As appetite for food is an instinct for the preservation of the individual life, so sex appetite is ordained for the preservation of the life of the race. The birth controller satisfies passion for the sake of passion and violates the moral order established by God. St. Augustine writes, “Relations with one’s wife when conception is deliberately prevented are as unlawful and impure as the conduct of Onan who was slain.” St. Thomas Aquinas taught that it is a grave sin. “Next to murder, by which an actually existent human being is destroyed, we rank this sin by which the generation of a human being is prevented.” Gen. 38:10 we read, “And the Lord slew him, because he did a detestable thing.” The gravity of the punishment shows the gravity of the crime, and Cornelius a Lapide remarks, “If God so punished Onan, what must He think of Christians?” In the book of Tobias the Angel Raphael tells Tobias, “Hear me, and I will show thee who they are, over whom the devil can prevail. For they who in such a manner receive matrimony, as to shut out God from themselves, and from their mind, and to give themselves to their lust, as the horse and mule, which have not understanding, over them the devil hath power . . . ‘O Lord, thou knowest that not for fleshly lust do I take my sister to wife, but only for the love of posterity in which thy name may be blest.’ “ (Tob 8:9)

St. Paul repeatedly says that the lustful and sensuous will not inherit the Kingdom of God. Marital relations are justified only when the conception of children be not deliberately and artificially prevented. The honorable nature of marriage is destroyed if it be turned into a merely sensual satisfaction. Christian marriage is a great symbol of the union between Christ and His Church. Can you imagine the Church deliberately preventing the spiritual life of grace in the souls of those whom her union with Christ should bring to God? Those who practice contraception violate God’s law, and deprive Christ of children for sanctification. And if they die in such sin they will most certainly be lost. If they say that conscience does not reproach them, then they have warped that conscience, and they will have to answer for it.

It is estimated that presently about 80% of Catholics are unlawfully using methods of artificial contraception. Of this large number it is estimated that about a third have been voluntarily sterilized. What does the Church teach in this regard? From the book, Denzinger - The Sources of Catholic Dogma, the official book of Catholic theologians, it states: “To the question proposed to the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office; ‘Whether direct sterilization, either perpetual or temporary, is permitted on a man or a women,’ the Most Eminent and Reverend Fathers, Doctors, and Cardinals, appointed to guard matters of faith and morals, on Thursday the 21st day of February, 1940, decided that the following answer must be given: In the negative, and indeed that it is prohibited by law of nature, and that, insofar as it pertains to eugenic sterilization, it has already been disap-proved by the decree of this Congregation, on the 21st day of March, 1931.” Pope Paul VI reaffirmed this teaching in Humanae Vitae.

In no case is one allowed to be steriliz-ed. If there is a danger to the wife’s health, then the husband is obliged to abstain and contain himself according to the natural order as he would have to do if he were not married. Sterilization is against the Fifth Commandment because the commandment also forbids self mutilation of all kinds, which in-cludes vasectomy and tubay ligation for strictly birth control purposes. “You are not your own, but are bought with a great price.” (1 Cor. 6:20)

Also in the cases of those who use the pill or IUD, they are often times not only attempting to block conception, but aborting their child because these means often act as abortifacients. In this case they sacrifice their own children. “And it was not enough for them to err about the knowledge of God . for . . . they sacrifice their own children . . . so that now they neither keep life nor marriage undefiled?’ (Wis. 14:22-24)

At Fatima, Our Lady warned that more souls go to hell for sins of the flesh than for any other reason. The saints have said the same. How many Catholics go to Holy Communion. How few go to Confession! Our Lady revealed to St. Bridget that for those who receive Holy Communion sacrilegiously there is no punishment on earth severe enough to punish it sufficiently. St. Alphonsus said that “as pride filled hell with the fallen angels, so sins of the flesh fill it with the souls of men.” He also said that some of the angels, remembering their former dignity, refuse even to tempt men to this shameful vice. “Your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost ... the temple of God. If any man defile this temple, him shall God destroy:’ (1 Cor. 3:16-17, 6:19)

God calls us to “be fruitful and multiply” rather than stifle and kill our offspring. St. Paul says a woman “shall be saved through childbearing; if she continue in faith and love, and sanc-tification with sobriety.” (1 Tim. 2:15) If we wish to save our souls, we must observe the natural order and “renounce ourselves” as Our Lord commands. In order to do this, we must adopt the means. These means according to St. Robert Bellarmine, St. Alphonsus and the masters of the spiritual life are: I) Fasting, especially mortification of the eyes and the appetite. 2) Avoiding the occasions of sin. St. Phillip Neri said that, “in the war of the senses, cowards conquer, those who fly from dangerous occasions.” 3) Prayer. “And as I knew” said the wise man, “that I could not otherwise be continent except God gave it . . . I went to the Lord and besought Him.” (Wis. 8:21) 4) St. John of Avila used to say, “that many have conquered impure temptations by only having devotion to her Immaculate Conception.”

To these counsels we might add fifthly: Frequent Communion. St. Phillip Neri used to say, “Chastity is not possible without the Eucharist.”

O Mary how many are now in hell on account of this vice. Sovereign Lady, ob-tain for us the grace always to have recourse to thee in our temptations and always to invoke thee.