Catholic Answers says sleeping with spouse under coercion a lesser evil than contraception.

im Sta­ples, senior apol­o­gist at Catholic Answers, wrote the post, enti­tled “When Can Mar­ried Catholics Use the Pill?” It’s meant to be a reflec­tion on the fac­tors that mit­i­gate cul­pa­bil­i­ty, but here’s the part where Mr. Sta­ples botch­es that point in order to give a seem­ing tol­er­ance to mar­i­tal sex under coer­cion:

If it were a case of for­mal coop­er­a­tion, it would be unac­cept­able. But where a spouse voic­es dis­ap­proval of the act of con­tra­cep­tion and is coop­er­at­ing in it only for a pro­por­tion­al good—for exam­ple, where the oth­er spouse threat­ens to end the mar­riage oth­er­wise—this mate­r­i­al coop­er­a­tion may be per­mis­si­ble.

And here’s the screen­shot, since Catholic Answers has been updat­ing the ver­biage through­out the day in response to push­back on Twit­ter.

The orig­i­nal ver­sion was even worse, if you can imag­ine. In that ver­sion, a faith­ful wife could con­tin­ue sex­u­al rela­tions with a hus­band who—brace your­self—“threat­ens vio­lence.” (Screen­shot here.)

Melin­da Rib­nek has the thread about it on Twit­ter.

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Now, it’s cer­tain­ly true that a spouse hav­ing sex under coer­cion has dimin­ished cul­pa­bil­i­ty (if any cul­pa­bil­i­ty at all). But it is moral hogwash—I’ll go fur­ther, it’s moral evil—to sug­gest that sex under coer­cion in any way cre­ates a “pro­por­tion­al good.”

That comes from the mind­set that says divorce is so unthink­able that sex­u­al coer­cion is prefer­able. That is the kind of think­ing and rhetoric that encour­ages vio­lence against women, includ­ing sex­u­al vio­lence, to con­tin­ue, and a Catholic apol­o­gist of the stature of Tim Sta­ples and a Catholic apolo­get­ics orga­ni­za­tion of the stature of Catholic Answers should be ashamed to be say­ing any such thing.

Sex­u­al coer­cion does not cre­ate a pro­por­tion­al good; it is a pro­por­tion­al evil. Let me remind Catholic Answers and Mr. Sta­ples of Gaudi­um et Spes 27:

Fur­ther­more, what­ev­er is opposed to life itself, such as any type of mur­der, geno­cide, abor­tion, euthana­sia or wil­ful self-destruc­tion, what­ev­er vio­lates the integri­ty of the human per­son, such as muti­la­tion, tor­ments inflict­ed on body or mind, attempts to coerce the will itself; what­ev­er insults human dig­ni­ty, such as sub­hu­man liv­ing con­di­tions, arbi­trary impris­on­ment, depor­ta­tion, slav­ery, pros­ti­tu­tion, the sell­ing of women and chil­dren; as well as dis­grace­ful work­ing con­di­tions, where men are treat­ed as mere tools for prof­it, rather than as free and respon­si­ble per­sons; all these things and oth­ers of their like are infamies indeed. They poi­son human soci­ety, but they do more harm to those who prac­tice them than those who suf­fer from the injury. More­over, they are supreme dis­hon­or to the Cre­ator.

The Church con­nects coer­cion to abor­tion, slav­ery, pros­ti­tu­tion, and a host of oth­er evils that are “opposed to life itself” and “a supreme dis­hon­or to the Cre­ator.”

Supreme dis­hon­or to the Cre­ator.

Supreme dis­hon­or to the Cre­ator.

Supreme dis­hon­or to the Cre­ator.

And Humanae Vitae 13 itself adds:

Men right­ly observe that a con­ju­gal act imposed on one’s part­ner with­out regard to his or her con­di­tion or per­son­al and rea­son­able wish­es in the mat­ter, is no true act of love, and there­fore offends the moral order in its par­tic­u­lar appli­ca­tion to the inti­mate rela­tion­ship of hus­band and wife.

Sub­mit­ting to sex­u­al coer­cion, far from pre­serv­ing a mar­riage, fur­ther sev­ers the mar­i­tal union.

Sex­u­al coer­cion is nev­er a “pro­por­tion­al good” of any kind, and a Catholic apol­o­gist treat­ing it as such jus­ti­fies every hatred peo­ple have of the Catholic Church and every rea­son peo­ple have for leav­ing.

You know what the pro­por­tion­al good is in the sit­u­a­tion Mr. Sta­ples men­tions? Divorce. If your spouse threat­ens you or tries to coerce you, you leave and you get help.

Mr. Sta­ples and Catholic Answers need to recant.

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Update. Even­tu­al­ly, Catholic Answers removed the post alto­geth­er, and that is why the link to it above takes you to the Inter­net Archive. I’m not sure when it was removed, but it was last archived on Jan­u­ary 28, 2022. (SEA, 4/11/24)