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_Abyssinia
Guest
Off topic from birth control but this has also been reported:
mobile.twitter.com/FrancisXRocca/status/557251252586037248
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sweetpea17
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I was so delighted to read the Pope’s comments that Catholics do not have to be like rabbits. There are so many reasons why one would not want to have many children. I loved the tone and the comments about the women with 7 children as well. Thank you Pope Francis!
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MaryT777
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I agree this was a hopeful message about parenthood and that it doesn’t mean multiple children every 16 months or less is necessary to be a “good catholic” as my mother swears she was taught.
It was like the more children the more Catholic you were; at least that was her impression of her Catholic School teaching.
Mary.
It was like the more children the more Catholic you were; at least that was her impression of her Catholic School teaching.
Mary.
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edwest2
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I was born in the mid-1950s. The average number of kids in my neighborhood and for miles around was 2. No one told my parents they had to have more, and they were practicing Catholics.
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Ed
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jinglebelle
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ditto
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OraLabora
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I’m from Quebec and in my parents’ generation it was the norm for French-Canadian families to have lots of children. Families of 10-12 children were very common, and 15 children not unheard of. Let’s just say that families had a lot of “encouragement” from the clergy to reproduce like rabbits… it was not an auspicious time for either French Canadians or the Church in those days. After the Quiet Revolution (which more or less coincided with Vatican II time-wise), Quebecers left the Church in droves. The result is empty pews, and an unchurched population that has increasingly turned to all sorts of spiritually unhealthy nonsense.
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_Abyssinia
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MomaMary8
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Am I the only one that hates the phrase “to be like rabbits?” I noticed the phrase was in quotation marks, but did not directly attribute it to the Holy Father. I understand the need some have to space their children’s birth, but not the need to desparige parents with large families with a poorly turned phrase.
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Tarpeian_Rock
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Does the title of this thread accurately reflect what was reported about the Pope’s statements? The cited article states “‘responsible parenthood’ does not require them ‘to be like rabbits.’” That statements implies some level of LICIT “birth control,” or regulation if you will, just not by artificial means. Reports of what the Pope said in fact go on to cite his referring to “licit” means. I also wonder what his statements will mean to those who insist that NFP can only be used for “grave” reasons.
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Colorad007
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slyboots
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But he called the woman irresponsible who was having her 8th child when the last 7 were delivered by caesarian.
She and her spouse created this child within the Church’s teachings. This is not irresponsibility. It is welcoming another child into a Catholic family and into our Church.
I am having a hard time with Pope Francis ideas. But I pray for him and for my own understanding.
She and her spouse created this child within the Church’s teachings. This is not irresponsibility. It is welcoming another child into a Catholic family and into our Church.
I am having a hard time with Pope Francis ideas. But I pray for him and for my own understanding.
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jinglebelle
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if she can afford the caeserians,then no . maby people have had a hard time with a great many popes. do you think st francis would let it stand?
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powerofk
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The problem was that having another baby by Caesarian could endanger her life, and then her children would be left without a mother. He never suggested that the child wasn’t God’s creation, nor that the mother should kill the child, but instead that it was irresponsible for her and her husband to not try to avoid another pregnancy by using NFP.
Honestly, I think the point is that NFP is very misunderstood. In developed countries, NFP is laughed at by groups like PP, who claim that it is ineffective and have pretty much convinced the populace of its supposed ineffectiveness (in reality, NFP, when done properly, is at least as, if not more, effective to avoid pregnancy than artificial hormones). People in many developing countries have rarely even heard of NFP, but just know that the Church teaches that using artificial means of birth control is wrong, and thus end up thinking that they’re supposed to have lots of kids.
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LongingSoul
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I immediately took the reference to caesarians to signify the problem of choosing to avoid natural birth and how that attitude isn’t conducive to childbearing in Gods plan. Argentina has one of the highest C-section rates in the world and it is seen by many to be a choice rather than an emergency procedure.
It only makes sense that the natural process is all part and parcel of a healthy responsible parenting. It is normal for a woman who has to have an emergency C section to feel a little robbed of the whole experience but many feel that avoiding the pain and the other consequences of natural child birth is their right.
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_Abyssinia
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edwest2
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Kateri92
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I have a suspicion that the pope is being gravely misquoted here. I have no proof to support that but it just seems odd for the successor of St. Peter to be criticizing parents and specifically mothers who choose to give their children life. I can understand that he wants to make sure that children get a good upbringing but that shouldn’t include talk about “breading like rabbits”. And, I don’t like how he spoke of the woman with 7 children negatively. She should be praised for giving life to those children. It seems to me like God would never create a human being without willing it. No child is ever an accident (which this article is making it sound like).
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anthony022071
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Here is another article. The pope chided the woman because she put her life at risk and was tempting God by becoming pregnant again. He said, “Some think, excuse me if I use the word, that in order to be good Catholics, we have to be like rabbits.” It was a joke. He often uses colloquial language.
news.yahoo.com/pope-says-birth-control-ban-doesnt-mean-breed-190535033.html;_ylt=AwrSyCNuVr1UeXUAdJDQtDMD
< Catholics should not feel they have to breed “like rabbits” because of the Church’s ban on contraception, Pope Francis said on Monday, suggesting approved natural family planning methods.
Francis used the unusually frank language during an hour-long news conference on the plane from Manila to Rome at the end of his week-long Asia trip.
The freewheeling encounters have become a hallmark of Francis’s simple style, his penchant for straight talk and his ease at using colloquialisms to make his point.
Speaking about corruption, he disclosed that, in his native Argentina in 1994, he almost kicked two government bureaucrats “where the sun doesn’t shine” after they tried to involve him in a kickback scheme. >
< “Some think, excuse me if I use the word, that in order to be good Catholics, we have to be like rabbits - but no,” he said, adding the Church promoted “responsible parenthood”.
He mentioned a woman he recently met who already had seven children by caesarean sections and put her life at risk by becoming pregnant again. He said he chided her for “tempting God” and added: “That was an irresponsibility.” >
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FreciaMarie
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Thank you, for this. It seems that every single time I feel a slight discomfort in reading excerpts from Pope Francis’ interviews, if I read the full thing, I feel at peace.
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