This week in Christian history: Thomas Becket murdered, Church of Ireland disestablished
Pope Pius XI reaffirms Catholic opposition to abortion, birth control – Dec. 31, 1930
This week marks the anniversary of when Pope Pius XI reaffirmed the Roman Catholic Church's opposition to abortion and birth control in a papal encyclical titled “Casti connubii.”
Latin for “of chaste wedlock,” Casti connubii addressed multiple issues regarding the nature of Christian marriage and having a family, including addressing questions of reproduction.
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“Those who hold the reins of government should not forget that it is the duty of public authority by appropriate laws and sanctions to defend the lives of the innocent, and this all the more so since those whose lives are endangered and assailed cannot defend themselves,” read the encyclical.
“Among whom we must mention in the first place infants hidden in the mother's womb. And if the public magistrates not only do not defend them, but by their laws and ordinances betray them to death at the hands of doctors or of others, let them remember that God is the Judge and Avenger of innocent blood which cried from earth to Heaven.”
The encyclical also criticized the then-popular eugenics practice of forcibly sterilizing individuals considered unfit to be parents, stating that “the family is more sacred than the State and that men are begotten not for the earth and for time, but for Heaven and eternity.”
“Public magistrates have no direct power over the bodies of their subjects; therefore, where no crime has taken place and there is no cause present for grave punishment, they can never directly harm, or tamper with the integrity of the body, either for the reasons of eugenics or for any other reason,” the document added.
