Really? The majority? Have you polled each and every NO family in the world, or are you making a sweeping judgment of American NO families?
Attend a few traditional parishes and I think your will see that the majority of the people there take the Church’s teachings on birth control to heart. God bless.
boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/11/15/bishops_stress_sexual_issues_and_warn_on_communion/
Bishops stress sexual issues and warn on Communion
By Michael Paulson, Globe Staff | November 15, 2006
BALTIMORE – The Catholic bishops of the United States overwhelmingly approved new documents yesterday, exhorting Catholics to refrain from using artificial birth control, describing gay sex as immoral, and saying that anyone who disagrees with key church teachings should not take Communion.
The statements mark the first time the bishops have attempted to explain and offer guidance on longstanding church teachings, in light of recent controversies.
The bishops said current events, including the legalization of same-sex marriage in Massachusetts and the 2004 presidential candidacy of Senator John F. Kerry, a Catholic Democrat from Massachusetts who supports abortion rights, prompted them to speak out.
They acknowledged that most married Catholics – 96 percent, according to their own estimate – use birth control, and the bishops said they recognize that the church’s teachings on homosexuality are contested in American society.
“To be a Catholic is a challenge, and to be a Catholic requires a certain choice, and these are the choices that are consistent with the Gospel of Jesus,” the chairman of the bishops’ doctrine committee, Bishop Arthur J. Serratelli of Paterson, N.J., said during a press conference…
catholicplanet.com/articles/article50.htm
The Real Crisis in the Church
As the twenty-first century begins, the Catholic Church finds itself in the midst of turmoil and crisis. Though the recent sex scandals are a significant setback for the Church, the despicable acts of a few bad priests have magnified a broader problem. Most American Catholics increasingly put more faith in society’s values than they do in the Church’s values. Many Americans still identify themselves as Catholics. However, the spirit of Catholicism is rarely found in contemporary American society. In the twilight of his life, Pope John Paul II faces enormous challenges and overwhelming pressure. The Catholic Church has seemingly lost its spiritually-transforming effect in the United States and throughout the modern world. The crisis is relatively clear-cut: There is a basic lack of commitment among Catholics to the teachings of the Church. Specific hot-button topics can illustrate this point. However, the crisis must be analyzed from a more general perspective in order to fully grasp the real problems. Americans simply put more faith in society’s values than they do in the Church’s values.
The issues of birth control and abortion can be used to illustrate the basic lack of commitment among Catholics to the teachings of the Church. The Church’s official position on birth control is very clear. In Humane Vitae, Pope Paul VI states, “Consequently, it is a serious error to think that a whole married life of otherwise normal relations can justify sexual intercourse which is deliberately contraceptive and so intrinsically wrong.”
It is also clear that many Catholics openly reject the birth control teaching of the Church. In Sounding Board, Kathy Coffey provides surveys and letters to demonstrate this point. One survey reveals that 81% of Catholics believe that married Catholic couples have the right to follow their conscience in deciding whether to use artificial means of birth control. Another survey shows that 75% of Catholics disagree that in order to uphold the teaching of the Church, it’s important not to reverse the official teaching on birth control. Many Catholics feel that the Church has tightly held to its teaching on birth control without considering the views of most lay people…