Until I had four children, I felt that the church’s stand on contraception was reasonable. I now feel that it is punitive, and an over-simplification of natural law. There is nothing in the Bible concerning it, so the church has to justify its teaching by relying on the natural law. Let us examine how we frustrate natural law every day in thousands of ways: we cut our hair and nails, cut down trees to make way for homes and make paper so that we have something to read, dam rivers to prevent floods, put roofs over our heads to keep from dying of exposure, etc. etc etc. In addition, since the sexual drive is strongest in the gender that does not have to bear the resulting children, women are often subjected to intercourse in spite of their fear of yet another pregnancy. This leads to an atmosphere of fear, recrimination and resentment in many marriages, on the part of both husbands and wives. Why is it so hard for the clergy, especially those in the Vatican, to understand the enormous pressure that they are placing on these marriages? It is because they don’t listen to married people, and also because too many married people are too timid or embarrassed to talk about these issues to the clerics in a realistic manner. Please, please, please open your ears and your hearts to these people in the pews, as their numbers are shrinking daily due to your intransigent attitudes. Do we really need to mention the burgeoning population? This problem along with climate change is, sooner or later, going to make our planet uninhabitable. Wake up and smell the coffee, reverend gentlemen!
I married when my husband was still studying at university, and since we could not afford a family, we decided on the pill as the best form of birth control then available. I did not go to communion. My husband was born in Italy, baptised Catholic, but is not in the least religious. After 4 years when we were more settled financially, we decided to have a child, but nothing happened, and we spent the next 3 years at gynaecologists, urologists, and infertility clinics. The church was dumb – I received no help other than to be told that I could not undergo artificial insemination by donor. No-one was interested in what I was going through – when sex is so controlled so that one can fall pregnant, a lot of the fun and the love goes out the door. I was lucky enough to fall pregnant after 7 years of marriage after my husband had a small operation, and lucky that ever since then I have not had to worry about contraception. So we had only one child. However in discussion with others and observing families in church, it is obvious that most Catholics practise some form of contraception and generally restrict their families to 2 children. Priests acknowledge this and it is only the very few who have a different mindset. I would just like to say that I felt very alone for a very long time and never felt that the church was interested in my pain. My daughter was raised as a Catholic and went to Catholic school, but apart from asking me why she had no siblings, the church has been quiet.{jcomments on}
The churches teaching on this subject is a laugh. just look at any parish and see how many families are bigger than 3 or4. The teaching largely ignored. A priest told me that any law that is largely ignored is a bad law,{jcomments on}
Again get over it. The Church has created a false philosophy that traps the people of God. IT is time to recognize that families will make this choice over the objections of the Church and its’ false philosophy. Their reality demands it.{jcomments on}
I remain an active Catholic with what I believe to be in the manner that Jesus manifested and directed us to serve with Love and Compassion.
I am also the father of four children, my wife also having had an ectopic pregnancy and one miscarriage, all within 6 years.
I am also a specialist physician in Internal Medicine and have with experiential knowledge and medical certainty that the WHY of Conception is vastly more important than the WHEN of conception.
To raise a child to the likeness of Jesus does not happen overnight, is fraught with difficulties and demands our continual support and service throughout our lives. Pregnancy itself is fraught with many potential medical disasters, several of which can be devastatingly fatal and destroying the true function of the entire family.
If one is to honor the Covenant of Marriage the latter can be totally destroyed by one unrealistic pregnancy.
The Encyclical, Humanae Vitae, is based on a very false premise, that being that ” each and every sexual act must be open to procreation “.
God Himself made such a premise totally separate from truth when He made our human physiology such that 85% or more of sexual acts between husband and wife are totally incapable of conception.
The Catholic Church Hierarchy must allow us to use our conscience to its best abilities, otherwise they are simply denying our very purpose for being and for serving God.{jcomments on}
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