Birth Control and the Conscience

by Michael Shackleton · Published April 23, 2012 · Updated August 3, 2017

“The family that goes the contraceptive route is mistaken in the eyes of the Church but they are acting in good conscience, in good faith, and do not sin” (Fr Sean Wales CSsR ). This statement encourages Catholics to ignore Humanae vitae, and also to utilise, inter alia, abortificient birth control. Does it have the backing of the Church?-Damien McLeish

The distinction between the physical deed and the perpetrator’s moral guilt in doing it must be taken into account when dealing with the individual’s conscience. Priests can clarify this when penitents reveal the state of their conscience in the confessional.

Outside of that, we can examine your question only in theory.

Well informed Catholics know that the Church prohibits arificial contraception and abortion. They will therefore follow this teaching in practice. There may come a time when they are confronted by a serious dilemma of conscience: we cannot afford another pregnancy because, perhaps, we are stony broke or one’s health won’t bear it.

In order to make it sinful to use the contraceptive/abortifacient Pill, the couple must give full consent of the will. This may be a complication when they are so desperate and even confused, that they give half-hearted consent. In such a case, without full consent, they cannot be said to sin gravely. And, if they are ignorant of the moral evil entailed, there is no sin at all, despite the objective nature of the act.

Conscience is a matter not so much of what one does, but of what one is convinced is the right or wrong moral decision to do it. The action may be an evil act for which one is physically responsible, but whether one is morally responsible for it before God and in one’s own conscience is something that outsiders cannot presume to judge.

The Church teaches what Paul VI defended in Humanae vitae, namely, that any act that renders procreation impossible is intrinsically evil. It condemns procured abortions in the same way. Informed Catholics know this.

Fr Wales’ quote which you refer to might have required further explanation, but he is upholding the Church’s emphasis on following one’s conscience and not being forced to act contrary to it.

Even if we suspect someone of acting in bad conscience, it is nobody’s concern but that individual’s, who must answer for it only before Christ.