Sex is a gift from God. It is meant to unite a husband and wife and to bring life into the world. The Catholic Church has always held that to remove either aspect perverts the sex act as designed.

Artificial birth control can be directly linked to our current abortion rate, sexual promiscuity, births to single mothers, adultery, and the treatment of women as sex objects.

Prior to the invention of the "pill" all Christian faiths, the Muslim faith, as well as others, believed birth control to be against God's will and therefore a sin. In the 1960s, under pressure from society most all Christian faiths caved and changed their position, the Catholic Church did not.

In fact, if you read the encyclical called Humanae Vitae, which addressed artificial birth control, you will see exactly how much the Catholic Church loves the faithful and desires only the best for all of humanity: http://www.papalencyclicals.net/Paul06/p6humana.ht...

Today's society considers artificial birth control to be the norm. We have been told so often that it is the responsible way, and that we should not ever have to deny our sexual urges. Both these ideas are wrong. The Catholic Church, and the Bible, teach that sexual intercourse is a means by which a husband and wife share their love and their bodies without holding back. It is to be selfless in every way, a gift of one to the other. The most beautiful thing that can come of such love is human life. God does not need us to make people for him, he allows us to participate in creation with him.

It isn't about making more Catholics, it's about human life, about God's plan, about self-control and loving someone so much you don't want to use them but give to them.

Marriage is meant to mirror the love Christ has for his bride, the Church. Can you imagine Christ holding anything back? No, Christ's love for us is life giving, and our love for each other should be the same.

Abstinence can be a time of sacrifice for a couple, they can turn to prayer, and share in an expression of love that is non-sexual. There is nothing wrong with not having sex every time you feel like it. In fact, abstience actually increases sexual desire. Married couples who can have sex whenever they want, take it for granted and end up having sex less often than NFP couples.

From the statistical side, here are some facts:

The average married couple has sex twice a week. This means that people, even who use birth control, are only having sex about 8 days a month.

If a couple using Natural Family Planning (which is abstinence during fertile times) were to have sex every day they could without getting pregnant, they'd have sex at twice the national average.

Natural Family Planning is 99% effective when used properly. It's healthier. Women who use NFP tend to be more in tune with their bodies and are usually aware of any problems or diseases in the very early stages.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6375261.stm

Hormonal birth control has been linked to cancer. Also it causes weight gain and moodiness.

Contraception has given us the idea that sex is sterile and only procreative when we want it to be. Hence we need abortion for the times when birth control fails. 54% of women seeking abortions say they were using birth control (pill or condoms) when they got pregnant. Because we have come to consider sex with out procreation the norm, we need a fall back plan and that plan is abortion.

Contraception has also contributed to an increase in adultery and sex outside of marriage.

The Catholic understanding of "procreation" and its importance in God's plan is not a chapter and verse, but a look at the Bible as a whole. God's plan for all of humanity, his plan for salvation, and his love for us. Human beings is what salvation is all about. Jesus Christ, became a human being in order to bring us salvation. He reaffirmed the importance of life. The Catholic Church has always held that all life is sacred from conception to natural death, and we have the responsiblity to be open to that life and guard it.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/art...

http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/2964/birthcontr...

http://www.catholic.com/library/Birth_Control.asp

http://www.memoryhole.net/kyle/2005/08/natural_fam...

http://www.cathnews.com/article.aspx?aeid=11004