The gift of fertility

Commonweal, June 18, 2004 by Adam Rewa

I have been following with interest the debate in your pages over Natural Family Planning (see "Correspondence," May 21.) What strikes me most is the amount of passion that the topic arouses. I was born in 1968 and so I missed the turbulent years leading up to and immediately following Humanae vitae. I will probably never understand the depth of feeling that erupted after the encyclical's publication. I myself find it a deep and beautiful rendering of the meaning of human sexuality which stands in marked contrast to the hypersexual, "no consequences" way that sex is portrayed almost everywhere else.

Our fertility is one of God's greatest gifts to us. When I hear people casually saying that their "factory is closed," as a young mother of two recently told me, I find it a depressingly shallow dismissal of this gift. This seems much different to me than the experience of the men and women who grappled deeply with the issue of accepting and raising children forty years ago and who had their expectations dashed by Paul VI's encyclical.

The bishops may be right in saying that this teaching is due for a renewed presentation. Do the bishops have the moral authority to do it effectively? Will they do more than simply give out prohibitions? Will anyone care? One can only hope.

ADAM REWA

Ionia, Mich.