The Sixth Commandment Part Ten: As Excerpted from the Catechism of the Catholic Church as taken from the book by Rev. John A. Hardon, S.J. "The Faith"

1067. Is sexual pleasure in marriage pleasing to God?

     Yes. While practicing due moderation, the sexual pleasure enjoyed in the marital act is a gift from God. Its purpose is to foster the twofold end of marriage, namely the good of the spouses themselves and the transmission of human life.         (2360-2363)

1068. What is marital fidelity?

      It is the mutual lifelong commitment of husband and wife, who enter into a covenant with God to remain faithful to each other, irrevocably, until death. In the Sacrament of Matrimony, they become part of the mystery of Christ's fidelity to His Church.       (2364-2365)

1069. Must every marriage be open to the transmission of life?

      Yes, this is the unchangeable teaching of the Church's Magisterium. It reflects the humanly unbreakable connection between the unitive and the procreative purpose of marital intercourse.    (2366-2377)

1070. Is birth regulation permissible?

       For unselfish reasons, a married couple may regulate the number of their children. But this regulation may not separate the two fold purpose of the marital act, namely the fostering of mutual love between the spouses and the procreation of children.             (2368-2369)

1071. What is periodic continence?

       This is the control of human conception by restricting the marital act to the infertile periods of the wife. From the moral standpoint, natural family planning is permissible. As stated by Pope Paul VI, "If there are serious motives to space our births, which derive from physical or psychological conditions of husband or wife, or from external conditions, it is licit to take account of the natural rhythm inherent in the generative functions" (Humanae Vitae, II, 16).        (2370)

1072. What is contraception?

       Contraception is the deliberate interference with marital intercourse to prevent conception.   (2370)

1073. Is contraception forbidden by divine law?

       Yes, contraception has been forbidden from the earliest days of Christianity. The most significant document on the subject was issued by Pope Paul VI in Humanae Vitae. Its central teaching declares as intrinsically evil "every action which, whether in anticipation of the conjugal act, or in its accomplishment, or in the development of its natural consequences, proposes, whether as an end or as a means, to render procreation impossible" (II, 14).

        As further explained by Pope John Paul II: "By means of contraception, the spouses separate the two meanings that God has inscribed into the being of man and woman [namely, unitive and procreative love]. They act as 'arbiters' of the divine plan and they manipulate and degrade human sexuality, and with it themselves and their married partner, by changing its value of total self giving" (Familiaris Consortio, 32). (2370)

        We conclude this at this point but there are other matters in the sixth Commandment which are relevant in our age; the culture of death. We will return to them at a later time.