IS THE CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE AGAINST UNNATURAL BIRTH CONTROL A NEW TEACHING?
No. The question of birth control has been raised many times for 19 centuries of Christian life, and the Church has always responded with a firm and universal negative to abortion, sterilization and all forms of unnatural birth control. The encyclical Humanae Vitae in 1968 simply reaffirmed this universal Tradition. DOES THIS CONSTANT TEACHING HAVE ANY SPECIAL SIGNIFICANCE? Yes. At the Last Supper, Jesus promised repeatedly that the Holy Spirit would lead His Church into the fullness of the truth (Jn, chapters 14-17). When a teaching has been taught with such unanimity and constancy throughout the centuries, those who believe in Christ have every reason to believe that such a teaching is from the Spirit and therefore true. Some theologians believe that this constancy of teaching fulfills all the requirements set forth by Vatican II for an infallible teaching by the universal ordinary teaching of the Church’s Magisterium.[5] HAVE PROTESTANT CHURCHES SHARED IN THIS TRADITION? Yes. Before
