Birth Control

[Fish and Bread]

I know, that according to Catholic teaching, the use of birth control is a sin, but I am unaware of how it is categorized. Is it considered to be a mortal sin or a venial sin?

 

[Brother_Justin]

It is of grave matter.




Brother Justin <><

 

[QuantaCura]

Meaning, unless you have mitigating circumstances that lessen culpability, it's mortal.

 

[Brother_Justin]

hehe I should have clarified. Thank you once again Quantra !!



Brother Justin <><

 

[QuantaCura]

hehe I should have clarified. Thank you once again Quantra !!

Fish and Bread probably knows the Catholic lingo, but just in case anyone else checked in I thought I'd clarify

 

[wrknprgrstn]

It's a run to confession right away matter...oh yes...and stop being a doofus ye faifless dopes! Ha Ha. Peace Friends.

 

[Miss Shelby]

I think that most people who practice it don't really know what the Church teaches about it, they only know what they have been TOLD why the Church teaches it and that is because the Church is an ancient institution stuck in the past. Most people will never really understand why until they have a true conversion of heart to do the right thing. OR until they are told by pastoral authority.

A few months ago, my daughter had her first reconcilliation retreat. My sil, on my husband's side's son is in the same class. So we were at the retreat together. This is a new priest in our parish. At the retreat he talked to the parents about reconcilliation. He said it was important for parents to practice it and he also said that purgatory and hell were real. He did not say it in those blunt of terms. But anyway, for years before the priests in that parish never said anything like that.

After that at a family gathering, my sil TOLD me she was convicted, because she'd NOT heard a priest talk like that in a LONG time. And her husband told me later it had been bothering her all day.

So, she KNEW it was real--the potentials upon death--she'd just not heard it emphasized by a pastoral authority--- and it really really bothered her. To the point where she said she didn't like the priest.

But see, that's just internal conviction. Her heart, knowing what is right, and coming to terms with it.

Anyways, my point is, uncomfortability with the truth is usually conviction and that is where it starts. And usually there is some resistance there.

In dealing with birth control, our culture has told us it's right, and we have not heard that it's wrong. So naturally when people hear it's wrong, they will resist.

Michelle

 

[Chrystabelle]

Meaning, unless you have mitigating circumstances that lessen culpability, it's mortal.

So my priests and the Cardinal were correct then (in sympathising with me and condoning my use of barrier contraception)?

 

[Chrystabelle]

In dealing with birth control, our culture has told us it's right, and we have not heard that it's wrong. So naturally when people hear it's wrong, they will resist.

Because it does not make sense. It is easy to understand why abortificient contraception such as IUDs are wrong but it is almost impossible to understand why condoms are wrong. This is especially difficult to comprehend in cases where women are middle-aged with half a dozen children already.

Note: I was brought up to believe that contraception is wrong. It was drummed into me repeatedly over many, many years. Now that I am middle-aged and not fit for another pregnancy - excuse me - but NO I will NOT take the same route which Mother and Father took. Because they were devout Roman Catholics, they had to give up their marital relationship at the age of 42, for health reasons. This is in direct conflict with what St Paul wrote to the Corinthians (see below). He advised that married couples should not withold from each other (except for short periods of prayer) lest the devil should tempt them. I have FIRST HAND experience of this. My dear father suffered for so many years. My mother had a fling with a previous boyfriend, five years after stopping her marital relationship with my dear father. So much suffering............... And in whose name, anyway?

St Paul's Letter to the Corinthians

7:1 Now concerning the matters about which you wrote: &#8220;It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.&#8221; 2 But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband. 3 The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband. 4 For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. 5 Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a limited time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer; but then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.

 

[sempervirens]

My understanding is BC is possibly licit in the one case when you are trying to live according to the churches teaching but the spouse is unwilling.
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From

http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/family/documents/rc_pc_family_doc_12021997_vademecum_en.html

13. Special difficulties are presented by cases of cooperation in the sin of a spouse who voluntarily renders the unitive act infecund. In the first place, it is necessary to distinguish cooperation in the proper sense, from violence or unjust imposition on the part of one of the spouses, which the other spouse in fact cannot resist. This cooperation can be licit when the three following conditions are jointly met:

1. when the action of the cooperating spouse is not already illicit in itself;
2. when proportionally grave reasons exist for cooperating in the sin of the other spouse;
3. when one is seeking to help the other spouse to desist from such conduct (patiently, with prayer, charity and dialogue; although not necessarily in that moment, nor on every single occasion).

14. Furthermore, it is necessary to carefully evaluate the question of cooperation in evil when recourse is made to means which can have an abortifacient effect.

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A proportionally grave reason could include the issue which Paul brings up in Corinthians, giving yourself to a spouse in a situation where you assent to the church's teaching but are imposed on by a spouse who does not agree - that's something best discussed with your confessor.

 

[Febe]

My understanding is BC is possibly licit in the one case when you are trying to live according to the churches teaching but the spouse is unwilling.
-----------------------------------------------
From

http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/family/documents/rc_pc_family_doc_12021997_vademecum_en.html

13. Special difficulties are presented by cases of cooperation in the sin of a spouse who voluntarily renders the unitive act infecund. In the first place, it is necessary to distinguish cooperation in the proper sense, from violence or unjust imposition on the part of one of the spouses, which the other spouse in fact cannot resist. This cooperation can be licit when the three following conditions are jointly met:

1. when the action of the cooperating spouse is not already illicit in itself;
2. when proportionally grave reasons exist for cooperating in the sin of the other spouse;
3. when one is seeking to help the other spouse to desist from such conduct (patiently, with prayer, charity and dialogue; although not necessarily in that moment, nor on every single occasion).

14. Furthermore, it is necessary to carefully evaluate the question of cooperation in evil when recourse is made to means which can have an abortifacient effect.

--------------------
A proportionally grave reason could include the issue which Paul brings up in Corinthians, giving yourself to a spouse in a situation where you assent to the church's teaching but are imposed on by a spouse who does not agree - that's something best discussed with your confessor.

Good stuff to read; thanks!