In his column from Nov. 10, Gary Caruso expresses a warped understanding of the Catholic Church’s teachings about human dignity and the contraception issue. Mr. Caruso’s subjective version of Catholicism is far removed from the objective teachings of the Church. According to Caruso, “The Catholic hierarchy has a long history of systemic rigidity that excludes in the name of Christian morality, rather than includes in the name of individual spirituality.” This is absolute nonsense. The Catholic Church has a fundamental duty to promote objective Christian morals. God’s will cannot be left to individual, subjective interpretation. The Church has long held that contraception violates the dignity of the human person by rejecting life at its very source. Contraception is a “conspiracy against life,” as Pope Saint John Paul II says in his encyclical “Evangelium Vitae.” The “full truth of the conjugal act” lies in a couple’s openness to the beautiful gift of life that may result. Contraception directly opposes this truth. All of us, Catholic and non-Catholic, should be glorifying God’s gift of life, not spurning it. Furthermore, Mr. Caruso entirely misrepresents the present-day Church on the contraception issue by cherry-picking statements from Pope Francis. Simply put, the Church’s position opposing contraception has not changed under Francis’s tenure. The Catechism of the Catholic Church definitively states “every action which … proposes, whether as an end or as a means, to render procreation impossible is intrinsically evil.” This includes contraception. Mr. Caruso ought to take note.
Brennan Buhr sophomore Nov. 12
