Thinking about converting to eastern catholicism

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someperson555

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all my life ive had an interest towards the eastern churches. i just find that their philosophies macth my world view better. and as far as i know they are in communion with the latin churches, so it would not be a sin. i would want to convert for these following reasons.
  1. the eastern churches alllow priests to marry.
    the thought about becoming a priest did cross my mind in the past. its something i would desire possibly later in my life after ive established a family. but thats something that would be impossible if i were to remain in the western church, since for some odd reason western catholic priests cant marry. i was always opposed to the whole clerical celibacy thing, not just for personal reasons, but also because i never saw a problem with it philosphically. (mind you, i think the western church is going to have to change that rule soon, since they are running low on vocations)
  2. contraception.
    the eastern catholic churches have a FAR MORE common sense approach to contraception. from ive read, they allow it as long as the couple intends to raise hildren at some point. even before i read about the eastern church’s stance, i held this exact same viewpoint. (please, i dont want this thread to turn into a pro VS anti contraception thread, since their are plenty of those already lol)
  3. heyschasm.
    i find this type of meditation interesting and i want to learn more about it. its true that i could practice this even now as a roman catholic ( pope john paul 2 approved), but learning about this has sparked my interest in other eastern orthodox traditions,and practices.
so those are the reasons i am really interested in converting to the eastern church. i just have a few questions, how can i go about this? is there any special ceremony that needs to be performed? or can i just start going to eastern churches right away? i just feel like i could be closer to God this way. i find roman catholicism to be restrictive and beaurocratic. im sorry to have to say that. but i will definitely research eastern catholic theology more before converting. so with that being said, could anyone link me to any more info about their theology/ practices?
 
the thought about becoming a priest did cross my mind in the past. its something i would desire possibly later in my life after ive established a family. but thats something that would be impossible if i were to remain in the western church, since for some odd reason western catholic priests cant marry. i was always opposed to the whole clerical celibacy thing, not just for personal reasons, but also because i never saw a problem with it philosphically. (mind you, i think the western church is going to have to change that rule soon, since they are running low on vocations)
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This attitude would be immensely problematic if you were to go through a canonical transfer and then attempt to seek ordination. It is not an “odd reason,” that married men cannot be priests (western Catholic priests can’t marry, and neither can Eastern ones–priesthood is an impediment to marriage in both east and west). And allowing married clergy in the west isn’t necessarily likely to have the kind of effect you suggest. For someone who has philosophical issues with clerical celibacy, you don’t seem to know a whole lot about the practice as a reality within the Church or about the reasons behind it.
  1. contraception.
    the eastern catholic churches have a FAR MORE common sense approach to contraception. from ive read, they allow it as long as the couple intends to raise hildren at some point. even before i read about the eastern church’s stance, i held this exact same viewpoint. (please, i dont want this thread to turn into a pro VS anti contraception thread, since their are plenty of those already lol)
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This is not true at all, and shows that you probably need to study up a little bit before you undertake something like changing particular churches. Besides, your motivation for changing particular churches seems to be that one teaches something you like better–which is misguided, since there is no difference in teaching between the Churches on this. I would suggest that you study up on the Church’s teaching on the theology of marriage and sexuality so as to better understand it.

Joining a different particular Church is not “converting,” since you are staying in communion with the Catholic Church, but joining a Church belonging to a different ritual tradition than (in your case) the Latin Church. I would suggest you read up a little bit on why there are different ritual Churches in communion with one another, where the traditions come from, and the teachings of the Church before you pursue something such as this. You will be in my prayers.

-ACEGC
 
  1. I can understand why you’d want the Roman church to let go of priestly celibacy, but that’s a very complex issue and I’d imagine that, since the Roman tradition didn’t grow up around a married priesthood, it may not work. It’s not just about the individual priests’ lives but about the fact that there are all sorts of things that would have to be restructured along with it, like financial issues (the priests will need enough money to care for not just themselves but their wives and children as well). The way things are in a lot of dioceses right now it may actually be way easier for them to just be celibate. Besides that matter, some of the Byzantine churches actually don’t really allow married priests right now. I know it won’t help you have more peace toward the Roman church, but the honest truth is that in the past 150 years or so there’s been some kerfuffles over that. I think it’s technically allowed now, but no one seems to be trying to do it. And I think the situation is different from church to church — the Ruthenians seem to have more snags in this area than the Ukrainians, etc.
  2. The prohibition of contraception is a dogma, and one that I recommend you study up on. There are very practical reasons why it’s forbidden. Sometimes we’re tempted to look at our own situations and think it might help (which isn’t actually true, NFP-using couple’s marriages tend to fare better), and I know that even I am tempted toward wanting to be free to use it because of my health and financial status, but the Church tries to look at things from a long-term social point of view. The fact of the matter is that it basically creates a loophole that helps us fry ourselves psychologically and socially. It is unnatural, with all the baggage that goes with being unnatural. Besides that fact, like I said, the prohibition is dogma. No matter what kind of Catholic you are, it still is binding. If you want birth control, you’ll have to go Protestant or Orthodox — and I bet most of the Orthodox are against it as well. I know you don’t want this thread to get derailed over this topic, but I’m concerned that you need to hear this.
  3. Now this is good. Hesychasm is a great practice, and for some of us it helps to have a very concrete way of focusing all our souls on God. If I were you, I wouldn’t expect to see the light of God, but done right it can definitely help pull ourselves back together. It basically focuses a person in a way that, opening them up to grace, heals them.
Now, that being said, I’ve kind of fallen in love with the East myself. Due to various issues in my life, and just my general demeanor, I find myself taking up Eastern traditions (theology, prayer, etc.) much more easily than Roman. However, I know that Rome needs to be the way it is, even if my particular batch of genes and history causes me to have a really hard time with it. I have been hesitating to switch over to being predominantly Byzantine due to the fact that a part of me felt like it was running away from Rome. And I’ll forewarn you that, when you ask to transfer (to become “legally” Eastern Catholic you have to write the bishops after about a year or so of practicing in a parish), if you sound like you’re “running from” Rome instead of “running to” the East they will deny you the transfer. Unless you marry an Eastern Christian, then it seems you can just switch. So try to overcome the issues you have with the Roman tradition first, because ultimately it’s the same religion.

But I will provide you with some links. Some of them are Byzantine Catholic, and some of them are Eastern Orthodox. I don’t necessarily endorse all the views expounded by the various writers on these sites, but you’ll get the gist from them.

byzcath.org
hrmonline.org

^HRM has links to many other sites as well.

ancientfaith.com

Ack. I seem to have lost track of many of the sites due to clearing my browser history.

jonathanscorner.com/
orthodoxwiki.org/Main_Page
 
edward_george said:
This attitude would be immensely problematic if you were to go through a canonical transfer and then attempt to seek ordination. It is not an “odd reason,” that married men cannot be priests (western Catholic priests can’t marry, and neither can Eastern ones–priesthood is an impediment to marriage in both east and west). And allowing married clergy in the west isn’t necessarily likely to have the kind of effect you suggest. For someone who has philosophical issues with clerical celibacy, you don’t seem to know a whole lot about the practice as a reality within the Church or about the reasons behind it.

This is not true at all, and shows that you probably need to study up a little bit before you undertake something like changing particular churches. Besides, your motivation for changing particular churches seems to be that one teaches something you like better–which is misguided, since there is no difference in teaching between the Churches on this. I would suggest that you study up on the Church’s teaching on the theology of marriage and sexuality so as to better understand it.

Joining a different particular Church is not “converting,” since you are staying in communion with the Catholic Church, but joining a Church belonging to a different ritual tradition than (in your case) the Latin Church. I would suggest you read up a little bit on why there are different ritual Churches in communion with one another, where the traditions come from, and the teachings of the Church before you pursue something such as this. You will be in my prayers.

-ACEGC
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but eastern catholicism does allow married priests. (according to wikipedia) the person must become married prior to the ordination.

as for the contraception thing, (again, according to wikipedia) the eastern churches do allow the use of barrier contraceptives if the couple plans to have kids at some point. i know that wikipedia is not a very reliable source, so i do plan to eventually study their teachings more in depth.
im not going lie. part of my motivation for wanting to change churches is because of personal desires and convictions. but if i could be a more devout catholic by doing that, and be happier, then why not? ill admit that im not very well informed on the differences/ similarities between the churches (except for the above mentioned issues) but thats why i want to learn more about it.
(also excuse the typos in the thread, i just noticed them)
 
WoundedIcon said:
  1. I can understand why you’d want the Roman church to let go of priestly celibacy, but that’s a very complex issue and I’d imagine that, since the Roman tradition didn’t grow up around a married priesthood, it may not work. It’s not just about the individual priests’ lives but about the fact that there are all sorts of things that would have to be restructured along with it, like financial issues (the priests will need enough money to care for not just themselves but their wives and children as well). The way things are in a lot of dioceses right now it may actually be way easier for them to just be celibate. Besides that matter, some of the Byzantine churches actually don’t really allow married priests right now. I know it won’t help you have more peace toward the Roman church, but the honest truth is that in the past 150 years or so there’s been some kerfuffles over that. I think it’s technically allowed now, but no one seems to be trying to do it. And I think the situation is different from church to church — the Ruthenians seem to have more snags in this area than the Ukrainians, etc.
  2. The prohibition of contraception is a dogma, and one that I recommend you study up on. There are very practical reasons why it’s forbidden. Sometimes we’re tempted to look at our own situations and think it might help (which isn’t actually true, NFP-using couple’s marriages tend to fare better), and I know that even I am tempted toward wanting to be free to use it because of my health and financial status, but the Church tries to look at things from a long-term social point of view. The fact of the matter is that it basically creates a loophole that helps us fry ourselves psychologically and socially. It is unnatural, with all the baggage that goes with being unnatural. Besides that fact, like I said, the prohibition is dogma. No matter what kind of Catholic you are, it still is binding. If you want birth control, you’ll have to go Protestant or Orthodox — and I bet most of the Orthodox are against it as well. I know you don’t want this thread to get derailed over this topic, but I’m concerned that you need to hear this.
  3. Now this is good. Hesychasm is a great practice, and for some of us it helps to have a very concrete way of focusing all our souls on God. If I were you, I wouldn’t expect to see the light of God, but done right it can definitely help pull ourselves back together. It basically focuses a person in a way that, opening them up to grace, heals them.
Now, that being said, I’ve kind of fallen in love with the East myself. Due to various issues in my life, and just my general demeanor, I find myself taking up Eastern traditions (theology, prayer, etc.) much more easily than Roman. However, I know that Rome needs to be the way it is, even if my particular batch of genes and history causes me to have a really hard time with it. I have been hesitating to switch over to being predominantly Byzantine due to the fact that a part of me felt like it was running away from Rome. And I’ll forewarn you that, when you ask to transfer (to become “legally” Eastern Catholic you have to write the bishops after about a year or so of practicing in a parish), if you sound like you’re “running from” Rome instead of “running to” the East they will deny you the transfer. Unless you marry an Eastern Christian, then it seems you can just switch. So try to overcome the issues you have with the Roman tradition first, because ultimately it’s the same religion.

But I will provide you with some links. Some of them are Byzantine Catholic, and some of them are Eastern Orthodox. I don’t necessarily endorse all the views expounded by the various writers on these sites, but you’ll get the gist from them.

byzcath.org
hrmonline.org

^HRM has links to many other sites as well.

ancientfaith.com

Ack. I seem to have lost track of many of the sites due to clearing my browser history.

jonathanscorner.com/
orthodoxwiki.org/Main_Page
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hello woundedicon,
thank you for the links, i will study them.
i can understand why the issue of married priests does present some praqctical problems. but that would be something for the priest to personally take care of. if the priest could manage out of his own finances (for example, if he owned a small bussiness or something) then thats his perogitive.

i have to point out, the teaching on contraception is not a dogma. in fact ive read that even in the roman catholic church, it is no longer considered a “mortal sin”. the church has evolved since “humanae vitae”. and thats a good thing. but the eastern church is slightly more progressive, heres a link:
orthodoxwiki.org/Contraception
lol, i know its wikipedia, but it seems trustworthy enough.
and i really do believe that Rome is mistaken in their anti- contraception stance, because look at what Jesus said: he said that two people come together for the purpose of procreation. now, when a couple has had 3 kids, dont you think they fulflled their obligation of “procreation”? because if you really think that Jesus meant that each and every sex act must be for procreation, then you must logically conclude that NFP is also a sin. because you deliberately choose to have sex during the women’s infertile periods. therefore, using barrier contraceptives is really the same as NFP. and consider the fact that even NFP is considered a sin if you use it to avoid having children.
 
someperson555 said:
but eastern catholicism does allow married priests. (according to wikipedia) the person must become married prior to the ordination.

as for the contraception thing, (again, according to wikipedia) the eastern churches do allow the use of barrier contraceptives if the couple plans to have kids at some point. i know that wikipedia is not a very reliable source, so i do plan to eventually study their teachings more in depth.
im not going lie. part of my motivation for wanting to change churches is because of personal desires and convictions. but if i could be a more devout catholic by doing that, and be happier, then why not? ill admit that im not very well informed on the differences/ similarities between the churches (except for the above mentioned issues) but thats why i want to learn more about it.
(also excuse the typos in the thread, i just noticed them)
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Well, yes, the Eastern rites do allow married priests, provided they’re married before ordination.

I’d ask which Wikipedia page you found that statement in, because from what I’ve found, I don’t see anything similar from what I’ve searched so far. The issue is that while changing churches isn’t a problem, you still will be in communion with Rome. Even though there are some differences between rites, the fact remains that the Eastern Catholic Churches are in union with the Pope and the Magisterium, and thus are bound to follow what the CCC lays out, which includes that contraception is a grave sin.
 
someperson555 said:
but eastern catholicism does allow married priests. (according to wikipedia) the person must become married prior to the ordination.

as for the contraception thing, (again, according to wikipedia) the eastern churches do allow the use of barrier contraceptives if the couple plans to have kids at some point. i know that wikipedia is not a very reliable source, so i do plan to eventually study their teachings more in depth.
im not going lie. part of my motivation for wanting to change churches is because of personal desires and convictions. but if i could be a more devout catholic by doing that, and be happier, then why not? ill admit that im not very well informed on the differences/ similarities between the churches (except for the above mentioned issues) but thats why i want to learn more about it.
(also excuse the typos in the thread, i just noticed them)
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Priestly celibacy is a discipline of the church. Contraception is a dogma. This is is not open to debate and it should be treated as such. Switching to Eastern Catholicism is not going to alter this teaching. Truth is truth.

I have conversations with my Protestant friends about these topics. They will tend to switch churches because they believe abortion is ok. The Baptist church they go to now teaches it is wrong, so they go to the other Baptist church. If they can’t find a church that teaches what they like, they start one in their living room. The next thing you know, you are a member of 1st Baptist Evangelical Reformed Seven Day Pentecostal Tabernacle Latter Day Brotherhood of God and Christ Bible Church. Incorporated.

As others have said, study up on what you propose to do. You’ll find that it isn’t going to allow you to do what you think it will allow you to do.
 
someperson555,

Let’s think about this for a minute.
  1. Eastern Catholicism and Roman Catholicism are branches of the same Church - the Catholic Church. The dogma is the same (contraception as a barrier to life), rules can be different (priestly marriage)
    a) Not all ECs are the same. Some allow married to be priests, others don’t. It’s a cultural issue.
  2. Never trust one’s own interpretation of a Wiki. The Wiki you link to is an Eastern Orthodox wiki. EO are not EC. They are members of valid churches, yes, but they are imperfect and have changed some of their dogmatic rules (they jumped all over the place with the Filioque, reunion with Rome several times but overturned by rebellious bishops or the order of the Ottoman Sultan, and various rules such as marriage and divorce to compete with the rise of Muslim converts in occupied Europe)
EO have some protection in these matters because they have been led ignorant because of their Churches. However, as a Catholic you know the truth. To abandon the truth is grave sin. No ignorance protection for you.

The truth is you would go protestant. Picking and choosing what you wanted to believe because it makes God fit your worldview. Why not then go Old Catholic? Anglican? Lutheran? Baptist? Or just plain spiritual?

This may be harsh to say but right now you are on the boat of Peter, the SS Church built by God that is prayfully able to bring along others as well (those who make a good faith effort to know God without knowing of His true Church). If you want to jump off that’s your call. Just don’t think their is another boat that can get you there.
 
someperson555 said:
all my life ive had an interest towards the eastern churches.
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I also have a great interest in Eastern orthodox but unless one is near by to be fully involved in its life there is not much point to the change. IMO
 
someperson555 said:
so those are the reasons i am really interested in converting to the eastern church. i just have a few questions, how can i go about this? is there any special ceremony that needs to be performed? or can i just start going to eastern churches right away? i just feel like i could be closer to God this way. i find roman catholicism to be restrictive and beaurocratic. im sorry to have to say that. but i will definitely research eastern catholic theology more before converting. so with that being said, could anyone link me to any more info about their theology/ practices?
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First, a Roman Catholic doesn’t convert to an Eastern Catholic Church. One requests a canonical transfer. You have to be a regular member of an Eastern Catholic Church, which means attending Divine Liturgy (usually for a year or more) and becoming properly catechised. It sounds like you need to learn much, much more about the Eastern Catholic Church.

In the ECC, there is a saying, “Liturgy is catechesis.” You will learn much about the ECC by going to Divine Liturgy, but you definitely need someone to speak to you directly about your questions. It appears you have some misconceptions about what the Catholic Church teaches and how it is related to the ECC.

While ECC theology may be different from RC, the dogma is the same. Theology is just a different way of expressing a dogmatic truth. If you are looking for different dogma, the ECC is not the place to run towards.

As an RC, you can start attending an ECC at anytime. You don’t permission from a priest or bishop. Just go. A Catholic Church is a Catholic Church.
 
While some of the eastern church’s do allow married men to become priests, Fr. Mitch Pacwa says that it is only allowed for men baptized in that church; this is to prevent men from transferring for the wrong reasons.
 
fermat said:
Priestly celibacy is a discipline of the church. Contraception is a dogma. This is is not open to debate and it should be treated as such. Switching to Eastern Catholicism is not going to alter this teaching. Truth is truth.

I have conversations with my Protestant friends about these topics. They will tend to switch churches because they believe abortion is ok. The Baptist church they go to now teaches it is wrong, so they go to the other Baptist church. If they can’t find a church that teaches what they like, they start one in their living room. The next thing you know, you are a member of 1st Baptist Evangelical Reformed Seven Day Pentecostal Tabernacle Latter Day Brotherhood of God and Christ Bible Church. Incorporated.

As others have said, study up on what you propose to do. You’ll find that it isn’t going to allow you to do what you think it will allow you to do.
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but its not dogma. a dogma is a truth revealed by God, for example: the existence of Hell, the existence of angels, one God, etc.
but any other moral teaching can be changed by the church (ones that were not directly revealed by God). catholic teaching on contraception, masterbation, etc. were all INFERRED from biblical teaching. the doesnt contain anything about contraception. it was only inferred by scholars because christ once said that marriage should be for procreation, never did christ say that every sexual act within marriage must be for procreation. this means that they are NOT dogmas. the church could legalize condoms tomorrow if it wanted. im not changing churches because i just desperately want to do what i want, (if that were the case id become an atheist lol). I wholeheartedly believe that the church is really mistaken on their stance on contraception. although i think the roman church is going to change eventually. its just a matter of time.
 
someperson555,
No, that’s only a third of what is dogma. The Catholic Encylopedia (newadvent.org/cathen/05089a.htm) has in its dogma section:

“Theologians distinguish three classes of revealed truths: truths formally and explicitly revealed; truths revealed formally, but only implicitly; and truths only virtually revealed.”

Abortion is sin is not a moral flexible teaching but dogma. Ditto with the Trinity and the Creeds we have even though God didn’t write those out for us in the Bible.

As for the Eastern Catholic Church and contraception: No, they do not allow it. You are confusing Eastern Catholic and Eastern Orthodox. Even if you were to jump ship to Orthodoxy you would be committing sin by birth control because you know the Catholic Truth. This would be on top of abandoning the Church, a grave sin in and of itself.

I strongly recommend you stop looking at Wikis as a) reliability can always be suspect and b) one must have a good background to understand what is going on. Failure to do so can lead one to confuse Eastern Orthodoxy and Eastern Catholicism.

As for Hesychasm and other Eastern Catholic/Orthodox practices: if you find reward in those there is no problem. It is a tool to mediate and find God. As it is merely a tool and does not conflict with Church teaching you can be a Roman Catholic and still use it. Just like a Coptic Catholic can do the rosary.

someperson555, I ask and beg of you to consider what you’re doing. A sin is a sin anywhere. The Anglicans don’t believe abortion is a sin but they are wrong. Radical Islamists don’t believe killing unbelievers is a sin but they are wrong. You are openly stating you want to jump ship because someone will tell you that you can do something which the Church says is wrong. Stick with the Church! To pick and choose what to believe and practice, to force God into your mold, is a one-way street away from God and to the enemy!
 
Catholicgauze said:
someperson555,
No, that’s only a third of what is dogma. The Catholic Encylopedia (newadvent.org/cathen/05089a.htm) has in its dogma section:

“Theologians distinguish three classes of revealed truths: truths formally and explicitly revealed; truths revealed formally, but only implicitly; and truths only virtually revealed.”

Abortion is sin is not a moral flexible teaching but dogma. Ditto with the Trinity and the Creeds we have even though God didn’t write those out for us in the Bible.

As for the Eastern Catholic Church and contraception: No, they do not allow it. You are confusing Eastern Catholic and Eastern Orthodox. Even if you were to jump ship to Orthodoxy you would be committing sin by birth control because you know the Catholic Truth. This would be on top of abandoning the Church, a grave sin in and of itself.

I strongly recommend you stop looking at Wikis as a) reliability can always be suspect and b) one must have a good background to understand what is going on. Failure to do so can lead one to confuse Eastern Orthodoxy and Eastern Catholicism.

As for Hesychasm and other Eastern Catholic/Orthodox practices: if you find reward in those there is no problem. It is a tool to mediate and find God. As it is merely a tool and does not conflict with Church teaching you can be a Roman Catholic and still use it. Just like a Coptic Catholic can do the rosary.

someperson555, I ask and beg of you to consider what you’re doing. A sin is a sin anywhere. The Anglicans don’t believe abortion is a sin but they are wrong. Radical Islamists don’t believe killing unbelievers is a sin but they are wrong. You are openly stating you want to jump ship because someone will tell you that you can do something which the Church says is wrong. Stick with the Church! To pick and choose what to believe and practice, to force God into your mold, is a one-way street away from God and to the enemy!
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i know,
please understand, im not trying to change faiths because i just want an excuse to do my own will (as i said, if that were the case i would become an atheist) i just dont want to deprive myself of something, and then figure out that it was never meant to be a sin in the first place. i dont know how to explain it very well, but ill try. yes I want to use contraception, yes i know that the church forbids it. so naturally as any curious person, i look at WHY it is forbidden. i research where this notion that “contraception is wrong” originates from. because the fact is, if it is forbidden then it must be 1) morally wrong, and 2) the will of God. now, since the church makes all it’s rules based on biblical teaching, one must look to the bible to determine how accurate the church’s judgement is. concerning contraception, so far i have only found one passage vaguely relating to contraception (the story of Onan) but this is also up for debate, because Onan intended to never have kids, but this in no way implies that contraception cannot be used sometimes. in fact, even NFP is a sin, if you use it with Onan’s intention’s. it seems God was trying to tell us that its a sin to never want to concieve, rather than every sex act must be for procreation. It was this appifany which lead me to the belief that the church is maybe mistaken on their contraception stance. then i saw that there are catholics sects that think exactly the way i do. so as you can see, i agree with them because i honestly believe that to be the truth. its not because i just want a free pass to do as i please. not to mention there are even Roman catholics who have defended the use of contraception. and these roman catholics are not heretics, they just present an honest opinion on the subject.
as for dogma, Jesus knew that we are just humans and that we are bound to misinterpret, certain teachings, this is why he gave the popes authority to change certain teachings. “whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (jesus says to peter). there is a reason why even roman catholic priests criticize certain church teaching. they are not heretics or infiltrators, they are just priests with an honest opinion. i dont understand this overreaction by so many other catholics when their fellow catholics merely point out a possible flaw.
and ofcourse, i will not change churches so easily. i still want to study a lot about their theology and dogma.
 
Splagchnizomai said:
No, it couldn’t. Please, read Humanae Vitae. Get deeper into the teachings of the Church in which you belong. Find a competent authority (priest, catechist, professor, etc) to personally discuss it with you.
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i know about humanae vitae, but it was written 50 years ago. the theology of the body is slightly better. humanae vitae is far too restrictive. albeit “theology of the body” isnt exactly the kama sutra, but its still more common sense.
 
someperson555 said:
but its not dogma. a dogma is a truth revealed by God, for example: the existence of Hell, the existence of angels, one God, etc.
but any other moral teaching can be changed by the church (ones that were not directly revealed by God). catholic teaching on contraception, masterbation, etc. were all INFERRED from biblical teaching. the doesnt contain anything about contraception. it was only inferred by scholars because christ once said that marriage should be for procreation, never did christ say that every sexual act within marriage must be for procreation. this means that they are NOT dogmas. the church could legalize condoms tomorrow if it wanted. im not changing churches because i just desperately want to do what i want, (if that were the case id become an atheist lol). I wholeheartedly believe that the church is really mistaken on their stance on contraception. although i think the roman church is going to change eventually. its just a matter of time.
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I would recommend the book “Life-Giving Love” by Kimberly Hahn, it’s an excellent book which, while covering the whole of God’s plan for marriage, also touches on the Church’s teachings about contraception. In the fourth chapter of the book, Mrs. Hahn quotes from the “Vademecum for Confessors”, a handbook which states this:
Vademecum For Confessors:
  1. The Church has always taught the intrinsic evil of contraception, that is, of every marital act intentionally rendered unfruitful. This teaching is to be held as definitive and irreformable. Contraception is gravely opposed to marital chastity; it is contrary to the good of the transmission of life (the procreative aspect of matrimony), and to the reciprocal self-giving of the spouses (the unitive aspect of matrimony); it harms true love and denies the sovereign role of God in the transmission of human life.33
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Overall, I think the point that has been made by the posters here is as follows:


  1. *]The Eastern Catholic Churches are in communion with the See of Rome, and thus hold to the same doctrines and dogmas as the Western Churches, which includes the teaching on contraception.
    *]Switching to the Eastern Catholic Church would still leave you bound to the teaching of the Magisterium.
 
Cruxis117 said:
I would recommend the book “Life-Giving Love” by Kimberly Hahn, it’s an excellent book which, while covering the whole of God’s plan for marriage, also touches on the Church’s teachings about contraception. In the fourth chapter of the book, Mrs. Hahn quotes from the “Vademecum for Confessors”, a handbook which states this:

I really wouldn’t. It’s badly written and filled with superfluous nonsense.
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Spyral said:
Cruxis117;9138341:
I would recommend the book “Life-Giving Love” by Kimberly Hahn, it’s an excellent book which, while covering the whole of God’s plan for marriage, also touches on the Church’s teachings about contraception. In the fourth chapter of the book, Mrs. Hahn quotes from the “Vademecum for Confessors”, a handbook which states this:
Click to expand...
I really wouldn’t. It’s badly written and filled with superfluous nonsense.

I disagree entirely. It’s well written, with stories, arguments, and references which are relevant to people today, from the young men and women discerning their vocation, to the married couple of all ages, and even for those in Holy Orders for a resource when it comes to teaching about this important vocation and subject.
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