Even the dimmest wit in the Society of Jesus can make his thoughts plainly understood. So it must be that Pope Francis knew what he was saying when he broke with 2,000 years of sacred Tradition and magisterial teaching this week when he alluded to Paul VI permitting nuns being raped in Africa to use contraception to avoid pregnancy, and used that as the moral grounds on which to permit the use of contraception in the midst of the Zika virus outbreak. In his own words, as reported by the Associated Press:
Abortion is an evil in and of itself, but it is not a religious evil at its root, no? It’s a human evil. On the other hand, avoiding pregnancy is not an absolute evil. In certain cases, as in this one (Zika), such as the one I mentioned of Blessed Paul VI, it was clear.
So, avoiding pregnancy amidst the Zika outbreak is not an absolute evil? Enter proportionalism.
To be clear, he linked the use of contraceptives then to the situation he is addressing now.
Before proceeding with the moral nightmare this introduces, it is best to consider some infectious disease epidemiology and how Francis’ proportionalism betrays not only his duty to uphold all that his predecessors have taught, but also betrays a stunning ignorance of infectious diseases compounded by hemispheric blinders.
It has been reported that only 4% of Brazil’s current microcephaly cases are attributable to Zika. 17 out of 404 as of last week. And for that a Pope is willing to flush Humanae Vitae. Pia de Solenni did a masterful job at outlining the epidemiology of this outbreak, and the reader is advised to get it all here.
With Zika affecting the hemisphere from which this pope comes, and with which he has exclusively focussed his priestly life, Francis is missing some more pressing global numbers in maternal infectious disease and resulting rates of infant mobidity and mortality. There is so much more fertile ground for justifying contraception. Consider HIV/AIDS and some statistics from WHO.
Globally there are 36.9 million people living with HIV/AIDS. Of these, 2.6 million are children who contracted the virus from their mothers in utero, or through breastfeeding. Without any treatment, roughly 30-40% of pregnancies result in vertical transmission (mother to child) of HIV. With antiretroviral monotherapy, these rates can be cut in half. With combination antiretroviral therapy, the rates are cut to 2%.
So consider if 10 million women with HIV all get pregnant, and if they all have access to combination antiretroviral therapy, there would still be 200,000 babies born with HIV. Is the new teaching from the First Class Chair of Peter aboard the papal plane sufficiently broad to suggest a duty by HIV positive women to not reproduce?
Then there is the even broader health concern of global malaria. Roughly 50% of the world’s population are exposed to malaria, especially in Africa. According to WHO:
Malaria infection during pregnancy is a significant public health problem with substantial risks for the pregnant woman, her fetus, and the newborn child. Malaria-associated maternal illness and low birth weight is mostly the result of Plasmodium falciparum infection and occurs predominantly in Africa.
And in the WHO 2015 Fact Sheet on malaria:
According to the latest estimates from WHO, there were 214 million new cases of malaria worldwide in 2015 (range 149–303 million). The African Region accounted for most global cases of malaria (88%), followed by the South-East Asia Region (10%) and the Eastern Mediterranean Region (2%).
In 2015, there were an estimated 438 000 malaria deaths (range 236 000–635 000) worldwide. Most of these deaths occurred in the African Region (90%), followed by the South-East Asia Region (7%) and the Eastern Mediterranean Region (2%)…
Children under five are particularly susceptible to malaria illness, infection and death. In 2015, malaria killed an estimated 306 000 under-fives globally, including 292 000 children in the African Region. Between 2000 and 2015, the mortality rate among children under five fell by 65% worldwide and by 71% in Africa.
In the document, WHO goes on to discuss treatment and the issues of malaria in pregnancy:
Artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) are highly effective against P. falciparum, the most prevalent and lethal malaria parasite affecting humans. Globally, the number of ACT treatment courses procured from manufacturers increased from 11 million in 2005 to 337 million in 2014. The African Region accounted for most (98%) manufacturer deliveries of ACTs in 2014.
Malaria infection during pregnancy carries substantial risks for the mother, her fetus and the newborn child. In Africa, the proportion of women who receive intermittent preventive treatment in pregnancy (IPTp) for malaria has been increasing over time, but levels remain below national targets. In 2014, an estimated 15 million of the 28 million pregnant women at risk of malaria did not receive a single dose of IPTp.
To their credit, and unlike Francis, there is no mention of preventing the transmission of life as a solution to endemic disease.
Were time to permit, one could detail all of the tropical diseases, among others, and the effects on fetuses and neonates. 1/3 of the world’s population is infected with TB. Cholera strikes millions, etc…
Is the prevention of life itself in a disease outbreak with 4% infant morbidity really the best Pope Francis can do? Where is his exhortation for governments to come to grips with the fact that all of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring hysteria about DDT has been disproven by science over the past 50 years? Where is the exhortation to curb the mosquito populations spreading so many horrendous diseases? Where is the voice of a pope to his environmentalist friends to meet him half way and abandon their anti-human life agenda?
For all of his stated love of the poor, Francis has invited International Planned Parenthood and Marie Stopes to a blood meal on the very poor whose dignity he portends to uphold. By invoking Paul VI and the Congo episode with artificial contraception, he ignored NFP and the volumes written by his predecessors.
To permit artificial contraception for Zika is to have sold the family farm, to permit it for all developing nations where endemic disease is present.
Public health doesn’t involve nonexistence. Public health concerns itself with preventing and curing disease. It is clear that the Holy Father doesn’t grasp this essential truth that I learned in training as a medical microbiologist. Public Health officers cannot morally and ethically resort to killing patients or preventing human reproduction as a legitimate means of addressing crises.
The same holds true for popes.
Francis should stick to matters concerning his Holy Office, and in all humility allow himself to be guided by the unchanging wisdom of 2,000 years of magisterial teaching.
He. Is. Peter.
He should start behaving as such.
Coming Home 
What of the story about chemicals in the drinking water to kill mosquitoes being the real cause of deformities?
Pope Francis has struck a low blow at faithful Catholics, like myself, who have continued to support him and defend him thus far. All that we have now is the Church, Herself; the Magisterium, Itself. But now, the beauty of the Truth shines even brighter.
[…] This article first appeared here. […]
Be careful in your ‘selective’ acceptance or rejection of any Pope’s statements over time and years. We do not always agree with what the leader of our Church may say. Sometimes we forget he is also human. But I trust the Spirit’s voice to come through over time. I admire Pope Francis for suggesting changes and challenging our Faith. We need to pray and trust the Spirit to show us the Truth. Perhaps even more difficult is accepting that Truth when it is different than what we want!
[Don: The pope’s spokesman clarified that he indeed meant artificial contraception. Read it here. ~G.N.]
Hi. I recently learned about a German study in which 900 couples using natural family planning (NFP) were followed for 20 years, with less than a 2% failure rate. This compares very favorably with oral contraceptives or other methods (MUCH better than other methods). Since NFP is endorsed by the Catholic Church, and can be equally effective (or even more effective) compared to oral contraceptives, it seems strange that the Pope would be promoting use of oral contraceptives or condoms which are even less effective.
It also seems strange that malaria has been around for centuries or longer, and HIV has also been around for a while, but suddenly because of Zika virus Catholics now should be using oral contraceptives? Quite a radical shift, with no apparent basis, since I just checked with the CDC website and it says that with “typical use” oral contraceptives, both combined type and progesterone only, have a 9% failure rate. Typical use means, how average people use them ordinarily – some will miss doses or not take at the same time every day, etc., but when used by average people, typical use failure rate is 9%.
I also saw that even with the every-3-month contraceptive injection, there is a 6% failure rate.
With NFP, there are different methods, with different failure rates, and some of the methods of a previous generation were less reliable – but the German study, with 900 couples for 20 years, would be an example of typical use – some people maybe didn’t get it right every time, but the 2% failure rate shows that if anyone was serious about preventing pregnancy due to concern about birth defects or infection – other than total abstinence, NFP is as effective as it gets.
Thus, I would conclude that the Pope is not well informed about NFP, and in general, he seems to be unfortunately lacking in scientific knowledge. It would be better if he would carefully consult scientific experts before making pronouncements related to scientific and / or medical matters. Yes, I did think he made his statement quite clearly the first time, and it was also further clarified by a spokesman – so there seems to be little question about what he said, but it seems equally clear that he spoke without actually seeking information about the scientific facts or that his information was perhaps obtained via an agenda driven source.
The NFP study was by Frank-Herrmann et al., 2007, Human Reproduction, 22(5) at this link: http://humrep.oxfordjournals.org/content/22/5/1310.long
I also think the best way to prevent mosquito-borne illness is to get rid of the mosquitoes. The U.S., many years ago, did have malaria but got rid of it; other countries could drain mosquito breeding grounds and/or use larvacides (non-DDT larvacides such as are routinely used in the U.S.). There is also data that DDT can be carefully used in ways that eradicate mosquitoes without harm to humans – spraying walls of buildings for example but not spraying into the air – but insecticides are not politically correct these days. There is a solution to mosquito borne illness, but if we do not like the obvious solution, NFP appears to be a reliable way to prevent pregnancy, a method that is promoted by rural health workers in China, so it’s not just for Catholics.
It would be interesting to find out how many of the families who have had a baby stricken with Zika already USED artificial birth control. I bet most of them already do! I think condoning the use of ABC will not touch the outbreak by even one percentage point. He will have sold out for nothing! sigh.
[…] « Pope Francis, Contraception, and Zika: Why Epidemiology Can Never Trump Tradition […]
[…] Dr. Gerard Nadal , president and CEO of the Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer and an esteemed scientist and Catholic writer, wrote on his blog: […]
I knew if I kept reading, sooner or later, you would jump on the Pope-critic bandwagon. You didn’t disappoint — though it took much longer than I thought!
Actually, Lisa, I couldn’t do anything other than please you. If I never criticized the Pope, then I would confirm your assessment of me as a mindless Vatican sycophant. On the other hand, if I criticized this Pope, then I am an extremist who hates the pastoral and humane nature of the Pope.
Of course, what you consistently miss is the fact that God has expectations of us that He has revealed throughout salvation history. It isn’t pastoral to hide that light under the bushel of rhetorical obfuscation that this pope excels at in his pressers.
But back to the expectations of me. You are not a very good social scientist, as you have no falsifiable hypothesis. That might mean that you would be open to objective truth, that your ego and libido would have to be subordinated to something greater than your id.
In the end, I did nothing to please you. It is still you pleasing yourself, all these many years.
Definitely — I’m all about self-pleasure! 😉
…but I do in fact get pleasure from your blog, or I wouldn’t keep reading it, right? All the best to you.
[…] Dr. Gerard Nadal, president and CEO of the Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer and an esteemed scientist and Catholic writer, wrote on his blog: […]
[…] Dr. Gerard Nadal, president and CEO of the Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer and an esteemed scientist and Catholic writer, wrote on his blog: […]
What about installing window and door screens on all buildings and houses? The poor do not have screens! The pope is not aware that the “Congo nuns story” was just theoretical, theological speculation and never happened. Also, Who was pope in 1961 when this permission was alleged to have been given? John the XXIII, not Paul VI!!
For those of you in the distant future who borrowed our species on your way to evolutionary fulfillment, who are reading the remnants of this blog through mostly opaque veils of time, a blog that perhaps you discovered still coherently magnatized within the strange geometry of a discarded box (what was called in our time a server), found buried in a sea of twisted metal that somehow failed to be recycled for further use, “L” is pushing Dr. Nadal’s buttons again. She has been doing so for years, quite successfully. I myself predicted (on this very blog!) that she would be compelled to do so until she was physically and/or mentally unable. Alas, for you, dear reader, that occurrence is ancient history, and the words above are perhaps all that remains of this once great and inexorable woman “L,” who truly left her mark nowhere else; whose relentless wit and wisdom aroused no other tempers; whose graceful words shed no other light. Alas my children. Alas. “But vain to popularize profundities, and all truth is profound.”
“Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”
“It is not necessary to talk about these issues all the time,” he said in a public interview last year, addressing the Vatican’s take on contraception and abortion. “The dogmatic and moral teachings of the church are not all equivalent.” Francis has made it clear that he’s all about weighing good versus the greater good; everyday evil versus unforgivable sins. There is a right time to debate issues of birth control, but this is most certainly not it. In the case of the Zika epidemic, the most immoral course of action would be not taking one at all.
[…] Dr. Gerard Nadal, president and CEO of the Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer and an esteemed scientist and Catholic writer, wrote on his blog: […]