Aside from issues regarding marriage, sexuality, and reproduction, Catholics generally do follow Church teachings. Aside from these issues, Catholicism is not a particularly difficult religion to embrace, and it is not particularly difficult to follow her tenets. Try to think of something outside of marriage, sexuality, or reproduction, that is a struggle to live by, and you’ll see what I mean. Many religions require giving up alcohol, fairly broad categories of food, 10 percent of one’s income (some say 10% of your gross), coffee, the possibility of blood transfusion where it is needed to save one’s life, “worldly” entertainments, and a host of other things. Aside from the areas I cited, the hardest thing about being a Catholic is going to Mass every Sunday (in essence, giving Our Lord back two hours per week out of 168, and by the time you leave your house, drive there, assist at Mass, and drive back home, it’s at least two hours) and abstaining from meat on Fridays of Lent (as well as other Fridays of the year if you elect not to perform an alternate penance or act of charity). That’s a pretty easy religion.I know of so many famous Catholics who support sinful things that go against Church teachings. Why do they do that? The CCC teaches that those things are wrong. But, I know of many Catholics who support abortion, the LGBTQ community, birth control, etc… Many Catholic colleges and Schools have pro-abortion and pro-LGBTQ events/speakers. I just don’t understand why, since those things blatantly contradict Church teachings. We must pray for those confused Catholics!!!Any thoughts on this? Thank You!!!
So there you have the answer. These aspects of life — marriage, sexuality, and reproduction — present more challenges than anything else, and nurturing a lifelong Catholic consciousness of these matters, from youth onwards, disciplining oneself, never allowing bad habits to develop, avoiding the near occasions of sin, and not doing things to complicate one’s life in this regard — remember that, not doing things to complicate one’s life in this regard — will go a long way in keeping oneself out of trouble. (I speak as one who has not been perfect in this regard, so don’t anyone accuse me of having lived a sheltered, “uncontaminated” life, not understanding real people in the real world.) If you marry — and in Catholicism, it is always if and not when — only marry someone who will help you to save your soul and be a help to you in living the Catholic Faith. The very first question, in any courtship, even before the first date, should be “is this relationship something that will help me get to heaven?”. Don’t marry someone who will lead you astray or insists upon departing from Catholic morality. Get the hard questions out of the way right up front — how many children, and when, and what to do about NFP, and what happens if NFP proves to be difficult to use? If you can’t get the best answers, be prepared to walk away. There are worse things than not getting married, or not being able to marry the person you would prefer to marry.
