Gallup: 82% of Catholics say contraception is ‘morally acceptable’

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Holly3278 said:
lifesitenews.com/news/gallup-82-of-catholics-say-contraception-is-morally-acceptable?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+LifesitenewscomLatestHeadlines+%28LifeSiteNews.com+Latest+Headlines%29

Wow. This is incredibly sad. We need some hardcore catechesis to change this. That means that priests need to mention in their homilies that contraception for preventing pregnancy is a sin.

That said, I don’t expect the pro-life movement to make much greater strides until the pro-life movement largely rejects contraception.
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Isn’t the poll misleading? Catholics believe contraception is morally acceptable for health reasons?
 
Statistic, whether the 82% is true or not, for people who were polled just call themselves ‘Catholic,’ is not giving an accurate picture. Lot of people who call themselves Catholic never go to Church, do not understand the teachings of the Church, they only call themselves Catholic because they brought up Catholic etc.

I want to hear an accurate statistic for regular going Church, practicing Catholics.

I have a difficult time believing statistics about Catholics and contraception consider Guttmacher got a statistic so wrong, and generally I would consider Gallup more credible than a research arm of Planned Parenthood but I am not sure.

More education from the Church is needed on this subject, to educate and inform Catholics. Contraception does no good for health or moral state.
 
The poll did not ask about “contraception”. The poll asked about “birth control”. Those are two separate animals in my opinion. If someone asked me if the regulation of births is acceptable with no other specification, I would say yes, and before anyone jumps on me, yes of course I would answer differently if asked about contraception. Please see CCC:**2399 **The regulation of births represents one of the aspects of responsible fatherhood and motherhood. Legitimate intentions on the part of the spouses do not justify recourse to morally unacceptable means (for example, direct sterilization or contraception).
  1. Next, I’m going to read you a list of issues. Regardless of whether or not you think it should be legal, for each one, please tell me whether you personally believe that in general it is morally acceptable or morally wrong.
    How about – [RANDOM ORDER]?
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2012 May 3-6

Birth control
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I went to the gallup site to get that info. Just follow the lifesitenews link to gallup and open the pdf link near the bottom if you want the actual question number 18.

Note: Of course I know per some CAF rule somewhere, OP had to use the article title, and did not make up the title herself.
 
Recently in Ireland the liberal Association of Catholic Priests released a survey showing 3/4 of Catholics found the Church teachings on sex to be irrelevant. In fact, they were delighted to release these statistics, as in, great, we now have a mandate to change Church teachings because so many people don’t follow them.

However, 3/4 of the Catholics polled in the survey were nominal Catholics and admitted they were not practising Catholics. I would suspect that many of the Catholics polled in this survey fall into the same category.

Although - it is also true that this area is the least “catechised”, and many Catholics, while attending Mass regularly and praying, may not be aware of the gravity of the use of contraception because “everybody else is using it” . I would applaud the priest that would give a homily on these matters.
 
Rand_Al_Thor said:
I find it funny that you think the Church got something as big as “there is a God” right, but then they got it wrong when they say “contraception is immoral”.
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It was the Jews who got the “There is a God” right, and the church merely followed on. Christ gave the church authority, but nowhere did I see where He said it would be infallible. He said He’d “lead” the church into all the truth - not give it an aura of infallibility. He also implied the church could change it’s mind - “bind” one day, and “loose” another. It was the ultramontanists of Vatican I who brought in the “infallibility” doctrine.

Christ even labelled Peter “Satan” at one stage, and Peter was to all intents and purposes the first “Pope”. Paul had to rebuke Peter for siding with the circumcisers, “Yes, even Peter” as he put it. The apostles were challenged as being “foolish” on at least one occasion.

I’m afraid I agree with the nominated 82% whether they’re an insignificant sample or not. How many large Catholic families do you see in your church today, compared with say 50 years ago? Which indicates to me a lot of practising Catholics use the Pill or other contraceptives, but simply don’t say so, as they can’t be bothered arguing about something that they think is wrong.

Or as one quite strong, practising, confessing Catholic lady put it to me quite some years ago, when I was still an atheist, “What happens in (her) bedroom is none of the priest’s business”. Those were her words, not mine.
 
Bob_Crowley said:
Christ gave the church authority, but nowhere did I see where He said it would be infallible. He said He’d “lead” the church into all the truth - not give it an aura of infallibility. He also implied the church could change it’s mind - “bind” one day, and “loose” another. It was the ultramontanists of Vatican I who brought in the “infallibility” doctrine.
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The Church can bind and loose burden on you such as requirements to fast on certain days, to abstain from certain things like meat, or to go to Mass on days of obligations which it determines. But whether things are moral or immoral does not change.

Contraception is contrary to healthy human sexuality. By contracepting, you are thwarting a perfectly healthy function of your body. You are telling God that he did not make you good enough.
 
Holly3278 said:
…That said, I don’t expect the pro-life movement to make much greater strides until the pro-life movement largely rejects contraception.
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This is an excellent point. Thanks for pointing it out.

There are pro-life groups who recognize the connecton such as Pro Life Wisconsin. From their web site:

prolifewisconsin.org/proLifeIssues.asp?id=6
In the minds of many pro-lifers, abortion and contraception are entirely separate issues. But without the notion of “unwanted” children that the contraceptive mentality fosters, there would be no abortion. In fact, many forms of hormonal birth control can be abortifacient (cause early chemical abortions) by obstructing the implantation of the newly formed human embryo in his or her mother’s womb. After more than 30 years of killing through surgical abortion, and now with the new breed of chemical abortifacients such as Plan B, the Ortho Evra Patch, and Depo-Provera, the link between abortion and contraception is undeniable.
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Do these political pundits not realise that the Catholic Church, unlike every other institution on the planet, can never, ever, ever change simply because the human will does?

Do they not realise that when they ask us or any group to do that they’re asking them to try to believe black is white, up is down, and socks go with sandals?! It’s a scandal! And one our own don’t even know about!

‘Pope Paul VI in Humanae Vitae’ said:
17. Responsible men can become more deeply convinced of the truth of the doctrine laid down by the Church on this issue if they reflect on the consequences of methods and plans for artificial birth control. Let them first consider how easily this course of action could open wide the way for marital infidelity and a general lowering of moral standards. Not much experience is needed to be fully aware of human weakness and to understand that human beings—and especially the young, who are so exposed to temptation—need incentives to keep the moral law, and it is an evil thing to make it easy for them to break that law. Another effect that gives cause for alarm is that a man who grows accustomed to the use of contraceptive methods may forget the reverence due to a woman, and, disregarding her physical and emotional equilibrium, reduce her to being a mere instrument for the satisfaction of his own desires, no longer considering her as his partner whom he should surround with care and affection. …

Consequently, unless we are willing that the responsibility of procreating life should be left to the arbitrary decision of men, we must accept that there are certain limits, beyond which it is wrong to go, to the power of man over his own body and its natural functions—limits, let it be said, which no one, whether as a private individual or as a public authority, can lawfully exceed. These limits are expressly imposed because of the reverence due to the whole human organism and its natural functions, in the light of the principles We stated earlier, and in accordance with a correct understanding of the “principle of totality” enunciated by Our predecessor Pope Pius XII.
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_Abyssinia said:
Statistic, whether the 82% is true or not, for people who were polled just call themselves ‘Catholic,’ is not giving an accurate picture. Lot of people who call themselves Catholic never go to Church, do not understand the teachings of the Church, they only call themselves Catholic because they brought up Catholic etc.
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I think the 82% figure is credible. Many polls in the past have come up with similar percentages. But as you point out, the high figure is skewed by the large number of self-identified Catholics who don’t really practice their faith.
_Abyssinia said:
I want to hear an accurate statistic for regular going Church, practicing Catholics.
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Pew studies are pretty reliable, perhaps even more so than Gallup. Here is from a poll released earlier this year. The figures for Catholics who attend Mass weekly are a little disheartening.

(click picture to make larger)
 
ivebeenshown said:
The Church can bind and loose burden on you such as requirements to fast on certain days, to abstain from certain things like meat, or to go to Mass on days of obligations which it determines. But whether things are moral or immoral does not change.

Contraception is contrary to healthy human sexuality. By contracepting, you are thwarting a perfectly healthy function of your body. You are telling God that he did not make you good enough.
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I agree with this…not only is contraception contrary to healthy human sexuality, you’re telling God that you are using sex for your own purposes, not for the purposes God intended - to procreate and unite a husband and wife.

As for the woman who said that what she does in her bedroom is not the priest’s business - which I’ve heard from people too - it may not be the priest’s business, but everything we do is God’s business. Everything that we have in our lives is only because of the will of God.

In any case, I sense myself beginning to rant, so I must withdraw. 🙂

God bless,
Bryan
 
Bob_Crowley said:
Or as one quite strong, practising, confessing Catholic lady put it to me quite some years ago, when I was still an atheist,** “What happens in (her) bedroom is none of the priest’s business”**. Those were her words, not mine.
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If that is the case, she is not a “strong” Catholic. She is a confused, prideful, disobedient Catholic.
 
Regardless of what the percentage is I would think that it is a well known fact, especially among Catholics, that the Church teaches contraception for preventing pregnancy is wrong. Therefore, if the statistic really is that high, there must be an awful lot of cafeteria Catholics out there.
 
Bob_Crowley said:
I’m afraid I agree with the nominated 82% whether they’re an insignificant sample or not. How many large Catholic families do you see in your church today, compared with say 50 years ago? Which indicates to me a lot of practising Catholics use the Pill or other contraceptives, but simply don’t say so, as they can’t be bothered arguing about something that they think is wrong.
.
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I think that we have a skewed view of people 50 years ago. They were, if faithful, using the rhythm, which is not very effective. So, they were faithful, but didn’t necessarily want all of those kids. I’m just saying…

Now, modern day NFP is much more effective. I don’t think those same couples 50 years ago would have had that many kids using NFP.
 
bscastro said:
I agree with this…not only is contraception contrary to healthy human sexuality, you’re telling God that you are using sex for your own purposes, not for the purposes God intended - to procreate and unite a husband and wife.

As for the woman who said that what she does in her bedroom is not the priest’s business - which I’ve heard from people too - it may not be the priest’s business, but everything we do is God’s business. Everything that we have in our lives is only because of the will of God.

In any case, I sense myself beginning to rant, so I must withdraw. 🙂

God bless,
Bryan
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If you notice it’s always some sort of fallacy that pro-contraception “Catholics” are forced to employ when they’re trying to piece together an excuse. In most cases it’s more emotional than logical, and they don’t want to entertain the possibility the Church even could be correct simply because it would be too inconvenient for them to change their own behavior or they have some other emotional investment in the topic.

Most of the fallacies you hear boil down to one of these - you’ve got the argument by popularity (in this case the people citing the poll results) which I’m surprised how often it’s attempted and actually expected to be taken seriously.

Sort of like that one is the appeal to (misplaced) authority - “I knew this one person who was soo soo devout but he/she was also against birth control, how dare you judge them! etc.” Because as we all know, appearances can never lead you astray. :rolleyes: This one also should require no further explanation and I don’t know why people even attempt it.

The ever popular argument by sheer outrage - “Don’t judge me!” “Stay out of my bedroom!” “Women’s rights!” or some other mindless bumper sticker slogan without any substance.

Then you have the people who confuse doctrine with disciplines. They argue something like “The Church changed (this one discipline) before, so they can change this (timeless article on faith and morals) too! It’s the same thing! :whacky:” Sometimes these people are just genuinely ignorant but too many times it’s also used out of desperation by someone who does know better to try throwing mud against the wall and see what sticks.

And then there’s the people who confuse actions of people in the Church with teachings of the Church. You hear this one a lot not just with birth control but with Protestants in general in all sorts of attempts to discredit Catholicism. Again, a lot of times this is done in ignorance but even some people who should know better have been known to pull it out just for the special occasion of defending their precious contraception.

This doesn’t cover every single possible fallacy used in support of ABC but I think it will probably account for at least 90% of them. A lot of times people like to mix-and-match too so more than one may very well apply, but if you take any one lame defense of contraception as an example it will most likely fit under one or more of these popular logical/factual errors.
 
Bob_Crowley said:
Or as one quite strong, practising, confessing Catholic lady put it to me quite some years ago, when I was still an atheist, “What happens in (her) bedroom is none of the priest’s business”. Those were her words, not mine.
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God gets shut out of the bedroom. Where else do we get to close Him out?
 
Keith_W_OR_USA said:
The Bible also says eating shell fish is a sin. As you can tell I agree with the 82% that contraception is a moral thing to do.
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But the Magisterium doesn’t say that eating shellfish is a sin. The Magisterium, however, does say that artificial birth control is.

…

Also, it doesn’t matter what the 82% are doing all that matters is what I do.
 
fix said:
God gets shut out of the bedroom. Where else do we get to close Him out?
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Exactly. The ignorance of some Catholics astounds me. There is no aspect of our lives that is off limits to God, and, therefore, there is no aspect of our lives that should be withheld from a priest during Confession. If this woman was sinning and not confessing it, then she was not a “strong, practicing, confessing Catholic,” regardless of where her sin occurred.
 
I forgot a BIG one in my list up there - “People shouldn’t be expected to practice self-control” :o
 
In recent Masses as well as on Catholic radio, I’ve been reminded that our “ultimate” vocation is to get to Heaven.

In my own conversion, the reflection on Last Things and the acceptance of this vocation has led me to realize that what I want is not as important as the Truth. Eventually, I started to want the Truth which is Jesus Christ.

I think people need to really try to understand and then accept the Church’s teaching on this - as well as any other teachings that they’re “not sure” about. It kinda matters. And for those who don’t think it matters, I guess we’ll find out eventually in the next life.

As for me, I would rather accept the Church’s teaching with obedience and then try to understand it with my feeble mortal mind than reject it because I don’t get it/it’s not popular/etc. Although God has blessed me with intelligence (to some extent 😉 ), I’m pretty sure I need God’s grace to enter the kingdom of Heaven, and so I prioritize God’s will before my own desires - at least I try to, failing somewhat more frequently than I’d like sometimes.

Yours in Christ,
Bryan
 
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