Contraception

[LucyEm]

But bearing fruit doesn’t always mean having children though? Being light to the world around us, ministering at Church, helping the poor, etc are also forms of bearing fruit, aren’t they?

I’m asking because in the world today, the reality is having children to some people is a huge burden. And in fact, I’ve seen many couples who are comitting grave sins eg. adultery, affair, etc because of the effect of the responsibilities of having children eg. financial difficulty, etc.

So isn’t it then coming back to the question of the heart ie. you’re still open to life but your circumstance is currently not supporting you?

I guess nobody can judge; the Church can’t judge; it all comes back to between you and God.

Judgements about number of children are for the couple alone. A matter for their heart and conscience.

 

[rcwitness]

Judgements about number of children are for the couple alone. A matter for their heart and conscience.

The decission is in their hands. The means they use to regulate how many children they desire is not morally irrelavent. The Church has always taken up the responsibility to Teach her children what is harmfull to their souls.

When judgments of morality by a Christian consider them a matter of “their own heart and conscience alone” then The Holy Spirit is no longer a part of their decission.

 

[LucyEm]

The decission is in their hands. The means they use to regulate how many children they desire is not morally irrelavent. The Church has always taken up the responsibility to Teach her children what is harmfull to their souls.

When judgments of morality by a Christian consider them a matter of “their own heart and conscience alone” then The Holy Spirit is no longer a part of their decission.

I was not addressing the means, but the decision. The OP seems already to have understood what are appropriate means.

The Holy Spirit speaks through an informed conscience, and not through others who might presume to have a view on the matter of what is appropriate family size.

 

[rcwitness]

I was not addressing the means, but the decision. The OP seems already to have understood what are appropriate means.

The Holy Spirit speaks through an informed conscience, and not through others who might presume to have a view on the matter of what is appropriate family size.

Its not merely a matter of “family size” which the Church condemns the use of contraception, but the rejection of the openness to the will of God through the marital act of sex.

 

[LongingSoul]

So - in my opinion - if using NFP and yet you can still sin, then the vice versa (ie. using condom but not sin) can also be true. The church teaches that by using condom I may treat my wife as an object which is not the case at all with me. It all comes back to the heart, doesn’t it? I guess everybody knows that it’s morally wrong to use condom to sleep around but also at the same token, if I’m totally genuine and using it purely to plan my family, I don’t see how it becomes wrong.

stevepeter, you have been misled by one the treacherous lies of our time. That is that NFP can be a contraceptive. It has caused you to put meaning on the wrong element to define contraception and enabled you to make the above leap.

Contraception is the act of interfering with the sexual act to sterilize it of all procreative meaning. It relates solely to treatment of the sexual act.

NFP can never be ‘contraception’. This seems to be more an error with a small but vocal section of the American Catholic community. It is not kosher Catholic belief.

 

[LucyEm]

Its not merely a matter of “family size” which the Church condemns the use of contraception, but the rejection of the openness to the will of God through the marital act of sex.

We have moved on from the discussion of contraception.