[WATCH] Priest’s warning to married couples over contraception use raises minister’s ire

Contraception use by married couples could lead to abuse, a priest has warned in a Facebook video as part of a series entitled Sexual Junk Food.

In the short message, Fr Ivan Attard was nostalgic about the time when he said the “sexual act, marriage and reproduction were considered one and the same”.

The priest’s video comment was posted on the Facebook wall of the recently set up organisation True Light Catholic Media, a group of Catholics committed to engage about their faith in the media.

Attrad argued that contraception use has relegated sex to an act of pleasure, which has “falsified” sexuality among married couples.

Attard urged married couples to practice self-control.

“This is like having pizza. If you take pizza for breakfast, lunch and dinner, day after day, at some point even just the smell of pizza will put you off… in the same way sexuality becomes routine and the relationship loses its beauty,” Attard said.

But the priest’s nostalgic reference to a time when contraception did not exist, raised Helena Dalli’s heckles.

 “We need to speak responsibly to our youngsters and women… before we had contraceptives, a woman used to become pregnant 10, 15 and sometimes even 20 times during her lifetime,” the Equality Minister said in a Facebook post on her wall.

She then recounted how her great grandmother used to be told during confession that unless she had sex “in the correct way” she would be committing a sin, even if she could not afford having more children.

“That age of darkness has long ended,” Dalli said, as she urged for education rather than fearmongering.