To contracept is to willfully exclude the possibility of a conception that could result from a sexual act.  The widespread practice of contraception in our day reflects the common attitude that children are more a burden than a blessing.  But that notion is utterly alien to Scripture.

In Psalms and Proverbs, for example, we hear a constant refrain about the great joy of being parents and grandparents, even many times over: “Children too are a gift from the Lord, / the fruit of the womb, a reward. / Like arrows in the hand of a warrior / are the children born in one’s youth. / Blessed are they whose quivers are full” (Ps 127:3-5).  “Grandchildren are the crown of old men” (Prv 17:6).  To biblical mothers and fathers, barrenness was not a convenience, but a curse (see Dt 28:18; Jb 15:34).

The constant teaching of the Catholic Church has been to prohibit contraception.  This prohibition was in fact taught by all major Christian groups until 1930.  Spacing of children or limiting of children for serious reasons is permitted, according to Pope Paul VI’s 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae and Catholic moral teaching.  But this limitation must come about through natural rather than artificial means (such as natural family planning, or NFP) so that the integrity of the marital sexual act is preserved — that is, so that the act remains open to the possibility of transmitting new life, which is part of its natural purpose.

One biblical text cited in support of this truth concerns the grave sin of Onan, who sought the physical pleasures of sexual acts while preventing the possibility that they might produce children: “Whenever he had relation with his brother’s widow, he wasted his seed on the ground, to avoid contributing offspring for his brother.  what he did greatly offended the Lord, and the Lord took his life too” (Gn 38:9-10).

Contraception is contrary to our sexual nature and the innate purposes for which God created it.  Every marital sexual act, then, must be open to the possibility of conception.

Related Scripture:

Texts Cited:  Gn 38:9-10  •  Dt 28:18  •  Ps 127:3-5  •  Prv 17:6  •  Jb 15:34
General:  Gn 1:27-28; 9:1; 17:6, 20; 28:3  •  Ex 23:26  •  Lv 26:9  •  Dt 7:14  •  1 Sm 1:4-16  •  Ps 128:3  •  Prv 30:16  •  1 Cor 7:5
Catechism of the Catholic Church:  1652-1654  •  2249  •  2349  •  2352  •  2366-2379  •  2398-2399