A practice which
tends to produce such exaggerated notions of what constitutes hardship,
which leads men and women to cherish such a degree of ease, makes
inevitably for inefficiency, a decline in the capacity to endure and to
achieve, and for a general social decadence.
"Finally, Birth Control leads sooner or later to a decline in
population...." (The case of France is instanced.) But it is essentially
the moral question that alarms the Catholic women, for the statement
concludes: "The further effect of such proposed legislation will
inevitably be a lowering both of public and private morals. What the
fathers of this country termed indecent and forbade the mails to carry,
will, if such legislation is carried through, be legally decent. The
purveyors of sexual license and immorality will have the opportunity to
send almost anything they care to write through the mails on the plea
that it is sex information. Not only the married but also the unmarried
will be thus affected; the ideals of the young contaminated and lowered.
The morals of the entire nation will suffer.
"The proper attitude of Catholics... is clear. They should watch and
oppose all attempts in state legislatures and in Congress to repeal
the laws which now prohibit the dissemination of information concerning
Birth Control. Such information will be spread only too rapidly despite
existing laws. To repeal these would greatly accelerate this deplorable
movement.(1)"
The Catholic position has been stated in an even more extreme form
by Archbishop Patrick J.
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