To answer your question with honesty and charity would take a book. But if I may, I would like to share what little I know through my experience of 30+ years in pastoral care.
In answer to your first question, I believe that materialism and sensationalism have consumed the minds and hearts of many people. People today seem to feel a “moral” obligation to give their children a better life than they had when they were children. This false belief has moved many people to believe that they can only afford a fixed number of children in order to give them what they need to be healthy and happy. In other words, the faith in God’s Divine Providence has been deeply wounded by the sensationalist media.
In onen sense instant communication has done a great deal of harm to society. We are often bombarded by images of starving people and by threats that there the world’s resources are not enough to sustain our families. People have actually bought into these prophecies of doom.
If one looks at a country like the United States one can clearly see thar we have great expanses of land, great natural resources, more money than we know what to do with (as a nation), and more possibilities for educating our children than most countries around the world.
We have also badly administered these resources. When the working man or woman looks at his pocketbook he fears that he will be unable to provide for a large family, because the profits and benefits of these resources do not trickle down equitably to all membes of our society. This triggers fear in people.
Then we have a phenomenon both in Europe and North America, which I call neo-narcisim. The beauty and physical fitness industry is making trillions of dollars by convincing people that they can remain young and beautiful almost indefinitely. People are grabbing on to this new “gospel”. Unfortunately, to preserve this physical well-being parenting has to be sacrificed. Objectively, this is one of the gravest sins in our society, because it is about loving the self more than trusting God and moving along according to God’s plan for us. It is as if man has to take over from God, in order to secure his health, physical well-being and sanity. Nothing could be further from the truth. But some people do not see this. In a sense, maybe their ignorance may be their hope. God has mercy on the ignorant, to a certain degree.
Let’s not forget the extremes of the women’s movement. It was in God’s plan that woman have rights and that her dignity be respected. All we have to do is look at Mary. She made her choice without consulting Joseph and without telling him. Joseph found out about Mary’s pregnancy in a dream, not through Mary. She chose what to do with her body, which was to put it as God’s disposal. The Woman’s movement also wants to promote the right of women to make choices regarding their bodies. But the difference is that the Women’s movement has failed to remind women that they must place their bodies at God’s disposal as did Mary and that this is a choice that no male can make for them or should make for them. It is part of a woman’s dignity to put her body in God’s hands and her innate materntiy.
Are all of these souls going to hell along with those who do not attend mass on Sundays? We do not know this. The Church is always careful to avoid making predictions about any individual’s soul. We too should be careful in that regard. Only God in his mercy knows these things and thus it should remain.
However, the Lord is thirsting for generous souls to bring his invitation to other souls. He calls generous souls to go out and invite outher souls to come to him. He promises that whatever we cannot handle, he will help us handle. Whatever number of children we may have, he will help us find the resources to raise them.
I was in the missions in a Third World nation and I saw starvation before my eyes. I was tempted to get on this train for artificial birth control and sterilization. When I looked at myself and my children I realized that I was causing the starvation. My children had more clothes than they needed. We ate everything that we wanted, even if it was junk food. We had every game system on the market. We had furniture that we really didn’t nee, simply because it looked nice.
The resources that the starving people needed and were looking for were in my home, in our closets, in our family room. I was never so ashamed in my life.
Humanae vitae will only make sense when Catholics begin to detach from things we do not need, our desire to live and be young forever, and our false hope to give our children a better life than what we had. If our lives had been so bad, so many of us would not have turned out so well.
Sometimes I wonder who’s on the fast track to hell, the person who use birth control because of fear and poverty or me because of my attachment to things that can be used to alleviate these fears.
May God have mercy on my soul and allow me to become detached from material things that others need and to bring the good news to others that God wants them to trust in his mercy.
Fraternally,
JR
) I first discovered that important point in discussing marriage with people who were in long satisfying marriages. It wasn’t until after I was returning to Church teaching that I found that it was the Church’s position too. We don’t engage in sex *for *pleasure…we engage in sex and it results in pleasure.