"The Rhythm Mentality"

Any use whatsoever of matrimony exercised in such a way that the act is deliberately frustrated in its natural power to generate life is an offense against the law of God and of nature . . . a grave sin.

So wrote Pope Pius XI in his 1930 encyclical, Of Chaste Marriage. Roman Catholics are expressly forbidden to use contraceptives. But does the ban also apply to the "Catholic form of birth control" known as the Rhythm . Method?* Last week Servite Missionary Father Hugh Calkins, known to millions of U.S. Catholics for his columns in the weekly pamphlet Novena Notes, warned Catho--lies to be wary of it. In the current issue of Integrity Father Calkins goes to work on the "beauty-shop theologians and gabfest experts" who contend that Rhythm has the church's blessing.

The, church, he writes, "merely tolerates" the method, and then only under three conditions: "a sufficiently serious reason," the consent of both husband & wife, and assurance that the degree of continence required does not lead to sins against chastity.

Father Calkins, pointing out that the practice is widespread among U.S. Catholics, inveighs against the "vicious Rhythm mentality--a state of mind that won't trust God . . . These bleeding hearts, especially busybodies-in-Iaw and nosy neighbors, scream protestingly: 'Who'll take care of the next baby?' The simple answer is: The same God that takes care of you even when you resist His Will. 'But we must give our children security and education.' Just because God doesn't give parents and children all today's phony materialistic standards require, doesn't mean He fails them . . ."

In Rome last week, Pope Pius XII reminded the International College of Surgeons that their moral duty is to spare unborn infants even at the risk of their mothers' lives. Surgeons, he said, should not heed "the understandable anguish of husbandly love" when faced with such a choice. "God alone is Lord of life . . ."

*The limitation of sexual intercourse to those days of each monthly cycle in which a woman is unlikely to be fertile. The fertility period of women may vary widely. Attempts to determine it in any individual involve a full year's careful charting of her menstrual periods, daily temperature, other data.

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