So there is no exception in the case of rape and it is intrinsically evil for a woman to contracept by washing out the semen after being raped? The woman has just been raped and now you are saying that she will go to hell if she contracepts? Shouldn’t a Christian show a little mercy to a victim of a horrific crime?
You use the word “contracept” in a physical way here, whereas the Church speaks of moral acts. There is in fact no context here where contraception (the “moral act”) is a possible act! The act that placed semen in her body is not the act deserving of the respect some are mistaking it for. It would be no different if insemination had been via turkey baster. Of course the material may be flushed away. I suspect we are in agreement Tom.
Doesn’t contracept mean act against conception?You use the word “contracept” in a physical way here, whereas the Church speaks of moral acts. There is in fact no context here where contraception (the “moral act”) is a possible act! The act that placed semen in her body is not the act deserving of the respect some are mistaking it for. It would be no different if insemination had been via turkey baster. Of course the material may be flushed away. I suspect we are in agreement Tom.
The good news is that it matters very little whether “a Christian” shows a little mercy or not. Whether or not someone goes to hell depends on God’s mercy and discerning, not how some rule-crazed pencil pusher wrongly interprets Church teaching. Anyone is free to shrilly and incessantly spout off their understanding of the “rules” without listening to what is actually going on, but that isn’t what God does. God listens. And it’s His mercy that matters when it comes to the question of someone going to hell.
That’s an act of the purely physical order and may lack any moral meaning at all. A bit like “decapitate”. The behaviour the Church opposes and which it calls “contraception” is an act with moral meaning. It can arise when a couple engages in conjugal relations. It cannot arise when a violent person seeks to inseminate a woman through an act of rape.
I would gladly show mercy to all people of goodwill. But how i react does not change the fact that God is the sole and ultimate judge. Right after physical death, he judges and informs the soul where her eternal residence will be. My own mother had a tubal ligation procedure because of a tough marriage and she had more than she could handle kids-wise. She sees nothing wrong with it nearly 40 years afterwards. Have all her confessions of the past 38 years been invalid, will she die with what God considers final impenitence? Will she have suffered a life of constant adversity, mental issues, having her youngest child cut off all ties with her, being married to an aloof, unsupportive, unstable, alcoholic husband to end up in hell? Apart from this vague concept of ‘‘mercy’’, nothing tells me our loving God will welcome her. Trust in God’s goodness? How good is he when one mortal sin is enough to be cast out into the outer darkness? Is my mom’s soul dead from that procedure? Could be. Yeah the good news…
An objection similar to this was raised earlier, but I didn’t see an answer. Another dilemma is when a person has lived a good and decent life up to the last moment, when he slips up and misses Mass on a Sunday and then dies the next day without having repented of his mortal sin. Would it be justice for that person go to eternal fire and torment in hell, while the mafia boss goes to heaven?
I’m not sure slip ups are punished too harshly. What we know for sure is that only God knows one’s souls and final destination, and that it will be just.
Please see: Will I really go to hell for just one mortal sin?
Likely to be the common teachings of the Church which the Magisterium has not certainly decided upon, for example:
If the mafia boss only wants to be baptized in an attempt to not go to hell, it isn’t sincere repentance. I don’t know if you read about imperfect contrition
Have no fear Tom. Only God knows when the sin is mortal and when the heart does not repent. And a just God does not punish the good severely for a “slip up”. Do you believe God is just Tom?
It seems that you are the one who is questioning the teaching of the Catholic Church on the justice of God and the fact that one mortal sin will send you to hell?
It seems as if you think God is bound by the incoherent ramblings of one priest on a random blog, or that such ramblings are infallible teachings of the Church. If so, you are quite mistaken. I might have missed it, but does this blog have an imprimatur? You would do much better to read the parables of Jesus than the nonsense you are linking to. They actually carry some weight.
I’m fairly sure I haven’t contradicted Church teaching Tom, but if I have erred in my statement, point it out, but you do need to choose authoritative sources to establish a position.
You continually object to straw man Christianity, not Catholicism.
I didn’t understand the teaching that one unrepented mortal sin can send you to hell as the " the incoherent ramblings of one priest". I thought it was Catholic teaching?
Do you consider CAF to be authoritative?…you do need to choose authoritative sources to establish a position.