Birth control in interfaith marriages

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Valley_Lily

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Is it correct that within an interfaith marriage the non Catholic may still choose to use birth control? What i read said the Catholic has the option of refusing to have intercourse or making very clear that they are not happy with their spouse’s choice, but acknowledging that the consequences are on them and continueing to have relations.

Just wanting to get my facts straight.
 
Valley_Lily said:
Is it correct that within an interfaith marriage the non Catholic may still choose to use birth control? What i read said the Catholic has the option of refusing to have intercourse or making very clear that they are not happy with their spouse’s choice, but acknowledging that the consequences are on them and continueing to have relations.

Just wanting to get my facts straight.
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Yes and no.

Contraception is a grave sin against the sixth commandment and that is not dependent upon whether one is Catholic or not.

A Catholic who finds themselves, despite their efforts to the contrary, in a situation in which their spouse refuses to refrain from contraception (whether spouse is Catholic or not is irrelevant) can engage in relations under certain circumstances.

This is not to be taken as any sort of Church approval of contraception for non-Catholics or carte blanche to have relations with such a spouse. And, of course, if a couple is in the engagement stage, they should not enter marriage *intending *to contracept or to tolerate a contracepting spouse. If they are not yet in the situation it is their duty to **avoid **it. If they marry and **then **their spouse insists on contraception they have some limited options to prevent the breakdown of the marriage.

Such options should always be discussed under the guidance of a confessor. See this document.
 
Valley_Lily said:
Is it correct that within an interfaith marriage the non Catholic may still choose to use birth control? What i read said the Catholic has the option of refusing to have intercourse or making very clear that they are not happy with their spouse’s choice, but acknowledging that the consequences are on them and continueing to have relations.

Just wanting to get my facts straight.
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I would back up and ask, did the local bishop give permission for this interfaith marriage?
 
I wasn’t even getting into those sorts of thoughts. Just had never heard this stance before and wondered.
 
There are, of course options,surrogates and in vitro fertilization, to name just a few ,remember compromise as well as variety are the keys to happiness.
 
It is not correct.

The Catholic partner would still be participating in birth control. Its not just who is taking the pill or using the condom. The fact that the act is not procreative is against Catholic teaching and thus the couple is committing sin.
 
If it isn’t so, why is The Good News About Sex and Marriage such a recomended book here? That’s where I found it.
 
Valley_Lily said:
Is it correct that within an interfaith marriage the non Catholic may still choose to use birth control? What i read said the Catholic has the option of refusing to have intercourse or making very clear that they are not happy with their spouse’s choice, but acknowledging that the consequences are on them and continueing to have relations.

Just wanting to get my facts straight.
Click to expand...
When you say the non-Catholic may still choose to use birth control, what do you mean, exactly? I’ll lay out two examples to help be sure some likely confusions are avoided. 🙂 Let’s say you are the man, and Catholic. The wife is some other religion. The wife says she wants relations with you wearing a condom as the birth control. You, the Catholic, cannot comply.

Let’s say it is the same man and woman, but the wife goes off and buys the pill and uses it and tells you about it, and you say to yourself, “oh well,” and do nothing, continuing as you always have, or even worse you say “yippee, I’m off the hook”. No, you are not free from culpability here.

The paragraphs you want from the document mentioned above:13. Special difficulties are presented by cases of cooperation in the sin of a spouse who voluntarily renders the unitive act infecund. In the first place, it is necessary to distinguish cooperation in the proper sense, from violence or unjust imposition on the part of one of the spouses, which the other spouse in fact cannot resist.46, 561).] This cooperation can be licit when the three following conditions are jointly met:

  1. *]
    *]when the action of the cooperating spouse is not already illicit in itself;47
    *] when proportionally grave reasons exist for cooperating in the sin of the other spouse;
    *] when one is seeking to help the other spouse to desist from such conduct (patiently, with prayer, charity and dialogue; although not necessarily in that moment, nor on every single occasion).
    1. Furthermore, it is necessary to carefully evaluate the question of cooperation in evil when recourse is made to means which can have an abortifacient effect.48
      Sorry, I’ve tried and tried, and I can’t make the numbering work right on that quote. There are supposed to be three items listed, but it keeps trying to label them with four numbers. Sigh. Computer illiteracy strikes.
 
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