As the International Catholic “Synod on Synodality” convenes this month, topics discussed are how much power the Church will grant women (not much), marriage for priests (as practiced historically) and will queer people be accepted (the Bible says no).
Apparently, the Good Book says birth control is bad, too (considered a “sin”). I wrote an Open Mic article when human population reached 8 billion. Now, I must confess (though I’m not Catholic) my outrage, upon reading that contraception will not even be discussed at the Synod. How can any world institution—which has a nominal membership of hundreds of millions—be against birth control in the 21st century?
The answer: “Marriage and conjugal love are by their nature ordained toward the procreation … of children. So the Church, which is on the side of life, [emphasis added] teaches that it is necessary that each and every marriage act remain ordered per se to the procreation of human life.”—from a “Natural Family Planning” tract.
Natural Family Planning excludes contraception in all forms, including any non-procreative pleasure, and any form of sex other than the “marriage act.” But, “Catholic health institutions may…help couples conceive.”
What? What if married (as well as unmarried, or divorced) couples don’t want children for financial or health reasons? (Is this a plot to produce more Catholics?)
Has the Church ever truly been pro-life? What about the Crusades, which murdered countless Muslims and Jews? The Inquisition, when as many as 9 million “witches” were burned? The superstitious murder of witches’ familiars, cats, which led to the proliferation of rats and the Black Plagues? The centuries of wars that ravaged Europe over the Catholic Church fighting its Protestant rivals? Giordano Bruno’s burning and Galileo’s arrest for professing that the sun is the center of the universe, not the Earth?
Billions and billions of mass-produced humans are the cause of the current destruction of Earth’s four billion-year nurturing habitat for millions of other species. I declare Catholic dogma anti-life. I am not against religion per se. I just have this to say: Karma runs over your dogma.
Barry Barnett is a professional writer and activist in Santa Rosa.
