Dear Pope Benedict XVI
In 1968, Pope Paul VI wrote “Humane Vitae”, (On Human Life);
“an act of mutual love which impairs the capacity to transmit life which God the Creator through specific laws has built into it, frustrates His design which constitutes the norm of marriage, and contradicts the will of the Author of life… and is consequently in opposition to the plan of God and His holy will.”
"Similarly excluded is every action which, either in anticipation of the
conjugal act, or in its accomplishment, or in the development of its
natural consequences, proposes, whether as an end or as a means, to render
procreation impossible"
I understand from my Catholic friends that such unnatural forms of birth control include
the Pill, the intrauterine device, foams, diaphragms, condoms,
mutual or solitary masturbation, sodomy, and even withdrawal.
The trouble is that your policy affects Catholics and non-Catholics alike. Take my Great Aunt Lillian and her husband Thomas as an example. They swallowed whole the teachings and instructions, and did not use any form of birth control. The result that they had nine children. He was a bus driver, she was a housewife. They could only afford to maintain two of the children within their means. That meant that for the rest they relied on Government hand-outs, and of course, that long-suffering mug, the Taxpayer.
Why should I have to shell out hard-earned dosh so that Catholics can feed their children that they cannot afford top maintain, following the rules set your predecessors set out and that you advise them to this day to follow?
What if I was a follower of a religion that said that I should not have to maintain the children of those that bred beyond their means?
In these times of recession it’s likely that Governments will begin to chip away at child benefits. That will mean that some of the children from large (Catholic) families will begin to suffer, perhaps even from malnutrition. Will you then amend your laws to permit means to restrict the size of a family other than by the “rhythm method”? Do you want to have a world overrun by hungry Catholic children, begging for crusts on every street corner?
So, Pope Benedict, gather some of your inner sanctum around you and consider relaxing your rules on birth control. This is the 21st Century, man, get real and open your eyes and see the real world that we all live in! Give me some relief. I might have wanted more than the two children I have, but didn’t want to be a burden on the state, and my fellow taxpayers. I and my wife acted in all conscience and restricted ourselves to two. I guess the problem might be that you have no children and are completely sheltered and blinkered from real people; their lusts, their finances, and maybe even their moral dilemmas. In which case this letter will fall on blind eyes, and my call upon deaf ears.
