"Be fruitful and multiply"

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That is not evidence of God calling men to be doctors and lawyers, just a poor reason to keep women at home, pregnant as long as they are fertile.
your way leads to kids being raised by day care workers. a child needs his mom at least until he is 3-4 years old. unless you really believe that God intended for a man to say home and raise an infant so that his wife can go earn a living, then a woman who is open to life–ie, a woman who has kids–can’t have a demanding outside-the-home job.
 
how do you know this? what’s your evidence that God has called women to be doctors and lawyers for centuries?
I know this because there are women doctors and lawyers. Where is your evidence that women are going against God’s Will by becoming doctors and lawyers? If it was against God’s will why is there a female doctor who happens to be a Saint?
 
People don’t need to have ten kids anymore. Not everyone is called to do so. Those being called to have large families are doing so.
Doesn’t the Catholic Church officially teach married couples need to have a serious reason for putting off kids?

Isn’t that a calling to all married couples to have as many kids as they can on the condition without placing themselves in serious harm whether it be physically, psychologically etc.?

God bless,
 
Doesn’t the Catholic Church officially teach married couples need to have a serious reason for putting off kids?

Isn’t that a calling to all married couples to have as many kids as they can on the condition without placing themselves in serious harm whether it be physically, psychologically etc.?

God bless,
This question is open for anyone to answer; I’m unsure how it works in terms whether a married couple can limit procreating the number of kids even though they are able to have more…
 
Doesn’t the Catholic Church officially teach married couples need to have a serious reason for putting off kids?
I can think of endless reasons that are serious for putting off having kids: economic, social, psychological, physical, etc.
Isn’t that a calling to all married couples to have as many kids as they can on the condition without placing themselves in serious harm whether it be physically, psychologically etc.?

God bless,
No, there is no Church teachng that requires women to live out their lives pregnant :confused: There is no required number of children, and no one is required to “try” to get pregnant. Where would you get something like that? Where did you see this that led you to believe the Church calls married women to live out their lives pregnant?
 
i truly believe that if a married man will ask God to show him how to earn enough money so that his wife can stay home with their children, that’s a prayer God will always answer. He has for me. my wife quit working 12 years ago to raise our three kids. i’ve worked as hard as any man i know to make a living, but it has been well worth it, and God has richly blessed us. My wife–who was a tenured college professor when she quit–has never once regretted her decision to leave her career and stay home.
One mistake people make in their zeal to follow the Lord is to believe that their particular path is the path that everyone else must follow to be holy.

That is rarely the case. There are many path’s to holiness, and many ways to live the Gospel. You should rejoice when others have found their path, not try to shove them down yours.
 
There is no required number of children, and no one is required to “try” to get pregnant. Where would you get something like that? Where did you see this that led you to believe the Church calls married women to live out their lives pregnant?
From what we just said…the church teaches married couples need to have a serious reason for postponing children. Logically it would mean keep having children until you have a serious reason to stop or postpone wouldn’t it?

Only the husband and wife could really know how serious their reasons are to stop or postpone…

Can you please show me references or any kind of documentation to support what you’re saying? That would really help…

God bless,
 
From what we just said…the church teaches married couples need to have a serious reason for postponing children. Logically it would mean keep having children until you have a serious reason to stop or postpone wouldn’t it?

Only the husband and wife could really know how serious their reasons are to stop or postpone…

Can you please show me references or any kind of documentation to support what you’re saying? That would really help…

God bless,
No, I can’t. Because there is no where written where the Church requires a set amount of children, and does not require spouses to actively try to conceive. The only documentation that I know of is the Catechism and Humane Vitae. The Church teaches that married couples need to have a serious reason for postponing…that is not the same as actively trying to conceive. The Church doesn’t dictate to married couples when to have sex, just that 2 properties are present when they do: the unitive and procreative.
 
This was God’s command to Adam and Eve in Genesis 1:28. Put another way, God directed them to “have children.”

When is the last time you heard a bishop or priest tell his flock to “have children”? I never have…
Adam and Eve obeyed! They had lots of children and they multiplied to the point these days that there is major overpopulation in many parts of the world. We can’t feed everyone in the world.

If there is any Old Testament command that has been thoroughly obeyed over the thousands of years, it’s that one. Most parts of the world don’t need to be reminded of it by the clergy, they do it naturally.

Our Lord didn’t go on about how we had to have more children… or any children for that matter. Priests and bishops have more important messages to give from the ambo than to harangue the faithful, demanding that they have more children.
 
yes, there absolutely can be something wrong with it, if it keeps a woman from having the children that God intends her to have, or if it keeps her from giving them enough attention. if a family will devote themselves to doing God’s will, He will allow the man to earn enough money to support them. I firmly believe that.
It’s a nice idea but it doesn’t always work out that way. One of the most Catholic countries in the world loyal to the Church is the Philippines. There is absolute dire poverty there with big Catholic families living in tiny hovels, barely able to feed themselves each day and the children having no opportunity to be educated or even dressed properly. Just check out the documentaries based on large urban centres such as Manila - you will be appalled.

Not every good Catholic man is able to get a job that is adequate to raise a large family. The stories of several saints who grew up in pious households, for example, St Bernadette, grew up in poverty and want. There was great poverty centuries ago in Catholic Europe where Catholic men were not able to get enough employment to raise their large families. In those days the poverty resulted in the deaths of a large number of babies and children in those large families.
 
No, I can’t. Because there is no where written where the Church requires a set amount of children, and does not require spouses to actively try to conceive. The only documentation that I know of is the Catechism and Humane Vitae. The Church teaches that married couples need to have a serious reason for postponing…that is not the same as actively trying to conceive. The Church doesn’t dictate to married couples when to have sex, just that 2 properties are present when they do: the unitive and procreative.
Sorry maybe I’m a little slow; here’s the way I would interpret “couples need to have serious reasons for postponing children”

It does not say you need to have a serious reason for postponing your 1st child or 2nd child. It seems to be continuous, even after you have 4 children you need to have a serious reason for postponing your 5th child. That’s how I would interpret “couples need to have serious reasons for postponing children”, please correct me if I’m wrong.

God bless,
 
Sorry maybe I’m a little slow; here’s the way I would interpret “couples need to have serious reasons for postponing children”

It does not say you need to have a serious reason for postponing your 1st child or 2nd child. It seems to be continuous, even after you have 4 children you need to have a serious reason for postponing your 5th child. That’s how I would interpret “couples need to have serious reasons for postponing children”, please correct me if I’m wrong.

God bless,
The serious reasons for postponing baby number four might be different than for postponing baby number 1. Postponing baby number four might involve not having enough resources to feed or clothe or house a fourth child. It might involve the capacity of the parents. It might involve external conditions.
 
i truly believe that if a married man will ask God to show him how to earn enough money so that his wife can stay home with their children, that’s a prayer God will always answer. He has for me. my wife quit working 12 years ago to raise our three kids. i’ve worked as hard as any man i know to make a living, but it has been well worth it, and God has richly blessed us. My wife–who was a tenured college professor when she quit–has never once regretted her decision to leave her career and stay home.
What if the wife doesn’t want to stay home and raise kids?

I’d be bored to tears doing that, as were many women in the days when they had no choice, hence “mother’s little helper” and other drugs.

If your wife earns more than her husband, shouldn’t the man stay home and care for the children?
 
i truly believe that if a married man will ask God to show him how to earn enough money so that his wife can stay home with their children, that’s a prayer God will always answer. He has for me. my wife quit working 12 years ago to raise our three kids. i’ve worked as hard as any man i know to make a living, but it has been well worth it, and God has richly blessed us. My wife–who was a tenured college professor when she quit–has never once regretted her decision to leave her career and stay home.
Hang on, you’re saying that everyone else should have lots of kids, why do you have only three?
 
75 years ago, women stayed home for the most part (or, if they worked, held jobs that didn’t interfere with them having children) and had many more children than they do today. and that’s how it had been for centuries. now, are we to believe that God suddenly started “calling” women to be doctors and lawyers, rather than mothers? I highly doubt that. and to the point that men should give their kids attention, while that’s true, it is clear that the female body was designed to have kids and to nurture them.
Women stayed home because they didn’t have a choice, due to men with the neandertal views you hold. My mother had to leave her job when she got married, and she was a primary (elementary) school teacher.

I absolutely was called by God to be an astrophysicist, a job that wasn’t accessible to women a century ago. I was not called to be a mother. I wouldn’t want to stay home and “nurture” a child, it would drive me crazy, just as it drove women in those days to drink and drug abuse. You have this false idea of a golden age when Mother had fresh cakes when little Johnny and Mary got home from school

I don’t think you’d like to stay home and change nappies/diapers all day. Neither would most women.
 
you ask 100 female doctors whether they use artificial contraceptives and you will get 100 affirmative answers. you can’t possibly do a demanding job like that and be open to life the way our Church teaches we must be.
Rubbish.

I know several doctors who’ve had children, one of whom has six and uses NFP. Female prospective medical students used to have to justify their place because they’d “be taking materity leave all the time”. You are basing your 100% figure on your own ideas, which do not match the reality.

75 years ago, women suffered horrendous mental health problems, which I’ve heard about firsthand, from an old doctor my dad trained under. It just wasn’t talked about. That doctor used to joke that when he retired, they didn’t have to replace him, because the situation for women was so much better: “they can go out to work and they’re not stuck at home, bored and frustrated and enduring endless pregnancies, with the fear of a horrendous childbirth to come without the aid of the medicines we have today”. My poor sister went through absolute hell to try and deliver her first baby. Even with advanced medicines, she needed a caesarian. That wasn’t an option for many women then, there was little pain relief and no drugs to stimulate contractions and as a result babies often died at birth or soon after.
 
Apologies to others for the multiple posts, I’m not trying to spam, I just keep finding more posts to respond too, sorry :o
yes, there absolutely can be something wrong with it, if it keeps a woman from having the children that God intends her to have, or if it keeps her from giving them enough attention. if a family will devote themselves to doing God’s will, He will allow the man to earn enough money to support them. I firmly believe that.
There is nothing wrong with a woman working at whatever job she wants. If God wants her to have children, she’ll have them.

There are plenty of families in the Third World who devote themselves to doing God’s will. The man doesn’t even earn enough to feed them all rice (or other basic food) once a day, never mind give them proper nutrition. So the children are malnourished and have stunted growth. They may have no home at all or have only a shack. The children have to work at dangerous jobs from a very young age. They cannot go to school because the father can’t afford it. So they can’t advance and are stuck in the poverty trap. These families face the horror of having one or more of their children die, 25% of children there don’t make their fifth birthday, simply because they are poor. So millions of Catholic families in the Third World prove your idea wrong.

Even before contraception, men weren’t making enough money to support their families. My grandmother died last month, she was one of ten children, several of whom didn’t live to adulthood. Her brother Malcolm, for example, died in 1935 aged 15, of appendicitis. His family were poor farmers and they waited to call a doctor because they couldn’t afford one. By the time they did, his appendix had burst and he died in agony from peritonitis. That’s the reality of 75 years ago.
 
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