What Women Have Lost! And Men Too.

So much has been lost in the Church and in our culture, much of it since Vatican II. The sixties was a particularly disastrous decade both within and outside the Church. The sexual revolution with the invention of "the pill" made eliminating babies as easy as popping a pill every day - at least when it worked as it was meant to work. Originally intended for married couples, its use quickly devolved into recreational sex and one night stands: no responsibility, no complications, no babies. 

And the Church was silent. It was about fifteen years after Humanae Vitae, the encyclical that condemned contraception that I first heard a sermon on the papal document. I went out of church and congratulated and thanked the priest. Today, polls show that most Catholic women, about 87%, use a form of artificial birth control to avoid pregnancy.

Of course, abortion soon became necessary as a backup for failed contraception. I actually had a conversation with a woman who told me she should be able to have an abortion because she was being responsible by using contraception. How many women continue to use that argument to justify killing a baby conceived while on birth control?

The notion had already been deeply implanted in the American psyche that babies are not a source of joy, but an unwanted, undesired "product of pregnancy," just a "fetus," a term that means "young one." The pro-abortion lobby didn't tell the women that. They called the baby a blob of protoplasm or just a few cells and did everything they could to hide how well developed the baby was by the time most surgical abortions were done. 

The original birth control pill, described as safe with no side effects, killed women and gave them all sorts of unpleasant side effects including decreased libido. So on the pill, which was supposed to offer uncomplicated and anytime sex,  many women lost interest in sex altogether. It also caused (and continues to cause) cancer, particularly aggressive breast cancers which only gained attention later. The pill is a class one carcinogenic and has been listed in that category since 2007. But those facts were covered up and hidden by Planned Parenthood and their allies and continue to be downplayed by the mainstream media.

A priest I knew, when he counseled engaged couples, handed the pill insert to the man and told him to read it to his beloved and then tell her he wanted her to take it so she could always be available for his pleasure without risking pregnancy. You can read the 18-page insert here. The combined birth control pill has more contraindications than most drugs on the market. But how many women are told that or ever read the package insert?

With the rise of feminism, which welcomed the pill and abortion, came the loss of appreciation of true femininity and motherhood. Stay-at-home moms were "slaves" for serving their husbands and families. Slaving for the CEO of a company (or becoming the CEO) had true value that homemaking lacked. That was their propaganda. I once actually was told by a feminist during a debate with her that I had more to give than being a slave to my husband. I wonder what she thinks today. So many angry feminists are now lonely, bitter old women. The devil uses up his minions and then spits them out.

But the men who bought into the sexual revolution have lost too. They particularly lost the opportunity to grow up. A man who uses a woman like an all day sucker stays a little boy and essentially spends his life playing with dolls. How demeaning is that? Men are called to be heroes, fighting to defend hearth and home. Does anyone admire the lothario whose whole goal in life is to notch his French cuffs with the number of women he seduces? 

There's a saying that men use love to get sex and women use sex to get love. Neither of them achieves what they want. Certainly things can turn out well if a couple repents of their pre-marital sexual activity and remains faithful after marriage, but something has been lost that cannot be regained.

Larry and I used to team for Engaged Encounter. I particularly remember a young man sharing during the evening get together about a previous engagement in which he and his fiance were unchaste. That experience, he shared, led him to commit to chastity in the future. He and his current fiance decided to wait until marriage to consummate their love. You could tell how many couples were fornicating by the feedback. He took it well, simply made the getting hanged gesture. God bless them. I pray they are still happily married with lots of children and a growing number of grandchildren.

The culture too has lost a lot by encouraging sin. Strong families are the building block of a healthy society. Let us pray that the young can rebel against the message of "free love" which turns out to be very expensive indeed. And let us all pray that what's been lost will be found by today's young people through the intercession of all the young saints and especially the married couple, Louis and Zelie Martin, parents of St. Therese of Liseux and the first married couple to be canonized together. May we all seek their intercession that young couples will make loving, chaste, and happy marriages that provide many souls for God's kingdom.