The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1916-12-09
BIRTH CoNTR d AN I'M
MORAL PROJECT.

The daily press OF this city gives
publicity to the fact that the Min
nesota Birth Control League will
petition the state legislature at
its next session to repeal the law
forbidding the dissemination of
literature relating to the move
ment. The League has already
made plans for a so-called educa-
tional campaign along this line,
and prominent advocates of birth
control will be. brought to the
Twin Cities to enlighten the ma
tives about this latest of immoral
projects.
The Minnesota Birth Control
League, we are informed, was or
ganized in st. Paul last spring,
following the visit of an eastern
female who found kindred spirits
among the reputed leaders of a
certain grade of so-called fashion
able society whose dominant am
bition seems to be to make mar
riage the vehicle Of unbridled SEN
sual qualification unhampered by
any fear Of consequences. At
present all the officers of the
league are st. Paul women, but it
is planned to have females Of both
sexes from the Twin Cities and
other parts of the state on the ex-
ecutive board.
Nor does the league want a
clerical champion. A heretofore
unknown minister gets ephemeral
notOriety and first-page position
iii the daily press by advocating
birth control as a means of dimin-
ishing "the number of unsought
babies in the world" If his breth-
rem of the cloth before whom he
appeared made any protest, it was
too feeble to be recorded.
One Of our daily papers gives
evidence Of its unfitness to mold
public opinion by prostituting its
editorial page to the advocacy of
this latest phase of the cult Of SEN
suality. 1t says there is +" "a rapid
ly growing sentiment in favor Of
repeating the law which declares
it criminal to impart knowledge
on the subject Of birth control"
that prominent sociologists, ply
sicians and magistrates favor a
frank discussion Of the subject +;
that birth control has been prac-
ticed in the ''most progressive"
countries of Europe; and that
American women Of wealth and
prominence and "public-spirited
fashionables," whatever they may
be, are enlisted in the fight. All
this presages, in the opinion Of our
omniscient contemporary, the
early repeal of this medieval en-
actment. -
The mighty press has spoken, a
ministerial conference has heard
the final word on the subject Of
birth control, few unfettered fe-
males of the species are abroad in
the land seeking, with. brazen eff
frontery, to poison the minds of
the rising generation, and, per-
force, Church and State must bow
to the dictum of this trinity of
owlish wisdom. We have too
much faith in the sense Of decency
of the state legislators to think
that they will allow themselves to
be stampeded into repeating this
law at the frenzied behest of these
self-styled emancipators of mod
ern woman from her alleged slav-
cry to the Christian ideal of moth
erhood.
But whatever the state may be
prevailed upon to do, we know
that the eternal principles of NOR
atty will not be modified. The
law of God as promulgated on
Sinai, emphasized in the Gospel,
and taught by the Catholic
Church, will not be changed to
meet. the requirements4of any i'm
moral fad. The voice of the
Church of Ages, will always ring
out in protest against any attempt
to sensualize the Sacrament OF
Matrimony, to desecrate the sane
tity of family life, to undermine
the foundation of society.
The primary purpose for which
marriage was instituted was to
provide for the propagation of the
human race, and its use for any
other purpose than the procreation
of children is absolutely forbidden
by the natural as well as the divine
law. Whatever initiates against
the legitimate end for which mar.
riage was instituted, likewise falls
within the sphere of this condem
nation. Those who teach a differ
ent doctrine would make mar
riage conservation of voluptuous
ness. That it is so considered il
certain quarters is only a proof Of
the sensuality OF the age, an evi
dence of the too prevalent desire
on the part of husbands and Wiye.
| to evade its heayen-impoSed re
sponsibilities. The levity Will
-rrl;nln III, ,,oe,,.,.i<erl, rn,n4,.a a. 8 -.