If the Church reconsidered its teachings on certain matters, would you change your lifestyles?

[JustPink]

Premarital sex? No. I would still wait until I was married.

Contraception? Yes. As long as it was something that didn’t hurt my health or the health of an accidentally fertilized egg (baby).

 

[AuditVocemMeam]

No. Once true, always true.

 

[Joe_5859]

I was the same, actually. We did NFP from the start of our marriage, but I didn’t become Catholic until much later - and my husband is still Protestant. I have always believed in the sacredness of marriage.

Yay, I’m not the only one. I’ve always seen it as a testament to the fact that Catholic moral teaching just makes sense.

 

[on_the_hill]

I’ve always wondered about this as a matter of curiosity.
Say the Church changed its opinions on something big, perhaps the use of birth control or sex outside of marriage (suspend your cries of “But they haven’t/ won’t” and please bear with me!) and made certain behaviours permissible would you, knowing that your morals would still be in line with the Holy Father and the Catholic Church, change your behaviours?

I know there are many reasons the Church wouldn’t, but humour me for the sake of argument!

Probably not.

 

[Kelfa28]

For the sake of an argument…I can honestly say that I wouldn’t change anything.

I went off the pill and stopped practicing any kind of contraception a full 2 years before I became a practicing Catholic.

I started looking into NFP (at least the secular form of it) way before I knew what the Church taught.
I read Taking Charge of Your Fertility and was fully on board with NFP before I got married and before I converted.

Same thing with Pre-marital sex, cohabiting and gay marriage. The difference with these issues was I learned about their classification as grave matters when I started my conversion.
Yet, I still agreed because of the frankness and logical thought process of the Church.

This is the reason why I became Catholic. What the Church teaches just makes sense. Most people argue with the Church’s stance on these matters because of their need to justify their own sin. It’s easier to argue and disagree then it is to accept and stop.

I messed up before I converted. I lived with my husband before we got married, I was sexually active and conceived our daughter before we got married. I practiced contraception for years.
I would never go back. I don’t want to justify my past.
Maybe the only thing that could change would be the guilt I sometimes feel for sinning so badly before I came into the Church.

 

[Hoosier_Daddy]

For the sake of an argument…I can honestly say that I wouldn’t change anything.

I went off the pill and stopped practicing any kind of contraception a full 2 years before I became a practicing Catholic.

I started looking into NFP (at least the secular form of it) way before I knew what the Church taught.
I read Taking Charge of Your Fertility and was fully on board with NFP before I got married and before I converted.

Same thing with Pre-marital sex, cohabiting and gay marriage. The difference with these issues was I learned about their classification as grave matters when I started my conversion.
Yet, I still agreed because of the frankness and logical thought process of the Church.

This is the reason why I became Catholic. What the Church teaches just makes sense. Most people argue with the Church’s stance on these matters because of their need to justify their own sin. It’s easier to argue and disagree then it is to accept and stop.

I messed up before I converted. I lived with my husband before we got married, I was sexually active and conceived our daughter before we got married. I practiced contraception for years.
I would never go back. I don’t want to justify my past.
Maybe the only thing that could change would be the guilt I sometimes feel for sinning so badly before I came into the Church.

You messed up before you converted? Heck I messed up AFTER my conversion as well!

 

[GraceUnderFire]

It would mean that God is not God and therefore “anything goes”. I know there are people who think nothing would change, but that’s not true. Knowing that God does not and cannot change why ever in the world would I want to do things that I know will displease my Beloved. That would be gross betrayal. And of course, this is never going to happen no matter how much the world clamors for it.

THIS. If such foolishness were ever to happen, it would make Our Lord a liar when He said He was sending an Advocate and that the gates of hell would never prevail against the Church. It simply can’t happen. And the fact that the RCC is the LONE voice in the wilderness on many issues makes me certain that I found the True Church that Christ instituted on earth.

 

[styrgwillidar]

I’ve always wondered about this as a matter of curiosity.
Say the Church changed its opinions on something big, perhaps the use of birth control or sex outside of marriage (suspend your cries of “But they haven’t/ won’t” and please bear with me!) and made certain behaviours permissible would you, knowing that your morals would still be in line with the Holy Father and the Catholic Church, change your behaviours?

I know there are many reasons the Church wouldn’t, but humour me for the sake of argument!

Sorry, only read the first/last few posts, but my .02:

Well, yes. I would abandon christian religion in its entirety and seek truth elsewhere.

All of Christian teaching rests on the authority of The Church. Without the authority of the Church there is no foundation for accepting the Bible as scripture, or being assured of its correct interpretation. If it reverses itself on matters of doctrine than that would mean it was all false.

 

[LongingSoul]

As an example of how the Church can begin to teach something that for some, seems to contradict herself, take the teaching on capital punishment. There are some very traditional Catholics who can’t except the teachings of Evangelium Vitae and CCC section 2267 as being a continuation of the traditional teachings of the Church. It’s quite possible that certain developments in other areas in the future might cause the same sorts of angst with any one of us who strives to be faithful and obedient Catholics. I wouldn’t leave the Church for anything (except if there was some messing with the nature of the Eucharist). I would have to join the underground Catholic Church if that happened because it would no doubt be accompanied by some violent political and cultural upheaval.

 

[Lochias]

For the sake of an argument…I can honestly say that I wouldn’t change anything.

I went off the pill and stopped practicing any kind of contraception a full 2 years before I became a practicing Catholic.

I started looking into NFP (at least the secular form of it) way before I knew what the Church taught.
I read Taking Charge of Your Fertility and was fully on board with NFP before I got married and before I converted.

Same thing with Pre-marital sex, cohabiting and gay marriage. The difference with these issues was I learned about their classification as grave matters when I started my conversion.
Yet, I still agreed because of the frankness and logical thought process of the Church.

This is the reason why I became Catholic. What the Church teaches just makes sense. Most people argue with the Church’s stance on these matters because of their need to justify their own sin. It’s easier to argue and disagree then it is to accept and stop.

I messed up before I converted. I lived with my husband before we got married, I was sexually active and conceived our daughter before we got married. I practiced contraception for years.
I would never go back. I don’t want to justify my past.
Maybe the only thing that could change would be the guilt I sometimes feel for sinning so badly before I came into the Church.

Thanks for sharing this story. It’s a really good example of the focus that Pope Francis wants all of us to develop: an all-inclusive Gospel life.