E
eric3141
Guest
This reply is about sterilization in general and not the poster’s specific case.
Most people in the Catholic church think that the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches are closer in their teachings than is really the case. I left the Church once to be Eastern Orthodox then later came back to the Church.
While I was EO, our parish priest gave a couple in our parish permission to have a vasectomy. The couple told me this themselves and when I confronted the priest he did not deny it. And this priest is not an isolated case, either. Within Orthodoxy there are some places (in the East I would think) that teach that sterilization and contraception are a sin - here in the West (no surprise!) EO priests commonly tell their people it is not a sin.
It was this lack of consistency within EO that helped bring me back to the Church. EO has no way to make doctrinal decisions binding on all of its members.
I posted this so that perhaps a few more Catholics would realize how good we have it (doctrinally speaking) in the Church.
Most people in the Catholic church think that the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches are closer in their teachings than is really the case. I left the Church once to be Eastern Orthodox then later came back to the Church.
While I was EO, our parish priest gave a couple in our parish permission to have a vasectomy. The couple told me this themselves and when I confronted the priest he did not deny it. And this priest is not an isolated case, either. Within Orthodoxy there are some places (in the East I would think) that teach that sterilization and contraception are a sin - here in the West (no surprise!) EO priests commonly tell their people it is not a sin.
It was this lack of consistency within EO that helped bring me back to the Church. EO has no way to make doctrinal decisions binding on all of its members.
I posted this so that perhaps a few more Catholics would realize how good we have it (doctrinally speaking) in the Church.