Contraception Question

[goodcatholicman]

I am a fairly new Catholic and have a question regarding contraception. I consulted with my parish priest recently about what options are available and was told “consult with your wife and her doctor and make the best decision for your family. Use your God given intelligence when making the decision. The Church blesses whatever decision you make.” His comments seem to suggest that using artificail birth control is allowable, regardless of the method of choice, providing a person is making an informed decision. When I tried to get a more detailed explanation he gave me the same answer in different terms, seemingly to avoid the black and white answers. I am not sure of the response and want to make sure we are doing the right thing in the eyes of God and the Church. Thanks for the help!

 

[Linnyo]

I think you know the answer to this - no artificial birth control can be used or you are going against teh teachings of the church.

I am a fairly new Catholic and have a question regarding contraception. I consulted with my parish priest recently about what options are available and was told “consult with your wife and her doctor and make the best decision for your family. Use your God given intelligence when making the decision. The Church blesses whatever decision you make.” His comments seem to suggest that using artificail birth control is allowable, regardless of the method of choice, providing a person is making an informed decision. When I tried to get a more detailed explanation he gave me the same answer in different terms, seemingly to avoid the black and white answers. I am not sure of the response and want to make sure we are doing the right thing in the eyes of God and the Church. Thanks for the help!

 

[lizaanne]

How very sad that you were given such a wishy washy answer when going to your priest who should support life in all matters.

I’m sure there are many many women on this site who can help you with finding excellent resources for Natural Family Planning, including why this is the only acceptable means of managing your fertility within your marriage.

God bless you for even asking - I’m only sorry you did not receive the appropriate answer.

~Liza

 

[yessisan]

The Church does not allow artificial birth control. However, you can use NFP (Natural Family Planing).

You can learn more about it on www.nfpandmore.com and on www.ccli.org

It’s the natural way of planning babies, spacing babies, and waiting on becoming pregnant. It’s the ONLY allowable way of avoiding pregnancy. www.ccli.org can lead you to finding instructors in your area, or you can buy the home study course.

I know there are more than one way of NFP but I’m not familiar with them all. ccli’s is Sympto-thermal method -which is the one I am familiar with (I know the other methods of NFP are the Creighton Model and the Billings method. Don’t trust on the rhythm method or the calendar method. Those last 2 are outdated and not very effective).

NFP is a way of becoming aware of your wife’s fertility signs and you practice abstinence during the fertile times if you think you aren’t ready to have a child.