MyCatholicSource.com - 'Quick Help' Page: Immoral For Elderly To Use Contraception? [MATURE TOPIC]

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The Church teaches that "those who in exercising it [the conjugal act] deliberately frustrate its natural power and purpose sin against nature and commit a deed which is shameful and intrinsically vicious." This remains so, regardless of age. [Please Note: The items herein assumes one is talking about relations between persons who are validly married. If not, such intimate relations themselves would be gravely sinful.]

For a better understanding of this matter, please consider the quotations below as well as the material that may be found on our page regarding contraception (here)...

"But no reason, however grave, may be put forward by which anything intrinsically against nature may become conformable to nature and morally good. Since, therefore, the conjugal act is destined primarily by nature for the begetting of children, those who in exercising it deliberately frustrate its natural power and purpose sin against nature and commit a deed which is shameful and intrinsically vicious. Small wonder, therefore, if Holy Writ bears witness that the Divine Majesty regards with greatest detestation this horrible crime and at times has punished it with death. As St. Augustine notes, 'Intercourse even with one's legitimate wife is unlawful and wicked where the conception of the offspring is prevented. Onan, the son of Juda, did this and the Lord killed him for it (cf. Gen. 38:9-10).'" (Pope Pius XI, "Casti Connubii", 1930 A.D.)

"[W]e must once again declare that the direct interruption of the generative process already begun, and, above all, directly willed and procured abortion, even if for therapeutic reasons, are to be absolutely excluded as licit means of regulating birth. Equally to be excluded, as the teaching authority of the Church has frequently declared, is direct sterilization, whether perpetual or temporary, whether of the man or of the woman. Similarly excluded is every action which, either in anticipation of the conjugal act, or in its accomplishment, or in the development of its natural consequences, proposes, whether as an end or as a means, to render procreation impossible. To justify conjugal acts made intentionally infecund, one cannot invoke as valid reasons the lesser evil, or the fact that such acts would constitute a whole together with the fecund acts already performed or to follow later, and hence would share in one and the same moral goodness. In truth, if it is sometimes licit to tolerate a lesser evil in order to avoid a greater evil or to promote a greater good, it is not licit, even for the gravest reasons, to do evil so that good may follow therefrom; that is, to make into the object of a positive act of the will something which is intrinsically disordered, and hence unworthy of the human person, even when the intention is to safeguard or promote individual, family or social well-being. Consequently it is an error to think that a conjugal act which is deliberately made infecund and so is intrinsically dishonest could be made honest and right by the ensemble of a fecund conjugal life." (Pope Paul VI, 1968 A.D.)

"For since the bringing of children into the world is the principal end of marriage, to do anything in order to prevent the accomplishment of this end is always a mortal sin." (St. Francis de Sales, Doctor of the Church)

"[A]s often as he knows his wife without a desire for children...without a doubt he commits sin" (St. Caesar of Arles, c. 540 A.D.)

"[A]ny use whatsoever of matrimony exercised in such a way that the act is deliberately frustrated in its natural power to generate life is an offense against the law of God and of nature, and those who indulge in such are branded with the guilt of a grave sin." (Pope Pius XI, "Casti Connubii", 1930 A.D.)

"Nuptial commerce, which is so holy, just and commendable in itself, and so profitable to the commonwealth, is, nevertheless, in certain cases dangerous to those that exercise it, as when the order appointed for the procreation of children is violated and perverted; in which case, according as one departs more or less from it, the sins are more or less abominable, but always mortal." (St. Francis de Sales, Doctor of the Church)

On a merely human level, please note that "Having intimate relations while using a condoms is touted (by some) as safe sex", but in reality, condoms are reported to have "a failure rate as high as 30%" and they "may not protect from venereal diseases or AIDS." Even if they could protect the body, their use 'gravely harms the soul'. And shouldn't one's eternal soul be far more important than one's body?

Note: We are not intending to give (or qualified to give) medical advice. For medical advice, consult a good doctor(s).

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