Question of the Week: sensus fidei and contraception

[HailMary]

www.qorbono.com has a weekly newsletter and asks very interesting questions like the following:

Q. *The sensus fidei is the gift of the Holy Spirit that will not allow the majority f the faithful to be deceived. The Catechism states in paragraph 92 “The whole body of the faithful . . . cannot err in matters of belief. This characteristic is shown in the supernatural appreciation of faith (sensus fidei) on the part of the whole people, when, ‘from the bishops to the last of the faithful,’ they manifest a universal consent in matters of faith and morals.”

 If this is so, then contraception must be right because a large number of Catholics are contracepting and the sensus fidei precludes large numbers of Catholics from being wrong. So why does the Church teaches that contraception is a mortal sin?*

The answer next week.

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[rwoehmke]

Sensus fidei applies not only to those Catholics who live today, but also those who have gone before us. It is not just a “vote” by the Faithful but a consensus of what is right or the correctness of doctrine. Applied to contraception it would seem that a vast majority of Catholics who ever lived have acepted the teaching of the Church. Johnny and Jill come lately only are not the only ones with a sense of what God calls them to. The other side of the coin is that when the Pope makes a formal pronouncement about a matter of Faith and Morals most living Catholics will recognize the correctness and fall into line even if they have never been consulted on the matter. It sometimes takes a while. I truly think that Paul VI’s encyclical on Human Life will eventually be accepted by most Catholics and even many of our protestant brethren. Anyone with eyes to see can observe where the opposite tack has taken us.

 

[Malcolm_McLean]

www.qorbono.com has a weekly newsletter and asks very interesting questions like the following:

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The present teaching is too hard for most Catholics to follow. I think we’ve got to accept that.

However the secular position that contraception is an unproblematic fix to a technical problem is also very wide of the mark. That is even more obvious.

I

 

[Randy_Carson]

Deceived by whom?

Satan? Or the Church?

The faithful may be deceived by Satan, but the Church cannot change its teaching to suit him no matter how many people he convinces.

The Church teaches the truth regardless of how many accept it.

We don’t determine truth by taking a poll.

Hope this helps. :tiphat:

 

[Br.Rich_SFO]

www.qorbono.com has a weekly newsletter and asks very interesting questions like the following:

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Because contraception has always been a mortal sin, and the majority of the faithful have not always accepted it. Nor do the Majority of the faithful accept it now.

 

[HailMary]

A. The fallacy in the argument consists in separating the sensus fidie from the Magisterium as one would separate the body from the head. The sense of the faithful derives from the Petrine authority and cannot exist without it, nor can it flow against its teaching office in matters of faith and morality for otherwise Catholicism would be the religion of the majority adrift from any sure moral compass.

 

[manualman]

Perhaps a definition of the word ‘faithful’ is in order. Is it:

A. Anybody who claims the name ‘catholic,’ has been baptised and confirmed and comes to mass most of the time, or

B. The above, PLUS a regular prayer life, dilgent in acquiring ongoing catechesis from reliable sources, observant of the necessity for the sacraments (including reconciliation) on a regular basis, and demonstrative of a determination to discern truth from cultural influence.

Use definition B and I betcha Humanae Vitae and the Sense of the Faithful line up nicely. I have noticed that very few people live lives of admirable virtue, regular prayer and sacraments and ONLY disagree with the Church on contraception. Of the very few people I know who the above describes, they also have issues on other ‘hotbutton issues.’ (homosexuality, male celibate priesthood, inerrancy of Scripture and Tradition, etc)

 

[MilesXpisti]

The present teaching is too hard for most Catholics to follow. I think we’ve got to accept that.

The present teaching is the teaching. It’s a reflection of ordinary Magisterium, and is never going to change. We can accept that a lot of the “faithful” are anything but, and that the world is doing its absolute best to destroy the Church from within. The only answer for it is obstinancy in sin, for such temptation cannot be beyond the ability of humans to withstand:

Let no temptation take hold on you, but such as is human. And God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that which you are able: but will make also with temptation issue, that you may be able to bear it.

1 Corinthians 10:13​

Malcom McLean:

However the secular position that contraception is an unproblematic fix to a technical problem is also very wide of the mark. That is even more obvious.
I

This smacks dangerously of compromise, Malcom.

 

[Gardening_Mommy]

The Church’s teachings on contraception remind me of one of my favorite G.K. Chesterton quotes (someone around here is using it in their signature line):
“Christianity has not been tried and found wanting, it has been found hard and not tried.”

Obeying the teaching on contraception can be hard. Disobeying it can be a lot harder!

… abortion and 50% divorce rates testify to that. Rampant promiscuity, skyrocketing STD infection rates, acceptance of homosexuality (“If heteros don’t have to link sex with kids, then how can you say homosexual sex is wrong?”). And all the synthetic estrogens from the Pill getting into the ground water systems (and scientists still claim they can’t figure out why exactly infertility rates are so bad in the western world? Oh, please.).

Sensus fidei is not supposed to be the Catholic version of a public opinion poll. 30,000+ denominations later, we know where that interpretation got the Protestants. And as Chesterton also said, “Tradition is the democracy of the dead.” Even a bunch of disobedient western-world Catholics can’t outweigh almost 2,000 years of Church experience of the harms of contraceptives. (yes, they were widely available in the ancient world.)

“You can’t ask that of them… they’re too weak! So we’ll take the sin on ourselves and teach them to take it easy…” Anybody read Dostoevsky’s “Grand Inquisitor” chapter from The Brothers Karamazov lately?