Scholars on Catholic doctrine may correct me here, but it is my understanding that the Church's (long-ago) shift in its view of contraception is part of its rejection, along with the rest of the world, of the medieval homoncular theory of reproduction, according to which sperm contained tiny human beings and so spilling your seed was basically killing them. (Note that this applies equally to male masturbation as to contraception and has no application to female contraception -- which makes me wonder how they dealt with the latter.)
--- On Thu, 12/11/08, Wendy Lyon <wendy.lyon at gmail.com> wrote:
>
If this is a change from a
> previous
> position that saw all birth control as murder, it's a
> real stretch to
> call it a "liberalization". I'd just call it
> a tactical change in
> focus.
>