Promoting “birth control” in France after 1968. The commitment of Catholic couples to CLER

Published on 29 July 1968, Pope Paul VI’s encyclical Humanæ Vitæ on birth control, condemning “artificial means of contraception”, shook the Western Catholic world. However, Catholic couples are claiming the right to use “natural methods of birth control”, in accordance with the encouragement given by Pius XII. In France, some of them are involved in CLER, a Catholic expertise on sexuality issues. This article attempts to trace the commitment of a generation of young catholic couples, mainly wives and housewives, concerned with promoting a discourse on sexuality in line with Roman doctrine. Thanks to unpublished archives and oral interviews, this is a history of intimacy that crosses the catholic sphere after 1968 in search of a modernization of christian marriage. These couples were convinced that it was possible to reconcile the Church and the modern world on the issue of sexuality.