EPIC FAIL of the Catholic Leadership in America

[Gordon_Sims]

I’ll admit that I had a similar take on contraception and how the Church viewed it until a few years ago. I think there’s more than enough blame to go around for this. I’m also one of those who was in school in the 70’s and 80’s and our catechesis was lacking at best. In 12 years of Catholic school, we never discussed contraception. We heard that premarital sex and adultery was wrong, but we also had the occasional teacher who told us that premarital sex was okay if you really thought you loved the other person, or if they were “special.” When my wife and I went through pre-Cana, the people who were supposed to give the presentation on NFP didn’t show up, so we got a pamphlet inserted in our handouts and we were told we could look into it on our own. Then our priest told us that getting on the pill was okay (second priest to tell us this). As for being catechized at home, my in-laws put my wife on the pill at 13 and instead of telling her not to have sex, just told her not to get pregnant. My mom did have a long talk to me about how wrong ABC is and how it’s against our beliefs. Yesterday. For the first time.

Although there seems to be more attention being paid to instilling the Catechism in our kids now, for my part I’m not leaving it up to my kids’ teachers. I talk to my wife and kids regularly about our faith and reinforce anything my girls learn in school. I talk to my son as often as I can about Church teachings and try to fill the gaps in either what he didn’t learn or didn’t pay attention to/forgot. I’m not willing to sit back and let my kids get to my age and not have a good understanding of our faith.

 

[Gidras05]

You have no idea how many people I know have dropped out of the faith because no one ever taught them catechesis or apologetics on the most controversial aspects of our faith.

It’s for this reason that I’m studying it myself to begin spreading the word and to perhaps even enlighten parishes on the need for this.

 

[Roy5]

It’s not always that Catholics don’t follow the church teachings because they haven’t been taught them. Perhaps far more often they know the church teachings but don’t agree with them.

 Birth control is a good example of this. The overwhelming majority of Catholics are well aware that artificial birth control is viewed as a sin by the Church. They choose to practice it anyway. The result is that millions of Catholics, many who still attend Mass faithfully, simply ignore what the Church says. This is why we call them cafeteria Catholics! Some avoid confession because it this. Others have left the Church altogether.

 Most priests know this and are hesitant to focus on a topic at Mass that alienates people. Many priests also disagree with the Church on this matter. Abortion is one issue. Artificial birth control is quite another. I find widespread resentment that an all-male celibate clergy makes such rules, the majority of them older men at that.  What do they know when it comes to some important realities of a happy married life?