May Catholics use contraceptives?
Traditional Catholic doctrine has been against the use of any artificial contraceptives. However, the tide is turning. On this website we explain why.
After the latest Synod on ‘Marriage and the Family’, Pope Francis published the latest official position in his letter Amoris Laetitia. Although the Pope affirms personal conscience as the ultimate norm in morality also in sexual morality, he repeats the prohibition of artificial contraception in all circumstances. This does not really help parents who live in complex and difficult circumstances.
However, international Catholic scholarship points out that the thinking behind the traditional ban on contraception is flawed. Research has established that parents are allowed to responsible use artificical contraceptives in family planning. The Wijngaards Institute launched a Statement about this in September 2016 at the United Nations which was signed by 170 Catholic scholars.
On this website we intend to publish educational material that will make this information available to parents and their advisers (priests, doctors, nurses, teachers, social workers). We are presently researching how to do this in a form that will do justice to families in different parts of the world.