CNA reports that Pope Francis has appointed Fr Maurizio Chiodi to the DDF. Chiodi is known for his view that the use of contraception within marriage is acceptable and that same-sex relationships could be morally permissible in some circumstances.

Chiodi's views raise eyebrows

Chiodi, a professor at the Pontifical John Paul II Theological Institute for Marriage and the Family Sciences, has raised eyebrows within the Church.

In a 2017 lecture in Rome, Chiodi suggested that contraception might be morally permissible within marriage under certain circumstances.

He also stated that homosexual relationships "under certain conditions" could be "the most fruitful way" for those with same-sex attraction to "enjoy good relations".

These views have drawn media scrutiny, with some questioning how they align with traditional Catholic teaching.

Chiodi, a Pontifical Academy for Life member since 2017, has despite the backlash continued to be a significant voice in moral theology.

Cardinal Fernández leadership

The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, charged with overseeing doctrinal orthodoxy within the Catholic Church, has been led by Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández since September 2023.

In the past year, the DDF has been the focus of internal debate following its declaration 'Fiducia Supplicans' which permits non-liturgical blessings for same-sex couples.

As well, it has released a document titled 'Dignitas Infinita' which addresses modern ethical concerns such as gender theory, euthanasia and human dignity.

Cardinal Fernández has praised the new appointments, stating "The consultors bring a broad range of expertise that will enrich the Dicastery's work in addressing contemporary moral and doctrinal challenges".

New appointments include women theologians

The new consultors include experts in theology, canon law and scripture. Their appointments mark a significant step towards gender inclusivity.

Of the 28 appointees, six are women — two religious sisters and four lay theologians.

Two male lay theologians were also named, adding to the diversity of voices expected to guide the DDF.

Source

• CNA

Older women want reform, but younger Catholic women are more conservative. They want the rules on sex, contraception and the priesthood to remain as they are.

About the study

The study surveyed 17,200 Catholic women from 104 countries; 1769 came from Australia.

The authors say the generational differences in attitudes could come from life experience, migration, or the more conservative Church which younger people have experienced.

"There has been a push back towards conservatism [in Australian Catholicism]" says one of the authors.

"I think that's been impactful for young adults in the church."

She also notes that women of all ages expressed disappointment, frustration and challenge with the Church.

"[There was] a feeling that some women's voices weren't heard in the church. That was across age."

This comes as Pope Francis leads a discussion about whether women should have a greater role in church governance and ceremonies.

While women being ordained as priests seems out of the question, Francis has not ruled out the diaconate.

Study results

74 percent of Australian Catholic women want reform, while an average of 84 percent of Catholic women internationally want change.

The authors defined conservatism as adherence to Catholic doctrine and the embrace of traditionalism.

The desire for a more traditional approach was driven by younger women, the study found.

While 74 percent of respondents supported reform, only 44 percent were aged 18-40; 87 percent of 56-70 year olds want reform, as do 94 percent of over 70s.

Survey comments show differences in what reform means.

Older women want the Church and its teachings to change.

However, the authors noted "there was a smaller, younger cohort of respondents who rejected any modernisation of the church and understood reform as a return to orthodoxy and tradition, including the traditional Latin mass."

Fewer than a third of under 40s supported inclusion of women at all levels of the Church or the suggestion of female preachers and priests.

Sex, contraception, divorce

Allowing more freedom of choice on sex and contraception was rejected by two in three of those under 40; the 41 to 55s were about half-half, but the 56 pluses backed the idea enthusiastically.

Young Catholic women were less supportive of remarriage after divorce.

Older women talked about being shunned as divorcees, especially if there had been violence in their marriage.

All agree

All women agreed the misuse of power by male clerics was damaging the church.

They also agree leaders must do more to address abuse.

The Church institution was not doing enough to address the cover-up of sexual abuse.

The generational difference

One report author thinks life experience could influence older and younger women's views.

The survey may have attracted more young women who were highly engaged in the Church, rather than those who might be alienated from it, she suggests.

She also noted religious orders attracting young women seem to be those which continue to wear a habit, despite a ruling against them in Vatican II. Numbers are growing.

Source

• Sydney Morning Herald

While other religious traditions permit their members to use various types of birth control to manage the number of kids they have, the 1997 Vatican's Pontifical Council for the Family pointed out that "The Church has always taught the intrinsic evil of contraception."

The doctrine has been blamed for the decline in church attendance among American Catholics, and serious doubts have been raised as to how closely American Catholics adhere to it.

Some recent numbers from the National Survey of Family Growth give us an idea of just how many Catholics practice birth control.

The National Survey on Family Growth is administered by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services with the goal of trying to understand factors that lead to marriage, divorce, adoption, pregnancy and other behaviours related to procreation.

It includes a battery of questions asking respondents if they have used specific types of contraceptives during their lifetime.

The data indicates that few U.S. Catholics are following the dictates of the pontifical council.

For instance, 92% of Catholics indicated that they had used condoms as a form of birth control — nearly the same rate as the other Christian traditions, as well as the religiously unaffiliated, who reported condom usage at a rate of 95% and higher.

Catholics were only slightly less likely to say that they used the birth control pill (68%) compared with evangelicals (74%) and mainline Protestants (81%).

Notably, Catholics in the sample were more likely to have used emergency contraception than other Christian groups.

Twenty-three percent of Catholics reported using the Plan B pill compared with 19% of evangelicals. The only group more likely to use emergency contraception were those of no religious affiliation — 29%.

Natural family planning is the only type of birth control allowed under Catholic doctrine.

One popular implementation of this approach is known as the rhythm method, in which a couple intentionally avoids sexual contact when fertility is at its highest point during a woman's menstrual cycle.

According to this data, just 20% of Catholics have ever used this method, a rate not substantively different from the rest of the sample.

It can't be said that Catholic teaching on birth control hasn't had any effect, but that effect seems to depend on the method and on how often the person attends Mass.

The share of Catholics who say they never attend Mass and report using condoms in their lifetime (88%) is actually about equal to the share of Catholic condom users who attended service at least once per week (89%).

However, some daylight emerges when it comes to birth control pills.

While about three-quarters of Catholics who attend less than monthly report using oral contraception, that number drops to a simple majority among weekly attenders, at 55%.

There is also a small but noteworthy increase in Catholics attending weekly who say they use the rhythm method, with 27% of the most frequent attendees saying that they used the church's approved method of contraception.

Only 15% of Catholics who never darken the church's door have used the rhythm method.

There was also a divide on birth control pills based on age.

The youngest female Catholics are about 5 percentage points less likely to use this form of contraceptive than non-Catholics.

But this gap disappears completely by the time they get to their mid-20s.

There's also a noticeable dip in usage of birth control pills among Catholic women in their late 30s that doesn't appear in the non-Catholic sample.

Taken together, it's clear from this data that there is a tremendous disconnect between the Vatican's teaching on contraception and the behaviour of the more than 60 million Catholics in the United States.

One may indeed wonder if that tension is driving some Catholics away from the pews or the faith entirely: Scholarly work from the 1990s found that Catholics would leave their local parish if they disagreed with the priest's comments on abortion to seek out more moderate parishes.

The data from the National Survey on Family Growth gives us little reason to think that this has changed.

• Ryan Burge is an assistant professor of political science at Eastern Illinois University, a pastor in the American Baptist Church and the co-founder and frequent contributor to Religion in Public, a forum for scholars of religion and politics to make their work accessible to a more general audience.
• First published in RNS. Republished with permission.

The results have raised hopes that people could one day take "the pill" without suffering as many side effects.

Hormones in oral contraceptives work to avoid pregnancy in a few ways.

They suppress ovaries from releasing an egg each month, thin the lining of the uterus to make it less likely for a fertilised egg to implant itself and thicken mucus to make it harder for sperm to enter the uterus.

But, as many people who have taken the pill before already know, oral contraceptives can also come with side effects and increased risks like blood clots.

Read More

The fact that prominent Catholic conservatives have felt the need to speak out against such a possibility gives some grounds for thinking that, within the Church itself, and under the protection of Pope Francis, a movement for change is underway.

Theologians going back to Thomas Aquinas have said that interfering with sexual intercourse to prevent procreation is a misuse of the human genital organs, and therefore wrong.

Earlier popes had also opposed contraception.

Nevertheless, the development and release of oral contraceptives in 1960, and subsequent evidence that many Catholic couples were using contraception, triggered calls within the Church for a reconsideration of the prohibition.

In response, Pope John XXIII set up a Pontifical Commission on Birth Control, but did not live to see it complete its work.

Instead, the commission sent his successor, Pope Paul VI, a report noting that the Church was already allowing couples to calculate the days of a woman's cycle when she cannot conceive a child and restrict sex to those days.

To this observation the commission added: "it is natural to man to use his skill in order to put under human control what is given by physical nature," and concluded that contraception is permissible if it is part of "an ordered relationship to responsible fruitfulness."

A minority report recommending against changing the Church's teaching was supported by only four of the commission's 72 members.

To most Catholics, therefore, it was a surprise when, in 1968, just two years after receiving the commission's report, Paul VI published his encyclical Humanae Vitae (Of Human Life), stating that any "action which either before, at the moment of, or after sexual intercourse, is specifically intended to prevent procreation" is "absolutely excluded as lawful means of regulating the number of children."

The very existence of Humanae Vitae, and its survival without any liberalizing modifications, depended on untimely papal deaths.

John XXIII was a reforming pope, who had convened the Second Vatican Council in order to reconsider a number of Church practices.

Had he lived longer, he might well have accepted the view of the overwhelming majority of the commission he had established.

Without the sudden death of John Paul I, the successor to Paul VI who died only 33 days after his election as pope, the strict prohibition of contraception may not have survived unchanged.

Indeed, when he was Bishop Albino Luciani, John Paul I had favoured a more liberal view of contraception, writing that manufactured progesterone could be used "to distance one birth from another, to give rest to the mother, and to think of the good of children already born, or to be born."

Catholic conservatives believe that Humanae Vitae has permanently settled the question of the use of contraception to avoid pregnancy, notwithstanding the contingencies that affected its promulgation and survival.

If you are willing to believe that God conveys the truth to popes, you may also believe that God works in strange ways.

Doubts about the permanence of the Church's doctrine were raised last year, however, when the Pontifical Academy for Life released Etica Teologica della Vita (Theological Ethics of Life), a volume, in Italian, of more than 500 pages that brings together papers from a seminar along with the text that served as the basis for discussion. Some of the senior Catholic theologians contributing to the discussion suggest that the use of contraceptives in some circumstances may not be wrong. Continue reading

• Peter Singer is Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University, is a prolific author and founder of the nonprofit organization The Life You Can Save.

The past ten years has also seen a downward trend in abortions, according to the latest Abortion Services Aotearoa New Zealand annual report .

The stats

Newly released figures from Stats NZ on Tuesday show that in 2022 there were 1,719​ births registered to 13 to 19 year-olds. They accounted for about one in every 34​ births that year.

In 2012, there were 3,786​ births registered to teenage mothers: roughly one in 16​ births.

These are very different numbers from those recorded back in 1972.

That was the year teenage births in New Zealand peaked. Statistics report 9,150​ teenage women gave birth, accounting for about one in every seven​ births.

Two years later, in 1974, the Auckland Medical Aid Centre Abortion Clinic opened.​

Teenage births "generally dropped" post-1972 - save for a "small peak" in 2008​. That year, one in every 12​ births (5,223​ births) was registered to under-20 year old mothers.

Stats NZ estimates and projections manager Michael MacAskill​ says teen births had generally decreased since then.

Why the decrease?

For every 1,000 women in New Zealand aged 15-19, there were 11​ births in 2022 - down from 25​ in 2012, a decrease of 55 percent.

Family Planning chief executive Jackie Edmond​ says the drop in teenage births mirrored global trends. It can be attributed in part to an increase in education and access to contraceptives.

It is very clear people need multiple contraceptive options, she says.

Increasing the range and choice in Aotearoa seemed to have made a difference, she notes. Today there are more reliable, readily accessible forms of contraception which have a lower failure rate than other forms.

However, there are still barriers, including cost, limited awareness of the range of contraceptives and health literacy of patients and practitioners.

There will always be unplanned pregnancies because no-one and nothing is perfect, she says. At the same time though, "this shows things have changed - and hopefully it continues".

Improved education also made a difference, with schools offering a range of relationship and sexuality programmes in their curricula, Edmond says.

"But we also know this is patchy. The quality and amount [of such education] is patchy as well."

There are "lots of great teenage parents out there" and many young people did "an awesome job".

At the name time, pregnancy at a young age could have long-term impacts on people's lives, so the downturn was "good to see", she adds.

Source

• Stuff

Father Maurizio Chiodi (pictured) made the comments in an interview conducted by Fabrizio Mastrofini, the communications and social media manager of the Pontifical Academy for Life.

Chiodi, who has been a member of the Pontifical Academy for Life since 2017, has publicly argued that some circumstances in marriage could "require contraception" as a matter of responsibility.

The interview with Chiodi was presented as a clarification of the work of a 2021 seminar on ethics in which theologians debated a "basic text".

A Vatican-published book synthesising the three-day conference recently came under fire for suggesting that the Catholic Church's constant opposition to the use of contraception in marriage — clarified in the encyclical Humanae vitae — could change.

In the interview published on 19 August Chiodi said "Humanae vitae, like any encyclical, including Veritatis splendor, is an authoritative document, but with no claim to infallibility".

"When it comes to Humanae vitae and the earlier stance contained in Casti connubii — which was even stronger — we are in the realm of doctrina reformabilis (‘reformable doctrine')," he said.

In the interview, Father Chiodi affirms that "contraception is considered an intrinsically evil act."

He goes on to say: "I believe that we should not deny the existence of intrinsically evil acts, but that we need to think together about what an act is at its source, overcoming an objectified interpretation of it, that is, one that is independent of any circumstance, effect and intention in the actions of those involved."

Father Thomas Petri OP, president of the Dominican House of Studies in Washington DC and a moral theologian, told CNA this month that "even if it's the case that any particular encyclical" such as Humanae vitae "is not infallible, the teaching that it presents is in fact irreformable, because it's part of the ordinary and universal magisterium of the Church".

"In Veritatis splendor John Paul II does say that contraception is an intrinsically evil act, so there can be no reason or purpose for contraception. Benedict XVI gave several speeches in which he spoke about contraception, and it can't be changed. What was true yesterday is true today," Petri noted.

The full interview with Father Chiodi was published in Italian and English and shared on the pontifical academy's Twitter page.

Sources

Catholic News Agency

CathNews NZ

Over the weekend, a tweet sent from the Pontifical Academy for Life's official Twitter account suggested that St Pope Paul VI's 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae was not covered by the doctrine of papal infallibility.

This means it can be subject to change.

"History records by Archbishop Lambruschini confirmed that Paul VI said to him directly that Humanae Vitae was not under infallibility," the Pontifical Academy's official Twitter account said on 6 August.

The academy's now-deleted tweet generated considerable backlash and speculation online.

Many commentators interpreted the statement as suggesting that the landmark encyclical could become the subject of papal review or reform.

The debate began last month with the publication by the Pontifical Academy for Life of a new volume titled Theological Ethics of Life: Scripture, Tradition, Practical Challenges. It includes papers delivered during a conference sponsored by the academy last year.

In the book, some theologians appeared to suggest that in certain limited circumstances couples might be justified in choosing artificial contraception or methods of artificial reproduction.

The academy defended the volume, saying its role as a pontifical academy is to facilitate dialogue among the top theological thinkers of the day about contemporary issues of key interest.

However, critics argued that it was inappropriate for an official Vatican entity to include voices questioning some of the church's core moral teachings.

Ever since Humanae Vitae first appeared in 1968, there's been an active debate over exactly what level of authority it possesses and, by implication, whether one can dissent from it and still be a good Catholic.

The context of Humane Vitae is about using contraception inside marriage.

And, despite what some think, everything the pope says is not infallible.

For a statement to be infallible, the Pope needs to make it clear that he is speaking infallibly and so far no pope has spoken infallibly on moral matters.

Catholic theologians agree that both Pope Pius IX's 1854 definition of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of Mary and Pope Pius XII's 1950 definition of the dogma of the Assumption of Mary are the only instances of papal infallibility.

Both followed wide consultation with the bishops as to whether these doctrines were already believed worldwide.

Sources

• CruxNow
• Gaudium Press
• The Pilar

"This is very timely," Francis replied.

"But know that dogma, morality, is always in a path of development, but development in the same direction."

Tradition can really be preserved and handed down only by allowing it to develop, he explained.

He then brought up a controversial 528-page book Theological Ethics of Life: Scripture, Tradition, and Practical Challenges.

One topic the Vatican-published book discusses is the possible legitimacy of contraception in certain cases.

Catholic Church teaching says "legitimate intentions on the part of the spouses do not justify recourse to morally unacceptable means (for example, direct sterilisation or contraception)".

The book is a record of the proceedings of a congress, Francis explained. "In a congress there are hypotheses, then they discuss among themselves and make proposals.

"We have to be clear: those who made this congress did their duty because they tried to move forward in doctrine, but in an ecclesial sense as I said with that rule of St Vincent of Lerins.

St Vincent taught "that true doctrine in order to go forward, to develop, must not be quiet ... it consolidates with time, it expands and consolidates, and becomes more steady, but is always ‘progressing".

"That is why the duty of theologians is research, theological reflection. You cannot do theology with a ‘no' in front of it … the magisterium will be the one to say no," Francis explained.

"To guard and to pursue are in the very nature of the Church, so that the truth present in Jesus' preaching of the Gospel may grow in fullness until the end of time," he said.

"Saint John Paul II himself, in presenting the new Catechism of the Catholic Church, said 'it must take into account the doctrinal statements which down the centuries the Holy Spirit has made known to his Church. It should also help illumine with the light of faith the new situations and problems which had not yet emerged in the past'."

The challenges we have today are different from the old ones, he added.

"They're even different from the ones we faced 30 years ago. That's why we have Councils and Synods and there have been two assemblies of bishops to discuss marriage and family, in social contexts that change at a very fast pace."

We need to do more than find a new language in which to articulate our perennial faith, Francis says.

It's urgent, given humanity's new challenges and prospects, that the Church be able to express the "new things" of Christ's Gospel.

Although present in the word of God, they have not yet come to light.

This is the treasury of "things old and new" of which Jesus spoke when he invited his disciples to teach the newness that he had brought, without forsaking the old," Francis clarified.

Source

• La Stampa
• Catholic News Agency

The man who would become pope - then Bishop Albino Luciani - prepared the document on contraception on behalf of the bishops of Italy's Triveneto region. It was then was given to St Paul VI before he issued his encyclical, Humanae Vitae.

The encyclical upheld the Church's opposition to artificial birth control.

John Paul I's document was not available publicly until 2020.

His initial openness to softening Catholic teaching on contraception and his later support for Paul VI has come to notice on the eve of the World Meeting of Families. His beatification in September is also in sight.

Andrea Tornielli of Vatican News says there is also "a very rare audio tape" of Luciani talking about Church teaching on regulating births.

His comments were made during a conference in 1968 - before Humanae Vitae was released.

"For me this is the biggest theological issue that has ever been dealt with in the Church.

Tornielli quotes Luciani as hoping for a "liberalising" word from Paul VI, saying:

"When there was Arius or Nestorius and they were talking about the two natures in Christ, they were serious issues, yes, but they were understood only at the top of the Church, by theologians and bishops.

"The poor people understood nothing about these things and would say, ‘I adore Jesus Christ, I love the Lord who redeemed me,' and it was all there, there was no danger."

The future Pope John Paul I then said the issue of whether it is permissible under some circumstances to use some forms of birth control, "is a problem that no longer concerns the top leadership of the Church, but the whole Church, all young families."

Vice postulator of John Paul's sainthood cause, Stefania Falasca, says Luciani was interested in "the moral and scientific problems related to birth control".

He studied them "seeking a way in which the application of Catholic doctrine could also take into account the drama of conscience of many believing couples, tormented by the discord between fidelity to magisterial indications and the actual difficulties of life as a couple."

Falasca says by urging a somewhat more liberal position before Humanae Vitae and urging full acceptance of the teaching afterward, Luciani was being Catholic.

"One must distinguish, on the one hand, the reflection and concerns in research by a pastor who is also a dogmatic theologian, close with great pastoral sensitivity to the difficulties of so many Christian couples and therefore in favour of a deepening of Catholic doctrine on the issue and, on the other hand, consider the bishop faithful to a doctrine that had remained substantially and consistently steadfast in its disapproval of contraceptive practices."

It's also important to "consider the bishop faithful to a doctrine that had remained substantially and consistently steadfast in its disapproval of contraceptive practices," she says.

He also urged pastors to be gentle with penitents, encouraging them to grow in accepting the teaching of Humanae Vitae without condemning them if they could not fully comply.

Source

• Crux Now

For the women and girls affected, the most life-altering reproductive choice—whether or not to become pregnant—is no choice at all, explains the State of World Population 2022 report, released today by UNFPA, the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency.

The groundbreaking report, "Seeing the Unseen: The case for action in the neglected crisis of unintended pregnancy," warns that this human rights crisis has profound consequences for societies, women and girls and global health.

Over 60 per cent of unintended pregnancies end in abortion and an estimated 45 per cent of all abortions are unsafe, causing 5 - 13 per cent of all maternal deaths, thereby having a major impact on the world's ability to reach the Sustainable Development Goals.

The war in Ukraine and other conflicts and crises around the world are expected to drive an increase in unintended pregnancies, as access to contraception is disrupted and sexual violence increases.

"This report is a wakeup call. The staggering number of unintended pregnancies represents a global failure to uphold women and girls' basic human rights," says UNFPA Executive Director Dr. Natalia Kanem.

"For the women affected, the most life-altering reproductive choice—whether or not to become pregnant—is no choice at all. By putting the power to make this most fundamental decision squarely in the hands of women and girls, societies can ensure that motherhood is an aspiration and not an inevitability."

Key findings

Gender inequality and stalled development drive high rates of unintended pregnancies.

Globally, an estimated 257 million women who want to avoid pregnancy are not using safe, modern methods of contraception, and where data is available, nearly a quarter of all women are not able to say no to sex. A range of other key factors also contribute to unintended pregnancies, including:

• Lack of sexual and reproductive health care and information
• Contraceptive options that don't suit women's bodies or circumstances
• Harmful norms and stigma surrounding women controlling their own fertility and bodies
• Sexual violence and reproductive coercion
• Judgmental attitudes or shaming in health services
• Poverty and stalled economic development
• Gender inequality

All of these factors reflect the pressure societies place on women and girls to become mothers. An unintended pregnancy is not necessarily a personal failure and may be due to the lack of autonomy society allows or the value placed on women's lives.

When crisis hits, unintended pregnancies climb

Crisis and conflict rob women of their agency at all levels, drastically increasing the risk of unintended pregnancy at the moment it is most threatening.

Women often lose access to contraceptives and sexual violence increases, with some studies showing that over 20 per cent of refugee women and girls will face sexual violence.

In Afghanistan, war and disruptions to health systems are expected to lead to an estimated 4.8 million unintended pregnancies by 2025, which will jeopardize the country's overall stability, peace, and recovery.

"If you had 15 minutes to leave your house, what would you take? Would you grab your passport? Food? Would you remember your contraception?" said UNFPA Executive Director Dr. Natalia Kanem.

"In the days, weeks and months after a crisis starts, sexual and reproductive health and protection services save lives, shield women and girls from harm and prevent unintended pregnancies. They are as vital as food, water and shelter."

The responsibility to act

The report shows how easily the most fundamental rights of women and girls are pushed to the back-burner in times of peace and in the midst of war.

It calls on decision-makers and health systems to prioritize the prevention of unintended pregnancies by improving the accessibility, acceptability, quality and variety of contraception and greatly expanding quality sexual and reproductive health care and information.

It urges policy makers, community leaders and all individuals to empower women and girls to make affirmative decisions about sex, contraception and motherhood, and to foster societies that recognize the full worth of women and girls.

If they do, women and girls will be able to contribute fully to society, and will have the tools, information and power to make this fundamental choice—to have children, or not—for themselves.

Five Key Facts from the 2022 SoWP

1. Every year, almost half of all pregnancies are unintended.

Between 2015 and 2019, there were roughly 121 million unintended pregnancies globally each year.

2. Globally, an estimated 257 million women who want to avoid pregnancy are not using safe, modern methods of contraception.

In 47 countries, about 40 per cent of sexually active women were not using any contraceptive methods to avoid pregnancy.

3. Nearly a quarter of all women are not able to say no to sex (where data is available).

Contraceptive use is 53 per cent lower among women who have experienced intimate partner violence.
Studies show that rape-related pregnancies are equally or more likely to occur than pregnancies from consensual sex.

4. Over 60 per cent of unintended pregnancies, and almost 30 per cent of all pregnancies, end in abortion.

45 per cent of all abortions performed globally are unsafe.

Unsafe abortions hospitalize about 7 million women a year globally and cause 5 to 13 per cent of all maternal deaths, one of the leading causes of maternal death.

In developing countries, unsafe abortions cost an estimated $553 million per year in treatment costs alone.

5. In humanitarian emergencies, such as the ongoing war in Ukraine, many women lose access to contraception and/or experience sexual violence.

Some studies have shown that over 20 per cent of refugee women and girls will face sexual violence.
An estimated 4.8 million unintended pregnancies will occur in Afghanistan by 2025 as a result of health system disruptions and gender inequality.

In the first 12 months of the COVID-19 pandemic, the estimated disruption in contraceptive supplies and services lasted an average of 3.6 months, leading to as many as 1.4 million unintended pregnancies.

Source

• Scoop
• Image: Futurity

While abuse of power can take many forms, many abusers rely on the excessive and, let's say it, clericalist use of secrecy.

For decades many Church bodies, including the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, have repeatedly called for removing the pontifical secret.

On December 17, 2019, Pope Francis finally lifted it for cases of sexual violence and abuse of minors committed by members of the clergy.

Nevertheless, this is just one step.

A culture of secrecy still exists in the Church, for reasons not always justified and or even healthy.

This culture continues to contribute to authoritarianism, clericalism and patriarchalism - all attitudes deeply disrespectful of equality among the baptized.

We can cite three examples.

Crimen sollicitationis, a text that remained secret for more than a century

We know today, without yet knowing all the twists and turns, the journey of the text Crimen sollicitationis, aimed at setting up procedures to respond to the case where a cleric solicits sexual favours in the context of confession.

The issue was explosive. The Church first addressed it in 1741 and included it in the 1917 Code of Canon Law.

But the text explaining the procedure to be followed in case of the "crime of solicitation", which gave its name to this document, was published for the first time in 1922.

Yet it remained secret. We only learned of its existence in 1962!

This document contained practical procedures to follow when dealing with an abusive cleric. But it was never officially published. It was sent only to a few episcopal conferences.

Which conferences and why?

Is it enough to invoke a certain idea of "harm done to the Church" to justify this secrecy?

Was it not, on the contrary, a question of doing "good" to the Church at a time when it had to face up to the evidence of reality?

Crimen sollicitationis remained in force until 2001.

The lack of transparency surrounding the condemnation of contraception

The second example has been investigated many times.

At the time of Vatican Council II, Pope Paul VI reserved the question of birth control for himself.

He appointed a "Papal Commission for the Study of Problems of the Family, Population, and Birth Rate". Its work was to remain secret.

But in June 1964 the pope revealed the commission's existence.

Catholic public opinion was overwhelmingly positive.

Successive leaks have revealed that experts known for their conservatism had rallied around the idea of new directives, and thus Paul VI felt compelled to enlarge the commission several times.

But in the end, the majority of the commission's members agreed that "contraceptive intervention", i.e. the pill, was permissible!

But the text was not published, nor were the negotiations that took place from October 1966 (when the commission submitted its report to Pope Paul) until the July 1968 publication of Humanae vitae.

That controversial encyclical, of course, did not endorse the commission's report. Instead, it condemned the use of artificial contraception.

As Martine Sevegrand reminds us, "the encyclical is the revenge of the men of the curia... disavowing practically all the experts and a strong majority of bishops".

Two conclusions can be drawn from this.

First, according to the words of Christ, "nothing is hidden that will not be revealed, nothing is secret that will not be known" (Luke 12,2), and at the moment of revelation, the scandal is twice as bad.

And then, was Humanae vitae never welcomed because the People of God (and even the fathers of the council) were not ultimately involved in this reflection that took place in the shadows?

Female diaconate, a report never published

A third example is both a protest and a demand for today.

It concerns the commission for the female diaconate set up by Pope Francis on April 9, 2020.

Following the 2003 work of the International Theological Commission, Francis appointed a commission in 2016 in response to numerous requests, including that of the International Union of Superiors General (UISG).

It finally submitted its report in May 2019.

But this document, which was supposed to provide arguments, was never published.

Why?

What were they afraid to disclose?

The pope himself was not satisfied and appointed a new commission.

But what will come of it? Will this commission finally make its arguments public?

The question of the diaconate, like that of birth control, and like many other issues, cannot be confined to the secret archives of the Roman Curia.

These texts are not secret, since they must be rooted in the Word of God and the practices of the early Church.

All their arguments must absolutely be published and made available to the People of God. If they are not, the people cannot accept them.

Wanting to maintain the secrecy of texts that should not be kept secret is to further contribute to the logic of collapse highlighted by the recently published report on the sexual abuse in the French Church.

• Marie-Jo Thiel is a physician who teaches ethics in the theology department at the University of Strasbourg (France). She is an award-winning author of numerous books and essays.
• First published in La-Croix International. Republished with permission.

The comparison was intended to reassure women of the vaccine's safety.

Instead, it has stoked anger in some quarters — not about the pause, but about the fact that most contraceptives available to women are hundreds of times riskier, and yet safer alternatives are not in sight.

The clots linked to the vaccine were a dangerous type in the brain, while birth control pills increase the chances of a blood clot in the leg or lung — a point quickly noted by many experts.

But the distinction made little difference to some women.

"Where was everyone's concern for blood clots when we started putting 14-year-old girls on the pill," one woman wrote on Twitter.

Another said, "If birth control was made for men it'd taste like bacon and be free."

Some women heard, on social media and elsewhere, that they should not complain because they had chosen to take birth control knowing the risks involved.

"That just made me double down," said Mia Brett, an expert in legal history focused on race and sexuality.

"This is such a common response to women's health care — that we point out something and it's dismissed."

The torrent of fury online was familiar to experts in women's health.

"They should be angry — women's health just does not get equal attention," said Dr. Eve Feinberg, a reproductive endocrinologist and infertility specialist at Northwestern University.

"There's a huge sex bias in all of medicine."

Dr. Feinberg and many of the women online acknowledge that contraceptives have given women control over their fertility, and the benefits far exceed the harms. Rebecca Fishbein, a 31-year-old culture writer, started tweeting about the inadequacy of birth control pills almost immediately after the announcement of the pause.

Still, "birth control is an incredible invention, thank God we have it," she said last month in an interview. "I'll fight anyone who tried to take it away."

Contraceptives have also improved over the years, with intrauterine devices and oral options that offer an ultralow dose of estrogen.

"Overall, it's incredibly safe," Dr. Feinberg said.

"Everything that we do has risks."

But Dr. Feinberg said it was crucial for health care providers to discuss the risks with their patients and coach them on worrisome symptoms — a conversation many women said they had never had. Continue reading

• Image: www.carolinaheartandleg.com

In Rome on Friday, Italy's prime minister, Mario Draghi, and Pope Francis were the star attendees at a special conference to discuss the country's declining birthrate.

According to the latest figures, 2020 saw the lowest number of births recorded since the Italian unification in 1861.

Spain is ageing at a similar pace, as is much of eastern Europe.

In Britain, it is the same story.

The Centre for Population Change recently predicted a post-pandemic decline in annual births, deepening a secular trend that has already taken the birthrate to "historically low levels".

The social implications of these downward trajectories, exacerbated by Covid, are many and various.

Assuming current demographic trends continue, Eurostat has calculated that the number of European over-65s will have grown by over 40% by 2050.

Fewer people will be in work paying taxes when their pension and care bills arrive.

Against that backdrop, right-wing nationalist parties fantasising about a future without migrant labour may as well howl at the moon.

Immigration seems likely to continue to be a structural necessity in western democracies, as well as a source of innovation and renewal.

But this is about more than the big picture.

For many young people, one of the most fundamental sources of human fulfilment - parenthood - is being delayed or forgone out of economic necessity.

Procreation should not be seen as a moral obligation, let alone as a patriotic duty.

Since the 1960s, with the rise of contraception, declining western birthrates have been partly a result of greater freedom for women to shape and control their own lives.

But starting a family should be a far easier option than it has become.

Even in Scandinavia, rightly held up as a model when it comes to parental leave and accessible childcare, alarm bells are ringing.

The Norwegian prime minister, Erna Solberg, has warned that one of Europe's best-funded welfare states could only be socially and economically sustainable if people had more children.

In Sweden, the annual number of births has consistently fallen for over a decade, constituting a new and worrying trend according to the country's leading demographers. Continue reading

Source

• Editorial: The Guardian

This has angered campaigners who say it obstructs access to effective contraception, and sidelines the rights of sexual assault survivors.

The proposed changes would require medical practitioners to declare a conscientious objection to providing emergency contraception "at the earliest opportunity", and provide the contact details of someone else who can provide contraception. Read more

The Report on Maternity found that in 2017 the teenage birth rate was 15 per 1000 females. In 2008 it was 33 per 1000. Read more

Users of the app have a lower unintended pregnancy rate than the pill (6.5 percent as against 9 percent), without the side effects of hormonal contraception.

The app - which also works for pregnancy planning - was developed by Swedish nuclear physicist Elina Berglund and her husband Raoul Scherwizl.

Berglund says the app uses scientific research to empower women with knowledge about their body and to replace medication with technology.

"Consumers are increasingly using digital health technologies to inform their everyday health decisions, and this new app can provide an effective method of contraception if it's used carefully and correctly," the FDA says.

Users download the app to a mobile device and use it to keep a record of their temperature (which they take each morning with an "extra-sensitive" thermometer). Temperature records are important, as a woman's body temperature rises slightly when she is fertile.

The temperature data is combined with information about the woman's menstrual cycle into a 'smart' algorithm, which helps determine when a woman is ovulating.

This in turn lets users know when they should avoid having unprotected sex if they don't want to get pregnant - or have unprotected sex if they do want to get pregnant.

The Church teaches using contraception is immoral, because it intentionally separates procreation from the sexual act. However, it does approve of fertility mapping methods like natural family planning.

Source

• Catholic News Agency
• Shots
• Image:9Coach - Nine
  

Mordaunt, who is the International Development secretary, made her views known in a meeting with senior aides to Pope Francis last week.

Young girls should have access to contraception, she told the aides. Read more

The conversation, which will be facilitated by the United States Diocese of Arlington, is open to all.

Its focus is on the encyclical which reaffirms artificial birth control is "intrinsically wrong".

People interested in participating can follow the Arlington Diocese on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, as well as Pecknold on Twitter. Two hashtags will be used: #HV50 and #AskTheQuestion.

Those who do not use social media can visit a website with all the conversation content from each day.

The social media forum will include two or three tweets a day for the first three weeks, and then a social media symposium on 25 July - the encyclical's 50th anniversary.

Dr Chad Pecknold, a theology professor at The Catholic University of America, will host the primary conversation on Twitter.

He will provide some content and will also address questions from participants.

He says he is encouraging "everyone to think out loud on social media about the points that are made in Humanae Vitae.

"I hope young people will do what they do in the classroom, which is to try to be courageous and formulate a question," he says.

Besides its affirmation of the church's stance on contraception, Humane Vitae also talks about the dignity of human life and sexuality, and outlines the use of Natural Family Planning as a morally valid method of planning and spacing children.

In the encyclical, Paul VI predicted that if the use of contraception became widespread, society would see devastating consequences.

These consequences include:

• an increase in marital infidelity
• a general decline of moral standards
• the possibility of governments using coercive measures to force contraceptive use upon people
• a loss of respect for women
• a general decrease in humility regarding humanity's dominion over the human body.

Each of these predictions has come true in the modern era, says Bishop Michael Burbidge of Arlington.

Source

• Catholic News Agency
• Wyoming Public Media
• Image: Iowans for LIFE

The encyclical, written by Pope Paul VI and issued in July 1968, specifically deems artificial contraception as being "absolutely excluded" and "intrinsically wrong".

The British clergy have signed a statement endorsing the encyclical as its 50th anniversary nears.

They argue that Humanae Vitae was prophetic.

"[It] predicted that if artificial contraception became widespread and commonly accepted by society then we would lose our proper understanding of marriage, the family, the dignity of the child and of women, and even a proper appreciation of our bodies and the gift of male and female," they say.

The priests say many people rejected the encyclical's message and warnings when it was published, finding them "difficult to accept and challenging to proclaim.

"Fifty years later, so much has unfolded in our society that has been to the detriment of human life and love", so that "Many have come to appreciate again the wisdom of the Church's teaching," the priests say.

One of the priests commented: "We hope that the Church here will now recognise the importance of Humanae Vitae and place it at the forefront of our pastoral strategies and evangelisation. This marks an important moment for the Church in this country.

"It is hard to get 100 priests - the size of an average diocese - to do anything together but to get 500 is very significant indeed".

Source

• The Tablet
• Catholic Herald
• YouTube