What Do Catholics Believe About Birth Control?

[Playinghardball]

Simple, right?


Found on CatholicsForChoice.com.

[sinkingfeeling]

1. Always loved Catholics for Choice. Guess I just like rebels!

[hedgehog]

2. Effectively, the bishops are asking the US government

to rule on Church teachings.

[demosincebirth]

3. That's not news to me. It's the hierarchy that it's, probably, news tol

[Dawson Leery]

4. The dictators (Bishops/Cardinals) are the ones who oppose birth control.

[barbtries]

5. back in the 1970s

my brother had a girlfriend whose mother was catholic (i suppose the gf was too). this girl had gotten pregnant when she was 14 years old. so afraid of her mother she was like 4 months along by the time she told her. mother made her have an abortion. i can recall so very clearly sitting at her table and her saying, "i'm catholic but i believe in abortion."
the girl was 14. she had a bright future and it was simply not the time for a child.

another friend, catholic also, was closer to 5 months along when she let her family know she was pregnant (she was 20 and planned to have the baby). mom's reaction? same thing: you have to get an abortion!

in theory it's easy to judge and to say what WE'D do in these situations. when reality rears its ugly head we often discover that we believe things we didn't think we believed. things, like abortion being a valid resolution to an unwanted pregnancy, for instance.

well i'm sure if the republicans get their way there will be plenty more abortions. i'm really shocked that this issue is being discussed at this point in time. but i should be long past the point where the republicans can shock me at all.

[southernyankeebelle]

6. Many catholics are reasonable and realize having a baby at a very young age is a burden for the

young girl and her family. Let's face it not many men want to be daddies at 16. Emotionally they and the young girl aren't really ready. Besides it will be the young girls parents who usually end up taking care of the baby. I always told my son if you play to fiddle your going to pay the fiddler by stepping up and being a daddy. There is no way around it. He was 26 and he ended up being a daddy. He did end up marrying the girl because he didn't want his child being labelled. They didn't last a year. But what a daddy he turned out to be. He was a better daddy then she was a mother. She was just to young to be a mother. A few years have passed and now they are married again. They still have their arguments but they do love each other. Their little girl is happy.

I personally don't believe in abortion for me. But I have no right to take it away from anyoneelse. That is an individual right. We have no right to judge another person's decision.

[fascisthunter]

7. The Church has no moral standing when it comes to sex

they need to STFU and deal with their own sexual problems.

Catholics I know are nothing like the catholics calling the shots.

[Bluenorthwest]

8. I'm not impressed that they remain in a religion they do not Believe and secretly do

as they wish while allowing that same religion to attack others who can not skulk around and say one thing while doing another. Those are hypocrites just as their leadership is.

[hunter]

10. It's a community.

Why do you remain a citizen of the U.S.A. when you disagree with its leadership?

The church progresses at about the same glacial pace as our nation does. How long before the slaves were freed? How long before before women got to vote? When did the civil rights movement start? When will gay couples be able to marry?

The Catholic Church is on the leading edge of some progressive issues -- Social Justice, Opposing the Death Penalty, Opposing the bloody conquest of Iraq, but they are far behind on others.

Much the same as the USA itself. You don't leave the USA just because a few freaks have got the microphone.

I confess, I'm very careful with my money and try not to let any of it get into the pedophile protection funds. And I've visited right-wing parishes where I would not participate in the church community at all. (The protestant churches in those places are often worse, with even greater war-mongering, bigotry, and vile homophobia.)

But from my perspective my love/hate relationship with the Church is identical to my love/hate relationship with the USA.

There are things I despise about the USA just as there are things I despise within the Church. And the worst thing about the U.S.A. is I can't really withhold my money as a form of protest. I can say "NO" to the Church when they ask for money, but I can't say "NO" to the IRS.

[Brettongarcia]

9. Read an exhaustive scholarly Catholic argument FOR abortion

Most Catholics in actual practice don't really believe or follow the bishops; the latest figure says that 98% of sexually active Catholic women have used birth control.

What's more? There is a surprisingly detailed and convincing theological argument that mainstream Catholic Tradition, theology, is against the current bishops too.

On my blog is a 700-page, rough but usable working paper; outlining 200 BIble-based, Catholic arguments against any "Catholic" anti-abortionism. Brettongarcia's Pro-Abortion Theology blog. http://brettongarcia.wordpress.com/