Contraceptive intercourse in never morally acceptable ...right?

[setter]

This plain fact still seems to befuddle and muddle the minds of many folks who consider themselves in good standing with the Catholic Church. Why is this? What possible excuse can supposedly educated folks in this unfolding age of information access have to not know what the Church teaches? Is anyone ever guilty of committing mortal sin these days? Additionally, the same seems to apply to those Catholic folks who seek sexual pleasure apart from the completed marital act.

 

[manualman]

Sin generates its own rationalizations. When lots of folks want to commit the same sin and feel OK about it, they generate communal rationalizations.

Sex isn’t the only example. Lots of us christians live lives of luxury while 40,000 children starve to death every day globally. Methinks there is the same sort of rationalizing going on there too. And I’m guilty of that one, I’m beginning to fear.

 

[johnnyjoe]

You grossly underestimate the power of the contraceptive culture we live in.

Contraception is the load-bearing foundation upon which this culture’s entire sexual ethic is built upon.

Take it away, and the ethic crumbles under it’s own illogical actions - but the selfish orientation toward sex is deeply embedded, and will not easily be reversed.

 

[Eileen_T]

Fr John Hardon - Contraception: Fatal to the Faith
catholic-pages.com/morality/fatal.asp

One of the consequences of sin is a “dulling of the intellect”. This is true in matters of Faith and Morals.

 

[Malcolm_McLean]

You grossly underestimate the power of the contraceptive culture we live in.

Contraception is the load-bearing foundation upon which this culture’s entire sexual ethic is built upon.

Take it away, and the ethic crumbles under it’s own illogical actions - but the selfish orientation toward sex is deeply embedded, and will not easily be reversed.

You’ve hit on a central problem.
Most people would never, say, attack a black person in the street. However if the crowd is behaving badly, say because there has been a well publicised mugging involving blacks, and the mob is attacking innocent black men in lust for vengeance, then the person who allows himself to be caught up in this situation is less morally culpable than someone who sets out to instigate racial violence. However this is precisely the time at which a stand against racism is most needed.

It is the same with contraception. It is very easy to understand why otherwise loyal Catholics use it, but this is the time when we desperately need people to stand up against our culture’s sexual ethics.

 

[leonie]

Of course they should know it, but no one tells them. Not everyone hangs out at CAF.

A young couple gets married. The marital preparation course mentions Contraception, but when the sponsor couples get to that section, they squirm and say they used NFP before they had two unplanned pregancies so they had a tubal ligation. But, don’t worry, they had permission from their priest.

The priest marrying them doesn’t bring it up. Every single Catholic couple they know uses contraception. Their own parents talk openly about being on the pill “in the day.”

So, even though they know, they don’t know.

Well, anyway that is how it happened to us.

 

[setter]

Of course they should know it, but no one tells them. Not everyone hangs out at CAF.

A young couple gets married. The marital preparation course mentions Contraception, but when the sponsor couples get to that section, they squirm and say they used NFP before they had two unplanned pregancies so they had a tubal ligation. But, don’t worry, they had permission from their priest.

The priest marrying them doesn’t bring it up. Every single Catholic couple they know uses contraception. Their own parents talk openly about being on the pill “in the day.”

So, even though they know, they don’t know.

Well, anyway that is how it happened to us.

A sad but unfortunately not too uncommon testimony. I hope that this unfortunate personal experience at the hands of other failing Catholics gives you the ignition and fuel to give uncompromising testimony to the truth of the Church’s teaching.

 

[Eileen_T]

Of course they should know it, but no one tells them. Not everyone hangs out at CAF.

A young couple gets married. The marital preparation course mentions Contraception, but when the sponsor couples get to that section, they squirm and say they used NFP before they had two unplanned pregancies so they had a tubal ligation. But, don’t worry, they had permission from their priest.

The priest marrying them doesn’t bring it up. Every single Catholic couple they know uses contraception. Their own parents talk openly about being on the pill “in the day.”

So, even though they know, they don’t know.

Well, anyway that is how it happened to us.

Our new PP asked a couple who had participated in the Diocese Marriage Preparation course if it had covered contraception. It hadn’t, so now he does the Marriage Preparation himself.

If you go here ftp://217.160.246.215/pub/audionet/Desert_Voice/DesertVoice_Fr_Robert_Altier/Marriage/ you can listen to a series of talks on Marriage Preparation by Fr Robert Altier. I wholeheartedly encourage you to listen to all of them, but especially the ones on sexuality.

 

[a_priori]

Lots of us christians live lives of luxury while 40,000 children starve to death every day globally. Methinks there is the same sort of rationalizing going on there too. And I’m guilty of that one, I’m beginning to fear.

Me too. Wise words. May God have mercy on us all.

 

[rpp]

Sin generates its own rationalizations. When lots of folks want to commit the same sin and feel OK about it, they generate communal rationalizations.

ManualMan, are you aware of how profound, and profoundly correct, your simnple statement is? This is a wonderful quote. Accurate and succinct. It is something we should all remember.