What 10 Priests Say About Contraception

  • Thread starter Thread starter Katholish
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
Lost_Sheep said:
Nonsense. It is a natural human function; just like eating, sleeping and going to the bathroom.
Click to expand...
It’s natural but it’s not imperative. Eating, sleeping and eliminating are part of functioning as a healthy human. A person cannot live without these faculties. The same is not true about sexual activity. A person can live quite healthily without ever having sex. Whether it is hard to do so is irrelevant. No one dies from lack of sex. The desire to have sex is necessary for the continuation of the species and not the life of the individual, unlike eating, sleeping or eliminating.
 
Pug said:
Sheep you are off here. I advocate it in certain situations, and I have had sex. I have practiced abstinence for extremely long periods of time, while lying in bed next to my spouse every night, too. It requires a certain physical distance in the relationship to do that without going nuts, at least for me. No kissing while watching a movie in the den at night, no letting my eyes linger on my spouse, etc. I do not claim it is easy. I do claim that with discipline it gets easier, though. Age also helps some. I find that it interferes with the connection I desire with my spouse, so its necessity makes me sad. And that does not go away.

I can sound much more frustrated with abstinence that I am doing right now, but it is Sunday and I am in a good mood.
Click to expand...
This is unnatural and not healthy for most of the people.
The abstinence is not for everybody.
 
Jaaanosik said:
This is unnatural and not healthy for most of the people.
The abstinence is not for everybody.
Click to expand...
It’s not optimal and this is why the Church says that abstinence should only be undertaken for serious reasons. But it’s not “unhealthy”. You don’t get sick from lack of sex. And it’s certainly not “unnatural”. We are humans, not wild animals. We don’t have to give in to every urge at all times.
 
Jaaanosik said:
This is unnatural and not healthy for most of the people.
The abstinence is not for everybody.
Click to expand...
I wouldn’t call it unnatural. It is a natural behavior for humans to make rational decisions about their life and act on them. Of course we act irrationally often enough as well. 😛 Also, remember the part you bolded in my post is what I, me personally, need to do to be able to stand it. That is just me.

Abstinence is a perfectly rational decision in *certain *situations. Indeed it is not appropriate for all situations!
 
Mulligan2 said:
One of the priests quoted in the article says, “The Church’s teaching on artificial contraception seems to most people today archaic and silly.”

I give him credit for realizing the way this message is being received.
Click to expand...
For the dissenting “catholic”…sure.

***Peace, Mark ***
 
Mark121359 said:
For the dissenting “catholic”…sure.

***Peace, Mark ***
Click to expand...
I’m not sure what the point of your post is.

I gave him credit for recognizing the way the message was being received. Many will not admit to that fact.
 
I read what Mark wrote to mean that the priest recognised how the message is being received by the dissenting Catholic. And he is right, Catholics who see the Church’s teaching on contraception (or any other matter) as being archaic or silly are in fact dissenting from Church teaching. As Catholics we are not free to pick and choose what teachings we accept and what teachings we do not accept.
 
Brendan_64 said:
I read what Mark wrote to mean that the Pope recognised how the message is being received by the dissenting Catholic. And he is right, Catholics who see the Church’s teaching on contraception (or any other matter) as being archaic or silly are in fact dissenting from Church teaching. As Catholics we are not free to pick and choose what teachings we accept and what teachings we do not accept.
Click to expand...
BINGO! 👍 Small correction; it was a priest, Fr. Peter Junipero Hannah, not the Pope in the article that Mulligan2 was quoting. But the bolded above that you posted is spot-on…and my point exactly!

Peace, Mark
 
Mark121359 said:
BINGO! 👍 small correction; it was a priest, not the Pope in the article that Mulligan2 was quoting. But the bolded above that you posted is spot-on…and my point exactly

Peace, Mark
Click to expand...
My mistake on the Pope/priest bit, a slip of the keyboard.
 
What we see all around us is the fruit of the society that promotes contraception as a viable option. Unparalleled numbers of divorces, abortions, fatherless families and general promiscuity. It might not be fashionable to be the voice of pessimism, but so many of the problems in our society stem from the breakdown of the family, and contraception has played a major part in that.

Advocates of contraception don’t realise how subtle the devil is, since they can escape the wider effects of a ‘contraceptive-mentality’. It may seem harmless, but it aint.
 
Corki said:
It’s not optimal and this is why the Church says that abstinence should only be undertaken for serious reasons. But it’s not “unhealthy”. You don’t get sick from lack of sex. And it’s certainly not “unnatural”. We are humans, not wild animals. We don’t have to give in to every urge at all times.
Click to expand...
If you missed it:
No kissing while watching a movie in the den at night, no letting my eyes linger on my spouse, etc.
Click to expand...
This is not healthy. I’ve seen this type of behavior to harm good families.
 
Pug said:
I wouldn’t call it unnatural. It is a natural behavior for humans to make rational decisions about their life and act on them. Of course we act irrationally often enough as well. 😛 Also, remember the part you bolded in my post is what I, me personally, need to do to be able to stand it. That is just me.

Abstinence is a perfectly rational decision in *certain *situations. Indeed it is not appropriate for all situations!
Click to expand...
It’s not just you. Many men have to do similar stuff.
That’s why I call it unhealthy.
 
Brendan_64 said:
I read what Mark wrote to mean that the priest recognised how the message is being received by the dissenting Catholic. And he is right, Catholics who see the Church’s teaching on contraception (or any other matter) as being archaic or silly are in fact dissenting from Church teaching. As Catholics we are not free to pick and choose what teachings we accept and what teachings we do not accept.
Click to expand...
Sure, it’s Church’s teaching that a Catholic is supposed to follow his/her well informed conscience.
The discussion would be how one can attain the well informed conscience.
 
Jaaanosik said:
It’s not just you. Many men have to do similar stuff.
That’s why I call it unhealthy.
Click to expand...
I think before the Fall (original sin) this would not have been an issue. All our faculties would have been in perfect sync, so the tension between various parts of our mind would not be there.

But, the tension is there, so we must deal with it as best we can while pursuing certain rational ends. What I might call unhealthy for a marriage though, is pursuing abstinence in those situations where it is not a justifiable course.
 
Jaaanosik said:
If you missed it:

This is not healthy. I’ve seen this type of behavior to harm good families.
Click to expand...
Sorry, but unless you are personally acquainted with this person and his wife, you have no idea if it is healthy or not. It is not physically unhealthy. It may be that the couple has decided to avoid temptation. And that is very HEALTHY, not unhealthy.

What IS unhealthy, socially and morally, is this pervasive idea that any couple that isn’t having lots of sex must be dysfunctional. If a couple can’t survive a period of abstinence, there is something else wrong. It’s not abstinence that harms good families; it’s an unbalanced focus on sex so that, if abstinence is needed or desired, other parts of the relationship fall apart.
 
Corki said:
Sorry, but unless you are personally acquainted with this person and his wife, you have no idea if it is healthy or not. It is not physically unhealthy. It may be that the couple has decided to avoid temptation. And that is very HEALTHY, not unhealthy.

What IS unhealthy, socially and morally, is this pervasive idea that any couple that isn’t having lots of sex must be dysfunctional. If a couple can’t survive a period of abstinence, there is something else wrong. It’s not abstinence that harms good families; it’s an unbalanced focus on sex so that, if abstinence is needed or desired, other parts of the relationship fall apart.
Click to expand...
There are many people affected by the same issues.

There are many married couples who practice different ways of conception avoidance other than NFP and those couples are healthier than they would be if they practiced the NFP.
 
Jaaanosik said:
There are many people affected by the same issues.

There are many married couples who practice different ways of conception avoidance other than NFP and those couples are healthier than they would be if they practiced the NFP.
Click to expand...
You know this how? Or is it just a bias statement not based on fact?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top