Melissa Moschella, assistant professor, philosophy, was quoted in an RTE story about Humanae Vitae.
... In HV, Pope Paul wrote that "sexual intercourse which is deliberately contraceptive" is "to be absolutely excluded" and that "it is never lawful, even for the gravest reasons, to do evil that good may come of it".
Dr Melissa Moschella, a philosophy professor at the Catholic University of America, explains that HV teaches that if a married couple faces a serious reason to avoid pregnancy, they may do so through natural family planning, a process that involves identifying a woman's fertile periods and abstaining from sexual activity during those times.
Pope Paul argued that this so-called "rhythm method" is permissible because it takes advantage of a faculty provided by nature. ...
Continue reading in RTE.