Contraception.

For centuries Christians accepted from the commandments handed down by Moses, that the sexual act was reserved for a man and a woman who had made a life-long commitment to marriage. It was recognized that a primary purpose of this act was the procreation of children. In the early part of the 20th century devices and methods were being perfected which had the effect of frustrating that purpose and the word contraception came into common use.

In 1930, the Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops held in London, England, decided that contraception could be regarded as permissible. Just less than forty years later, in Winnipeg, Canada, at a meeting of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops in September 1968 while discussing Pope Paul's encyclical Humanae vitae, it was decided that this practice was a matter of personal conscience. This decision spread like wildfire beyond national borders.

We see the devastating result of those decisions today. A steady discard of moral values of every nature has led to amazing consequences which could never have been imagined. Our Christian home has crumbled. We cannot expect to restore it by replacing broken frames here, removing dry rot there.

But we do have a corner stone--our Holy Father Benedict XVI. Let us stand by him and rebuild brick by brick as he so clearly teaches and directs us. May our bishops lay the first bricks.

Sidney, BC