"The Roman Catholic Church has been living with a very backward theology of marriage inherited from Aristotle," Michael Novak, a catholic layman and author said yesterday in St. Paul's auditorium. Debate in public and in the Ecumenical Council on the morality of birth control has finally brought the problem out into the open, he added.

The Church should approve the use of contraceptives by Catholics, Novak declared, because the rhythm system just does not work for everyone. Sometimes it is immoral for a couple to have children, while at the same time, it may be immoral for them not to have intercourse, he claimed.

Novak warned that contraceptives are not a gimmick to solve all problems of marriage, but that they may eliminate much destructive fear and guilt feelings among parents who are unable to provide for additional children.

Many faithful Catholics will be greatly shocked if the Pope declares that the use of contraceptives is moral, but "this is the price the Church must pay for the silence it has maintained on the subject," the layman charged. "This silence is the fault of the Roman system, where everything comes from above and the people are silenced," he added. If the people had been discussing the problem for the last thirty years, such a declaration from the Pope would not come as such a shock, Novak explained.

The traditional demand that people either abstain from intercourse or accept the natural consequences is very clear and simple, the layman pointed out, but it is inadequate for modern society.

Novak stressed that laymen, especially doctors, lawyers, and women, must participate in the discussion of contraceptives. Celibate priests do not have the necessary insight to handle the problem alone.