How the Contraceptive Mentality Destroyed the Young

I will not say it was an easy time for many Catholics.  Prior to the publication of Humanae Vitae society in the West had changed drastically.   It was an affluent society in which people tried to better themselves and often for good motives such as giving their children the kind of lifestyle they had never known,  motor cars, televisions, the latest gadgets for the home, and having the luxury of owning their own home.    However those selling the goods, especially houses, were out to make as much money as they could and it soon became compulsory for both parents to work if they wanted to enjoy all the things the world could offer.  A single wage was no longer enough to get a mortgage from the Bank of Mortgage lenders.   The big threat become children.   Children became costly.    But among the young there was the Contraceptive market taking away the risk of pregnancy and encouraging a growing indulgence in sexual activity.   It was in such a world that Pope Paul VI published Humanae Vitae.  But within the Church there was a problem.   Those who wanted to remain faithful and true to the Church needed help and little was available, the only natural family planning around was the Rhythm Method which was deeply flawed  since it did not allow for sperm survival into the period when the body signalled it was fertile.   News came that a Dr Billings in Australia had developed a natural system but Australia was a long way off.    But the infringement of society into the morals of the young was unstoppable and priests who wanted to keep young people within the Church found it impossible, especially when the new notions about conscience and the Church not listening to the people were thrown in by some very unfaithful people.    God bless those couples who remained faithful and read the encyclical and saw the warnings therein about the destruction the Contraceptive Mentality would bring, especially to the young at the time.  
I was speaking to a Schoolteacher a few days ago, she is not Catholic nor religious but she was saying that when she started teaching most of the children came for homes with they lived  with their original Fathers and Mothers.   She lamented that this was no longer the case and indeed children living with their biological parents was now the exception.   Paul VI wanted that the Contraceptive Mentality would lead to the break up of marriages and one can see the reason.   Girls are expected now to indulge in sex at an early age by there peers, there is no longer any reason for them to say 'No'.   The trouble is that this kind of lifestyle is not changed by any 'magic' in marriage and partners struggle to be faithful then give up.    The breakdown of marriage leads to the thought that it is not worthwhile really so nobody gets married.   It is summed up in a TV advert where in a quick conversation a couple meet fall in love get married and then divorce.   'You do not have to do everything at once' the advert says.   It would be funny except of course you can now put your money away in a policy for divorce.   And where stands the English Catholic Church in all this?  You know, living up to he teachings of Christ on Adultery, caring about young people and their unhappy lives.  Did I hear someone shout "Shut Up".   Yes that is the usual reply.   But I can console myself in my loving Community.     I should add that Natural Family Planning has improved greatly over the years and only 3 per cent of couples using it divorce.   "O, Shut Up"   OK, not another word.