Wow, I didn’t even know they translated my book into British. Heh heh.
But seriously, Francis Phillips has done a lovely review and musing about Humanae Vitae. An excerpt:
Simcha Fisher calls her book the “Sinner’s Guide” because she starts with the premise that we are all flawed creatures and that God (and the Church) has not made a mistake in reminding us that love and the transmission of life cannot be separated. As she puts it towards the end of this slim book (only 124 pages; it can be read in a sitting though I don’t advise it as there is so much to be pondered in what she writes): “[God] designed men and women to be different so they would complement each other. It was original sin that distorted, perverted and catastrophically skewed this mutuality … Something that was meant to be a delicious and fascinating tension between the sexes has devolved into strife and incompatibility, and gets worse from there, without attention.”
Fisher’s book is not about defending the teaching in Humanae Vitae, which she takes as read. It is not about marriage guidance, or about the theology behind marriage or about being judgmental towards those thought to have a “contraceptive mentality” even though they are using licit means to space their family. It is a frank and humorous examination of love, relationships and how a couple can change a marriage that has fallen into resentment and non-communication into something infinitely better (though not overnight, obviously). Her reason for writing it is because, as she puts it forthrightly, “the marriage-building benefits of remaining faith to Church teaching are real. They are attainable. It’s just that you have to work hard to get them.”
Read the rest here.
