The Experience of Marriage

no overwhelming worry about keeping to the Church's present teaching (mainly because my wife's inside works pretty well according to plan), but who on philosophical and theological grounds finds that teaching verging on the nonsensical. This position is certainly getting commoner. The Experience of Marriage is a report written by thirteen anonymous Catholic American couples on the state of their marital relationships and the effect on them of the ban on contraception. It is an essential document for the understanding of this problem, and of the mentality of those for whom it is a pressing personal issue. While it tells of much anguish, rage and despair, it also spells a kind of hope, because those who have gone through these problems are both articulate and, as Catholics, quite undisturbed in their basic Catholic conviction. One of the things this shows is that the whole contraception issue, however urgent and difficult in itself, is quite peripheral to the religious faith of Catholics. It needs to be got out of the way, because, until it is, Catholics will be unable to concentrate on their proper Christian vocation. A number of points arise from almost all the contributions. First, the "unnatural" character of the one means of family limitation which the Church expressly allows (rhythm). Most of the couples have tried it, and most of them have found it unsatisfactory. Their dissatisfactions are not, however, all of the same kind or degree. To some, the attempt to regulate so basic a human activity by the temperature chart seems