Interview: Liberal Catholic turns orthodox by embracing Humanae Vitae
by John-Henry Westen
Mon Dec 13 6:02 PM EST
LOS ANGELES, December 8, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) - It is often said that the hardest journey to faith is when one approaches it, not from the outside, from atheism or lapsed faith, but from within, with just enough Christian teaching mixed with error so as to be inoculated against authentic faith.
So what does one who has traversed this arduous journey look like? What does he do, and where does he go with his newfound faith?
In the case of Patrick Coffin, he is now a radio show host on Catholic Answer’s Live, which airs on EWTN, and has authored a book explaining his path to authentic faith. That journey was, he says, primarily about surmounting the stumbling block of Humanae Vitae, which is seen by orthodox Catholics, and even many non-Catholics, as a cornerstone of the Culture of Life.
LifeSiteNews spoke with Coffin about his journey and his new book ‘Sex Au Naturel: What it is and Why it’s Good for your Marriage’. The book has received rave reviews from philosopher Peter Kreeft, Sydney Cardinal George Pell, Kimberley Hahn, Fr. Frank Pavone, and Ottawa Archbishop Terrence Prendergast, among others.
In addition to tracing his conversion, Sex Au Naturel presents Theology of the Body in an easy-to-understand nutshell, contains a Biblical guide through the proofs for the God’s stance against contraception, and blasts the myths of overpopulation. Coffin’s wit and style come through loud and clear in the book, on radio and in this interview…
Q. When most Catholics come to the stumbling block of Humanae Vitae, for you it was the cornerstone which led you to fullness of truth. Why?
A: This is hard to answer succinctly because my “cradle reversion” did not happen in an instant or even a series of instants. Owing to the fact that I am clever but not wise, I took an abnormally long bit of time to understand the message of Humanae Vitae.
Growing up under the long shadow of the Winnipeg Statement, which for all intents and purposes made the encyclical into a toothless lion, it was never explained to me how the norms Paul VI was spelling out were actually binding on everyone, not just conservative Catholics.
Sitting down and reading the thing with as open a mind as I could muster was a big first step. So was discovering the writings of people like Janet Smith, Mary Rosere Joyce, and Servant of God Fulton Sheen. In the end, I saw that what was at stake was not just an arcane man-made rule (not to mention prudish and unrealistic) but the possible loss of salvation.
The Church has never wavered, and has only deepened her treatment of contraception. It’s an ineluctable part of the whole of the deposit of faith. As I describe in the book, it was like a big game of Jenga, in which the whole structure of the Catholic sacramental life, and of marriage and sexuality, stood or fell with the main “wooden block” of Humanae Vitae; namely that each and every marital act must be open to new life.
If that principle is false, then I had no consistent ground on which to stay Catholic or even to believe Jesus rose from the dead. Another discovery was that Paul VI did not make any arguments, per se, about the evil of contraception. Instead, he bore witness to 2000 years of Christian teaching and practice. Of course, he also made what we may now call prophetic utterances about what would transpire if the teaching was rejected.
If one is a dissenter - as I have been - what I am saying here probably will not, on its own, make a dent in the dissent. Acceptance of Humanae Vitae is bound up with the acceptance of the lordship of Jesus Christ. If Jesus is not Lord of our sexuality, He is Lord of nothing.
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