogue, reciprocal respect, shared responsibility and self- control…”

On the other hand, “when couples, by means of recourse to contraception, separate these two meanings [of love-making and life-giving] which God the Creator has inscribed in the being of man and woman and in the dynamism of their sexual communion, they act as ‘arbiters’ of the divine plan and they ‘manipulate’ and degrade human sexuality—and with it themselves and their married partner—by altering its value of ‘total’ self-giving (Familiaris Consortio, n. 32).”

This is precisely what Venerable Pope Paul VI warned in the encyclical Humanae Vitae which is really at the heart of the whole debate: “One effect which gives cause for alarm is that a man who grows accustomed to the use of contraception may forget the reverence due to a woman, and disregarding her physical and emotional equilibrium, may reduce her to being a mere instrument for the satisfaction of his own desires, no longer considering her as his partner whom he should surround with care and affection.” (n.17). But what do those old celibate men in Rome know about love? Well, let’s see what other popes have said:

“Artificial methods are like putting a premium on vice. They make men and women reckless… Nature is relentless and will have full revenge for any such violation of her laws. If artificial methods become the order of the day, nothing but moral degradation can be the result.” Which pope said this? Mahatma Gandhi, the “pope” of social justice.

Here’s another one: “Abandonment of [reproduction] is the common feature of all perversions. We describe all sexual activity as perverse if it has given up the aim of reproduction and pursues the attainment of pleasure as an aim independent of it.” This was said by Sigmund Freud, the “pope” of modern psychology.

Many great thinkers—and all Christians—violently opposed artificial contraception; it was Protestant legislators who wrote the laws against it in the 19th century in the United States. Only in 1930 did the Anglican Church begin to break ranks, allowing contraception in some cases. This crack in the wall led to the crumbling of the dam of unified Christian moral teaching, and the foes of women began to overrun the front lines.

Then in 1968, against the invading enemy horde the Catholic Church took a final stand. The courage of and valiance of that moment can hardly be exaggerated. In that rebellious summer, the commander-in-chief of the Catholic Church, Venerable Pope Paul VI, issued his now infamous document, Humanae Vitae, On Human Life, on the regulation of births. It was a teaching not so much about what is revealed in Scripture, and therefore only accessible to believers—to Catholics—but a revelation through nature, and evident to anyone who uses careful reason.

Unlike Gandhi and Freud, the intellectuals of our day have retreated wholesale from the natural law view of this issue. And religious believers, including all other Christians, have deserted the battle lines as well. Only the Catholic Church maintains this understanding of human nature. So it is inaccurately described as a “Catholic” teaching. No, it’s just that we are the only ones standing fast in the face of the onslaught of lies and injuries to human nature. And now we must be the leaders of the counter-offensive.

There was a parody about this debate. “Mike Huckabee [a prominent Protestant] joined the fight against the President’s mandate saying, ‘We’re all Catholic now.’ Really? You know who is not ‘all Catholic now’? All Catholics now!” Then the skit trotted out the usual statistics about the practice of 98% of Catholic women who do not follow the Church’s teaching in this area of life. Although the reference is partially inaccurate, tragically, it is mostly true.

This disparity of Church teaching and Catholic practice led the White House to tell the US Bishops in a meeting last year: your own people don’t agree with you—follow them. The lesson for us is that, while the Church has taken a stand, her teachers have not effectively armed her rank and file members with an understanding of the truth of Humanae Vitae. This is a tragic situation, especially in the midst of a war. The fundamental concept of the dignity of the human person—especially of women—is at stake. Yet this battle is also an incredible opportunity for every Catholic to engage valiantly in this fight.

Last year, in the National Catholic Register, a columnist wrote an article entitled, “Father, We Are Ready for that Homily on Contraception Now.” She describes the fact that she had never heard a homily on the topic in all her years attending Mass, and because of her past practice she was not comfortable with the Church’s stand on the subject. This is probably true of many people in the pews at a typical parish. And priests were reluctant to broach such a delicate and intimate topic. Yet now we have been handed a golden opportunity: the issue was plastered on the front page of every newspaper and blasted at the top of every news broadcast for weeks. The topic branded Catholic identity in the public eye day in and day out.

The audience is ripe for the Church to explain the truth in a calm, reasoned, prudent, and compassionate manner. If we do not do this in the next several months, we are doing our troops the worst form of disservice in the heat of battle! Let us arm them with the beauty and truth of the teachings of the Church on human dignity, life and love. They are yearning for the antidote to the culture of death which has flooded our society especially in the last forty years. So often I have heard the reaction of people learning this for the first time: “I went to Catholic school and Mass all my life. Why didn’t anybody ever tell me this before?” One young woman wrote upon seeing the details of her own fertility cycle, “I never knew how beautiful I really am!” Archbishop Cordileone of San Francisco prophesied at the State CANFP Conference in 2008 that this teaching on love and life will be the vehicle for the New Evangelization, because it answers the deepest desires of the human heart, especially in our day. All of us, priests and laity, should be ready to give an accounting of what Catholics still believe on this subject. Let us arm the troops for battle. Defend the truth and dignity of the human person in this war on women. At last, we know who wins: “She will crush your head (Genesis 3:15),” and triumph everlastingly.

This battle plan is my bouquet for all women, in honor of their innate feminine genius!