Angelus News | July 29, 2022 | Vol. 7 No. 15

trine officials before being published.
She acknowledged that some of its
statements seem to contradict Church
teaching, implying in particular that
there are no actions that are intrinsically
evil.
The president of the academy, Archbishop
Vincenzo Paglia, claims in the
book’s introduction that it heralds a
“paradigm shift” in moral theology,
one which dismisses the old teaching
as a “handbook of formulas” that
doesn’t adequately capture the “existential
aspects that are most relevant
to the dramatic nature of the human
condition and addressed from the
perspective of an anthropology that is
appropriate to the cultural mediation
of faith in today’s world.”
Since what is being called for here is
a shift affecting the whole of Catholic
moral theology, those making this
argument wouldn’t have to stop with
issues like contraception and in vitro
fertilization, but could also hypothetically
revisit the Church’s teaching
against racism, torture, and sexual violence
— all of which are prohibited in
each and every act without exception.
After all, there are Catholics (especially
when it comes to torture)
who will also dismiss such teachings
as applying a simplistic “handbook
of formulas” to what can be a much
more complex moral situation.
Let’s hope and pray that this is just
the wishful thinking of a small group
of seminar participants, so that the
Church’s teaching that sins like racism,
torture, and sexual violence are
always and everywhere impermissible
remains.
But let’s also realize that it is literally
the worst time ever to be challenging
the teaching of “Humanae Vitae.” It
is true, as critics have said for multiple
generations, that most Catholics have
rejected the Church’s teaching in that
document. But the Catholic Church’s
teaching, whether about contraception
or about our radical duties to give
our wealth to the poor, is not subject
to a popularity contest.
By any objective measure, the
Church’s teaching in “Humanae Vitae”
is more relevant than it has ever
been. A few reasons why:
• The separation of sex from openness
to procreation has produced
a hookup culture in which the
primary script for sex involves intentionally
using another person’s
body as a mere object and then discarding
them. That this throwaway
sexual culture very often crosses
the line into sexual violence is a
feature, not a bug.
• Virtual porn already dominates the
lives of large majorities of young
people, but in separating sex from
marriage open to procreation, that
kind of person-less sexual behavior
will become our culture’s norm,
especially with the advent of the
so-called “metaverse” and sex
robots driven by artificial intelligence.
• Happily, more and more women
are rejecting the patriarchal
expectation that they will “choose”
to pump their bodies full of dangerous
hormones as the price of
admission not only for dating and
relationships, but for following
their educational and vocational
dreams. More and more women
(including those who are secular
in their approach) are honoring
their given, embodied femininity
by using the latest technology to
practice various eco-friendly and
strikingly effective versions of the
fertility awareness method.
• It now clear that it is virtually
impossible to separate the logic
of contraception from the logic of
abortion. Indeed, until very recently
the United States was governed
by abortion law (Planned Parenthood
v. Casey), which insisted that
women need abortion as a backup
to contraception. Abortion is the
fail-safe for participation in sexual
culture created by contraception.
• When reproduction is separated
from sex and moved to a laboratory,
gross ableism follows. Indeed,
disabled embryonic children are
discarded and those with genetically
preferred traits are implanted —
a practice that will become even
more common. Furthermore, this
culture of reproduction mirrors the
excesses of our country’s consumerist
practices, producing millions
of “extra” embryos destined for
the absurd fate of perpetual frozen
storage.
• This model of reproduction as disconnected
from sex has led to the
rejection of the idea that having
children is an unmerited gift from
God. Instead, it pushes in the direction
of a so-called “right to have
children” which may (especially if
one is older and/or gay or lesbian)
require mandatory coverage of in
vitro fertilization. One wonders
what such a shift will require of
vulnerable women who are already
structurally coerced into renting
their bodies to serve the fertility of
others.
The Church’s teaching on the
inherent connection between sex
and procreation was not only divinely
inspired, but has never been more urgent
in the consumerist West. Instead
of resurrecting a played-out attempt
to undermine this teaching, Catholic
moral theologians should be working
on new and creative ways to invite all
people of goodwill to see its truth.
One obvious way to move toward this
goal: U.S. and European Catholics
should take a harder look at how and
why Catholics in Africa and other
places in the developing world have
not capitulated to our consumer
throwaway culture in the areas of sex
and procreation. This is an opportunity
to listen to peoples who can provide
language and strategies — based on
their lived experience — for helping
the world see the truth St. Paul VI
taught in “Humanae Vitae.”
Charlie Camosy is professor of
Medical Humanities at the Creighton
University School of Medicine.
In addition, he holds the Monsignor
Curran Fellowship in Moral Theology
at St. Joseph Seminary in New York.
His most recent book is “Losing Our
Dignity: How Secularized Medicine is
Undermining Fundamental Human
Equality” (New City Press, $22.95).
July 29, 2022 • ANGELUS • 27