Church teachings you find difficult to swallow (even for practicing Catholics)

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In terms of intellectual acceptance and submission of will, the most difficult teachings of the Church for me personally are related to the purpose of marriage being for the conception of children and that all marital acts must be open to life. Some people just don’t want kids, so that one has given me a tough time. I am not a dissenter and accept the teachings, but they are the most difficult.

As for the broader context of the thread, I find a great many teachings of the Church hard to live, even though it was far easier for me to get my head around them.

In regards to the second question, I wish the Church to be loyal to the Blessed Trinity, which means that teachings are immutable and whether they are difficult, unpopular, etc. is irrelevant.
 
poptown said:
Rosary, Divine Mercy Chaplet, Relics … I think I need more knowledge to trust them … sometimes “according to tradition” just sounds like “according to human invention” …
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Except for relics, which is substantiated in the Bible…none of theses are “teachings” as such, but are instead fine family traditions.

Every good family develops taditions and ways of exchanging love…ways of communicating…this all the Rosary is: a way of engaging in a tender family chat.
 
jwinch2 said:
In terms of intellectual acceptance and submission of will, the most difficult teachings of the Church for me personally are related to the purpose of marriage being for the conception of children and that all marital acts must be open to life. Some people just don’t want kids, so that one has given me a tough time. I am not a dissenter and accept the teachings, but they are the most difficult.

As for the broader context of the thread, I find a great many teachings of the Church hard to live, even though it was far easier for me to get my head around them.

In regards to the second question, I wish the Church to be loyal to the Blessed Trinity, which means that teachings are immutable and whether they are difficult, unpopular, etc. is irrelevant.
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Whose will? Who do you trust? Who are you trying to please?
 
Pug said:
  1. The Trinity. Why? Because I don’t get what three persons means in the context of one God. It it perhaps the most mysterious of the mysteries to me.
  2. I would be less restrictive in our burial requirements. There are other things I could pick, but that one sort of creeps me out. I’ll be dead, though, so I’ll have gotten over it by the time it happens. :cool:
I’m not interested in changing a doctrine, so I picked a legal thing, a practice. There’s a number of those I’d like to change, like how confirmation is handled. I am what most people would call a practicing Catholic.
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The Trinity cannot be completely understood or “contained” by our human minds. It is and will remain a mystery.

However, think of the most perfect family, a perfect family, a perfect communion among several perfect persons. Total harmony and exchange of love. That is barely a glimpse of the Trinity but it’s something we can start contemplating in prayer,
 
I don’t want to change any of the documents because these are what made me a practicing Catholic as a teen. There is nothing wrong with guidelines that lead to heaven no matter how strict they may be.

However, if there was one thing i could change, it would be that prayer be easier. Prayer sometimes is hard to do, but then again, if Faith was easy there would be no practicing person.

So, i really don’t wanna change anything. 😃

“Because we are human, we are not strong; because we are not strong, we pray.”
~St. Augustine.
 
Edward_H said:
Exactly. If God wants us and trusts us to have children…do we argue with Him? Or give Him great trust? What a gift we can give God, our trust!!!
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The thread is about teachings which are difficult for people. I stated mine and then also stated that I assent to the teaching, despite the fact that they were difficult for me to understand. I stated that I submit my will and intellect to the God’s Church on this issue as I do with the rest of the teachings of the Church.

So frankly, I have no idea why you are going on about arguing with God. I have suggested nothing of the sort.
 
jwinch2 said:
The thread is about teachings which are difficult for people. I stated mine and then also stated that I assent to the teaching, despite the fact that they were difficult for me to understand. I stated that I submit my will and intellect to the God’s Church on this issue as I do with the rest of the teachings of the Church.

So frankly, I have no idea why you are going on about arguing with God. I have suggested nothing of the sort.
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I am suggesting ‘difficulty’ dissipates when you’ve fully and sincerely assented. Union with God’s will leads to joy, in fact.

How’s that?
 
Oh, I forgot: I would change no teachings. I am not the authority. The Church is.
 
Edward_H said:
I am suggesting ‘difficulty’ dissipates when you’ve fully and sincerely assented. Union with God’s will leads to joy, in fact.

How’s that?
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One can fully and sincerely assent, and still have difficulty when it comes to understanding. There are those who are able to fully align their will with God’s, but they are few and far between. I strive to be one of them, but like most, I have a long way to go.
 
jwinch2 said:
One can fully and sincerely assent, and still have difficulty when it comes to understanding. There are those who are able to fully align their will with God’s, but they are few and far between. I strive to be one of them, but like most, I have a long way to go.
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👍 Me too
 
Sorry about the late reply. I guess I should have made it clear in the OP that I do observe the churches teachings as best as I can. As for the second question, it was more of a “fantasy question”, for lack of a better term. It’s like being asked what fruit you would like to be if you had to pick one. It won’t happen and you probably won’t want it to happen but it’s “fun” to ask anyway. I wasn’t prompting anyone to go out and picket the Vatican on issues they don’t understand.

I had reservations about asking this questions because I had a feeling I would be looked down upon like a liberal heathen. That was not the case thought and I’m glad I asked them. It’s good to know that you’re not the only one struggling with some church teachings; which really shouldn’t be all that surprising.

As for church teachings on oral sex I’ve found a few links that seem to suggest that oral sex is always wrong.
catholicwriter.wordpress.com/2006/05/19/question-is-oral-sex-allowed-in-a-catholic-marriage/

ewtn.org/vexperts/showmessage.asp?number=501557&Pg=Forum11&Pgnu=1&recnu=1

catholicplanet.com/CCSE/marriage-sins.htm

catechism.cc/articles/QA.htm

presentationministries.com/brochures/OralSex.asp

Added to that I’ve heard a priest say that it is contrary to the natural law on an Episode of Catholicism on Campus. I’ve heard Jason and Christalina Evert speak against it also.

Let me make it clear that I don’t want to make this post about oral stimulation. I just happens to be my “beef” with he church and it just had to be mentioned. It is something I’ve struggled with and probably will continue to struggle with for the rest of my life.
 
Zaista said:
I just happens to be my “beef” with he church and it just had to be mentioned. It is something I’ve struggled with and probably will continue to struggle with for the rest of my life.
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Perhaps the issue is with lust. I am by all means no expert on these topics, but I strongly feel that there must be a threshold somewhere in which the sexual act is taken beyond its scope and transformed into a lustful act…when you speak about pleasing, it is something I can of course understand and which must not be wrong…but I am afraid that somewhere there must be a limit when the pleasing becomes illicit…just like there are plenty of things in our life that feel good and are not necessarily wrong, but that after a point become wrong…

I went to look a bit into the sacrament of Matrimony here and I found:
The primary purpose of Marriage is the generation and bringing-up of offspring. The secondary purpose is mutual help and the morally regulated satisfaction of the sex urge. (Sententia certa.)
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Notice how it speaks of “morally regulated satisfaction”. Chastity IS valid even when sexual activity is present, for it is not the repression of the sex urge, but its balance through self-mastery.
 
Zaista said:
Sorry about the late reply. I guess I should have made it clear in the OP that I do observe the churches teachings as best as I can. As for the second question, it was more of a “fantasy question”, for lack of a better term. It’s like being asked what fruit you would like to be if you had to pick one. It won’t happen and you probably won’t want it to happen but it’s “fun” to ask anyway. I wasn’t prompting anyone to go out and picket the Vatican on issues they don’t understand.

I had reservations about asking this questions because I had a feeling I would be looked down upon like a liberal heathen. That was not the case thought and I’m glad I asked them. It’s good to know that you’re not the only one struggling with some church teachings; which really shouldn’t be all that surprising.

As for church teachings on oral sex I’ve found a few links that seem to suggest that oral sex is always wrong.
catholicwriter.wordpress.com/2006/05/19/question-is-oral-sex-allowed-in-a-catholic-marriage/

ewtn.org/vexperts/showmessage.asp?number=501557&Pg=Forum11&Pgnu=1&recnu=1

catholicplanet.com/CCSE/marriage-sins.htm

catechism.cc/articles/QA.htm

presentationministries.com/brochures/OralSex.asp

Added to that I’ve heard a priest say that it is contrary to the natural law on an Episode of Catholicism on Campus. I’ve heard Jason and Christalina Evert speak against it also.

Let me make it clear that I don’t want to make this post about oral stimulation. I just happens to be my “beef” with he church and it just had to be mentioned. It is something I’ve struggled with and probably will continue to struggle with for the rest of my life.
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I’m only going to address one thing here and that is the links you provided. "CatholicPlanet and catechism.cc are NOT****** a reliable source of Catholic teaching. It’s from a self-proclaimed “theologian”.

His opinion of women is pretty pathetic,See posts 33 and 34 on this CAF thread. forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?p=9376238#post9376238

Post 349 of this current thread on CAF will also explain a bit about those sites of Ron Conte’s: forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?p=9914234#post9914234
 
What Church teachings do you find absolutely difficult to swallow and why?
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Just a few minutes ago, in another thread I was reading, a poster was sharing the story of his marriage to a woman who didn’t want children. Someone responded that “the Church teaches that the main reason for marriage is to reproduce and raise children. Someone who doesn’t want children should not get married.”

I disagree with this teaching. In my opinion (and it’s just my opinion) if two people don’t want children but want to enjoy a lifetime of sharing love and companionship, they are still candidates for marriage.
 
BettyBoop416 said:
In my opinion (and it’s just my opinion) if two people don’t want children but want to enjoy a lifetime of sharing love and companionship, they are still candidates for marriage.
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The primary purpose of Marriage is the generation and bringing-up of offspring. The secondary purpose is mutual help and the morally regulated satisfaction of the sex urge. (Sententia certa)
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It is furthermore my understanding that there is no valid Sacrament of Matrimony if one of the two (or both) are not open to the generation and bringing-up of offspring. The “lifetime of sharing love and companionship” does sound to me like a justification for sexual relations (or, in general, sexual activity) not oriented towards procreation…and while some sort of regulation is fully acceptable and is very wise (ex. natural family planning), sexual activity not open to procreation is generally immoral.

As for the rest, that is, to live a lifetime of sharing love and companionship in perfect chastity, this does sound like living like brother and sister, and perhaps it is allowed…I do not know what are the proper dispositions of the Church on this matter, though. It would be interesting to find out more.
 
*The primary purpose of Marriage is the generation and bringing-up of offspring… *
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Yep…there it is. That’s the one I “find hard to swallow” (to use the OP’s words).
 
I do have a hard time accepting that the Church doesn’t think that anyone should use condoms even prostitutes. Most prostitutes are forced into prostitution. The average age of a girl going into prostitution in the U.S. is 13. Generally she is coerced into it by a full grown, much older man and kept in it by the use of violence and threats. In other countries many young children are sold to brothels by parents or family members. Many women and girls are promised jobs in the U.S. or another first world country, then find out their job is a brothel and have their passports taken and are threatened, beaten, or even have their families back home threatened. So, anyways, I have a hard time believing that the church would keep these people from condom usage even though they are forced into this and could catch many life-threatening stds.

I understand that the Church believes prostitution and sex-slavery are wrong, but many are stuck in this situation whether they like it or not and have very few options.
 
I submit and surrender to God, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, the One True and Apostolic Catholic Church, the Bishops, and the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI.

I have no problems with the Magisterium whatsoever. It is my responsibility to discover where any disagreement arises from (human pride, my own flaws, etc.) and eliminate it. I can do this through prayer and petition to Jesus to change my human heart and mind and make me more like Him.

(But I do kinda wish we could count weekday Masses against our Sunday obligation…say, on a 2 or 3 for 1 basis…)
 
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