Read this booklet online. Request a print copy . Artificial contraception relies upon medication, a device, or surgery to reduce or eliminate the possibility of conception. The effects of such actions are to limit the number of offspring, to prevent births, and often to escape the responsibilities of parenthood. Moreover, they lead inevitably to weakening of character, degradation of conjugal relations, decline of population, and degeneracy of national life.
Scripture clearly prohibits sex apart from marriage.
Asceticism in general is a rigid outward self-discipline by which the spirit strives after full dominion over the flesh, and a superior grade of virtue. It includes not only that true moderation or restraint of the animal appetites, which is a universal Christian duty, but total abstinence from enjoyments in themselves lawful, from wine, animal food, property, and marriage, together with all kinds of penances and mortifications of the body. . . . The ascetic . . . Certainly there can be a degree of tenderness and intimacy between two people who aren't committed to each other. If that longing is never realized, a person becomes jaded and disillusioned.