Cardinal Walter Kasper on “Artificial” Birth Control

Cardinal Walter Kasper on “Artificial” Birth Control | John F. Kippley | Homiletic & Pastoral Review

The Cardinal simply has to know that “artificial” has nothing to do with the birth control issue

In the online edition of the Telegraph (UK) on September 19th, Religious Affairs editor John Bingham reported that Cardinal Walter Kasper “hinted at the possibility of a reinterpretation of the Roman Catholic Church’s ban on artificial contraception.”

He said it was “the responsibility of the parents” to decide how many children they should have.  Almost no informed orthodox Catholic will disagree with that if it is rightly understood as decisions made in the light of the divine call to generosity in the service of life and family. A church of only one-child and two-child families is doomed to self-extinction. 

According to Bingham, the Cardinal said that “so-called natural family planning, which is promoted by the Church as an alternative to contraception, also has an ‘artificial’ element.”  Bingham notes that some representatives of natural family planning will be at the Extraordinary Synod on the Family and then adds, “But the Cardinal argued that natural methods have an ‘artificial aspect’.” 

The Cardinal simply has to know that “artificial” has nothing to do with the birth control issue.  Almost everything we do today has an artificial aspect.  The alarm clock that wakes us in the morning.  The central heat that goes on automatically at a preset time.  A thermometer used to check body temperatures.   None of this has anything to do with being contrary to nature. 

Cardinal Walter Kasper is 81 years of age.  That means that he was 35 when he witnessed the promulgation of Humanae Vitae and the explosive dissent from it including the German bishops’ lack of support for it. 

Conitinue reading at www.HPRweb.com.