in Pennsylvania's First Congressional District
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennsylvania's_1st_congressional_district http://archphila.org/pastplan/MAPS/Arch.pdf
and the Central Garden State

Saturday, July 29, 2017

Our Culture, Before and After the Rejection of Humanae Vitae



Sixty years ago and eleven years before Humanae Vitae, Time Magazine reported that a (hormonal) contraceptive pill was right around the corner [i], unwittingly hailing the start of Sexual Revolution.  Our experience of Marriage/ Family/ Sexuality has simply not been the same.

Dr. John Rock and “the Pill”

 When the “Pill” came on the market, its entrance was trumpeted by a Catholic physician.
Dr. John Rock “attended Mass daily and kept a crucifix on the wall above his office desk....Rock was able to conduct the first human trials for the Pill in Boston…. When the Pill received FDA approval in 1960, Rock's work on behalf of the Pill came to the forefront. At age 70, Rock launched a one-man campaign to gain Vatican approval of the Pill. Rock argued that using the Pill was a more precise way of following the rhythm method. He strongly believed that the church should consider it a ‘natural,’ and therefore acceptable, form of birth control....As Rock became a familiar figure in America and abroad, his view quickly took root among laity of the church as well as among many Catholic religious leaders.”[ii] 
When the abortifacient potential of the Pill later became known, would that have been enough to change Dr. Rock?  According to Planned Parenthood, sterilization and “the Pill” are now the most widely used  "contraceptives." [iii]  In a supposedly environmentally aware age, so many succumb to surgery and ingesting chemicals (or placing foreign objects on or in their bodies) to "protect" themselves against their natural fertility.

STDs

There are now 59 times more new cases of STD infection, than there were overall infections in 1957: 
  • As per the Centers for Disease Control, 340,687 cases of STDs were reported in 1957. [iv]
  • Presently, the “CDC estimates that nearly 20 million new sexually transmitted infections occur every year in this country, half among young people aged 15–24.” [v]

Rape/Sexual Assault

While counting methods have changed, numbers still suggest an undeniable surge in rapes/sexual assaults:
  • In 1960, there were 17,190 "forcible rapes" (9.6 per 100,000 people).[vi]
  • There were 431,840 cases of rape/sexual assault in 2015.[vii]

Marriage and Divorce

While Americans have expanded the civil definition of marriage (and are showing an increasingly  favorable toward polygamy!), fewer are marrying and those who do are more likely to divorce:
  • In 1957, there was a marriage rate of 8.9 per 1000 people and a divorce rate of 2.2 per 1000 people. [viii]
  • In 2014, there was a marriage rate of 6.9 per 1000 people and a divorce (and annulment) rate of 3.2 per 1000 people. [ix]

Children of Divorce

"Primal Loss: The Now Adult Children of Divorce Speak....should be required reading for anyone who thinks that divorce is 'good thing' for their children—or even for them.  Consider the following passage from the book, in which a woman writes of suffering through her parent’s divorce during her youth:
My grandparents’ generation had to deal with a lot — war, undiagnosed PTSD, and alcoholism—but they had a noble idea: That you sacrificed your own happiness for your children’s well-being. You took on all the heartache so they didn’t have to. …
My parent’s generation inverted that. They decided it was better a child should have her world torn apart than that an adult should bear any suffering. Of course, they didn’t frame it that way. They wanted to believe that the child would suffer less, because children were just extensions of the mother, and the mother would theoretically be happier [p. 131]....

"That a man and a woman should enter a stable, lifelong union makes sense because that is what is necessary and best for children. Marriage is about children and has its very structure directed toward what is best for them. Physically, emotionally, psychologically, and spiritually, a child is best raised by a father and a mother who are stably present and who manifest the masculine and feminine genius of being human. To intentionally subject children to anything less or anything different does them an injustice.” [x] 

Anonymous Us

As children conceived through ART (Assisted Reproductive Technology) grow, they are now sharing disturbing stories about their experiences:
The Anonymous Us Project is a safety zone for real and honest insights regarding third party reproduction (sperm and egg donation, and surrogacy). We aim to share the experiences of voluntary and involuntary participants in these new reproductive technologies, while preserving the dignity and privacy for story-tellers and their loved ones. All stories are contributed anonymously because ‘anonymity in reproduction hides the truth, but anonymity in story-telling helps reveal the truth.’

“We honor and are forever thankful for the courageous minds among the donor-conceived who have worked tirelessly before us for justice and education on the ART (Assisted Reproductive Technology) family experience. We hold these story-tellers, educators and leaders in high esteem and are forever grateful for all of the sacrifices they have made to improve family policy and thus quality of life for all parties. We also acknowledge that many members of the ART community have serious opinions and experiences regarding their family structure that they’d like to add to the discussion, but feel they cannot because of a need for privacy.This project gives them an opportunity to be heard without having to reveal their identity and potentially hurt their loved ones. Though anonymity in reproduction hides the truth, anonymity in story-telling will help reveal it.

“We hope that The Anonymous Us Project will fill out the conversation on reproductive technologies. We hope it will inspire more truth and transparency. We hope it will help shape healthier families and happier people.

Pornography/Erectile Dysfunction

While there may be a slowly evolving recognition that "Porn Use [is] Linked to Erectile Dysfunction,” are related health care expenditures appropriate?.  For example, the "DoD spends $84M a year on Viagra, similar meds"!

Silence

The “Pill”/ Sexual Revolution ushered in ready availability of contraceptives and abortifacients, as well as astronomically more STDs and rapes/sexual assaults.  To go along with our now “expanded definition” of secular marriage (and a growing positive attitude about polygamy), fewer are actually marrying and more are divorcing.  While we are barely grasping the devastating impact divorce has on children, society is deliberately setting out to separate children from their biological parents!  And no one is talking about health care costs related to pornography!   

Casti Connubii [See also, Why Johnny Can't Understand the Meaning of Marriage: A Primer on Casti Connubii] provides a warning: “If any confessor or pastor of souls, which may God forbid, lead the faithful entrusted to him into these errors or should at least confirm them by approval or by guilty silence, let him be mindful of the fact that he must render a strict account to God, the Supreme Judge, for the betrayal of his sacred trust.”[xii]


[i] Medicine: Contraceptive Pill?,  Time Magazine, 5/6/57
[ii] People and Events: Dr. John Rock (1890-1984), The American Experience 
[iii] Facts on Contraceptive Use, Guttmacher Institute, September 2016 www.guttmacher.org/pubs/fb_contr_use.html
[iv] Cases of sexually transmitted diseases reported by state health departments and rates per 100,000 civilian population: United States, 1941-1993, CDC Wonder http://wonder.cdc.gov/wonder/STD/OSTD3202/Table_1.html
[v] Reported STDs in the United States: 2015 National Data for Chlamydia, Gonorrhea, and Syphilis, CDC, October 2016 https://www.cdc.gov/nchhstp/newsroom/docs/factsheets/std-trends-508.pdf 
[vi] United States Crime Rates 1960 - 2006 (Source: FBI, Uniform Crime Reports) www.disastercenter.com/crime/uscrime.htm
[vii] Criminal Victimization, 2015, U.S. Dept of Justice, October 2016 https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/cv15.pdf
[viii] Statistical Abstract of the United States 2003, U.S. Census Bureau www.census.gov/prod/2004pubs/03statab/vitstat.pdf
[ix] National Marriage and Divorce Rate Trends, CDC https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/marriage_divorce_tables.htm
[x] The Carnage of Divorce, Msgr. Charles Pope, 6/28/17 http://blog.adw.org/2017/06/the-repercussions-of-divorce/

No comments:

Post a Comment

home page links

The 10 Commandments

The Beatitudes (from "Jesus of Nazareth")