Contraception...Why is it considered sinful?

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HappyCatholic49 said:
What brings happiness is being very close to Jesus and being very close to each other.

Selfishness brings unhappiness, always.
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Unfortunately, there are people who find their happiness in selfishness.

I agree it doesnt lead to true joy. Its chasing pleasures and materialism of this world.
 
TheLittleLady said:
Honestly, I’ve never talked to my neighbors about our sex life.

It is important for parents to teach their kids about the Church through words and examples and caidid conversations.

When our son was around 12 he came home from a friend’s house, that mom told me somehow vasectomies came up in conversation. Our son proceeded to give the medical details in an accurate manner and followed with “and it is a serious sin”.

He knew about how the human reproductive system worked for men and women, the basics of STM and mucous only methods (this was before tech was involved).

That is how things change, parents who are not timid when instructiing their kids.
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Being timid, as you put it, about instructing one’s children in sexual matters, is not an option anymore. It never really was. I have to think that a misguided pudor in not discussing these matters led to many self-doubts, hang-ups, undiscussed and worrisome fears about oneself, and yes, even pregnancies.

My son knows pretty much everything there is to know, in that throughout recent years, he has asked questions — you name it! — and I have always answered age-appropriately and with a vigorous defense of traditional Catholic morality. Just today, we were discussing the presidential campaign, and he has been hearing about certain candidates being “pro-choice”. He asked me about being opposed to abortion, but allowing others to have a free choice in the matter, and if this was a permissible stance to take. I told him that this would be fine, if it weren’t a matter of human life being at stake, then I illustrated this by asking him how it would be if, for instance, 60 percent of all Americans believed that it was okay to bring home a child from the hospital after being born, and then have the option to kill that child if they so desired. He understood entirely. It’s a gruesome way to have to describe it, but if we believe that abortion is murder — as we, being Catholics, do believe — then what other way is there to look at it?
 
It is your idea to agree with the Church on this issue. I am well versed on the Church teachings and it is my idea to disagree with those teachings.

Therefore, you and I disagree with each other. That’s all I was saying.
 
Please don’t lecture me on generosity. I know all about generosity. I am an old lady with a lot of life experience. You aren’t going to change my way of thinking to yours. I said we will have to agree to disagree, and that is where I am going to leave things.

Peace.
 
BrettK said:
And if you don’t want the risk of kids, don’t have sex. It’s really that simple.
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I don’t think it is that simple.
If you refuse to have sex with your partner are you not committing a mortal sin against the unitive function of marriage? And if you go into a marriage with the understanding that you will not have sex, does this not make the marriage null and void. One of the purposes of marriage is the unitive aspect and I don’t see why it is right to deliberately frustrate this end of marriage.
 
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HappyCatholic49 said:
Its teaching on the “unitive and procreative” purposes to marital intimacy is generally misunderstood owing to pride. People glance over it superficially and think they understand it.

The procreative purpose is actually higher than the unitive. Today’s “consumerist” mentality tends to cause Catholics to think that unitive and procreative are equal.

Procreative is superior. But - and this is where pride takes over - not for a simple reason, but for a profound and beautiful reason.
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These are some good thoughts. I do have to question, though, whether the “consumerist” reason you cite, is a real cause of people thinking unitive and procreative are equal. First of all, “unitive and procreative” is a Catholic concept. I don’t know of any other religion that elaborates it quite like this. Pretty much everyone else in the world, aside from Catholics, has “gotten on board” with contraception. It remains to us alone, to speak the truth.

It is only human nature, to seek out what is easy. Seen from the standpoint of the non-Catholic world, contraception is this wonderful thing that, at long last, allows people to decide precisely how many children they will have (or not to have any at all), and when they will have them. When contraception fails — and it does — you have one of two options, (a) discreetly obtain an abortion and no one ever knows you were pregnant, or (b) welcome an “oops baby” and be happy about it. It is not common for women to fall pregnant (and for their men unexpectedly to become fathers, pregnancy is not just a “women issue”) and to be angry about it, or at least to display this to the world — I’m sure it happens, but they either say “this isn’t so bad, I will love this baby”, or, as I pointed out, they get the abortion and that’s the end of that.
 
However,. Not all unhappiness is caused the selfishness. Sometimes the best, holiest people are unhappy.

We Catholics don’t follow the health and wealth prosperity gospel mess.
 
Seems you have a vastly different life experience than I. Let’s just not give the readers the idea the Church preaches the prosperity gospel. If one is suffering, if one is unhappy, it is not a reflection in their spirituality.

For insurance, a parent who loses a child, a family who loses their home, a widow who loses her husband, we have compassion on them and do not require them to be happy but to know Christ is there in the midst of unhappiness
 
There is a major difference between abstinence that both parties agree to and abstinence that is one sided. NFP encourages the former.
 
Margaret_Ann said:
One of the fallacies she dispelled was the practice of giving women birth control pills to regulate the menstrual cycle.
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Exactly this. When I was 17 I went to the doctor and said some months are 2 months long, some are 3 months. I was worried there was something wrong. He opened a drawer loaded with birth control pills and handed me some packs and said this will straighten things out. What kind of medicine is that? When I ran out I went back thinking the pills fixed the problem. No, he said. You’ll go back to your irregular cycles. I felt like I was hoodwinked. My concerns were not addressed and naively I participated in population control.

It would have been much more useful to me to take some Natural Family classes, to understand what was going on. To understand that my ovulation was delayed, when it happened, when my period was due, all good information.
 
When I used to have my period (no more 🙏), I’d get mine like clockwork every 3 weeks. I felt like I was constantly getting my period.

Now I’m past menopause & don’t worry about it.
 
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