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Monday, February 13, 2012

The Time Has Come: Proclaim Humanae Vitae

Okay, Bishops, it's time. For over 40 years, since the Pill appeared on the scene and helped spark the sexual revolution, Catholic truth about marriage and sexuality has been muzzled or muffled in a self-imposed silence. How many pewsitters EVER hear a sermon about openness to life in marriage? Despite the fact that over 90% of Catholic married couples are contracepting, timidity and cowardice rule in the pulpit.

Contraception is gravely evil and yet many Catholics embrace the sin and continue to approach the altar rail committing a sacrilege every time they receive Communion. And, for the most part, no one says a word. It's a tragedy and a betrayal. We need to hear the truth from our clergy. The obligation of the Church is to proclaim the truth. And in our sexually debased culture that obligation is crucial to saving souls.

Why is contraception wrong? Because it takes God's gift of sexuality and deliberately destroys it. If someone gave you a car and you said, well I love the car but I hate that dirty engine and ripped it out, would the car run?
Of course not. But that's essentially what happens when a couple contracepts. They reject an essential part of the gift that destroys what it was made for. God gave us the gift of fertility for unity and procreation. We respect the gift and accept it when we embrace it in its fullness. God loves to give us pleasure and the gifts associated with our sense are pleasurable. Eating isn't just an instinct; it's a delight especially when we break bread with family and friends. Sexual relations give pleasure too, but just like eating can be become gluttony because of the fixation on the pleasure of eating; sex can become lust when the primary focus is pleasure.

I used to teach NFP (Natural Family Planning) and occasionally people would ask me how that's any different from contraception? It's totally different although it can be used with a contraceptive mentality. The Church teaches that couples may avoid conception for a serious reason. I can think of lots of those. The couple in prayer and with spiritual advice is best able to assess their situation. But the means a couple uses when postponing pregnancy is important.

Sexual relations are a form of communication so let me present an analogy to verbal communication. A person can choose not to speak and to remain silent for a particular reason. Or he can stuff his mouth with cotton or use a gag or cut off speech permanently by cutting out his tongue or larynx. When a couple is using NFP to postpone a pregnancy, they choose "silence" during the time when the woman is fertile by abstaining from sexual communication. They do not call the child into being. The contracepting couple, on the other hand, uses a device or drug to "gag" their ability to communicate or, if they desire "permanent silence" they choose sterilization.

For many of these couples, their rejection of Church teaching and embrace of immoral means of birth control contributes to the death of their love. The divorce rate among those who follow Church teaching is negligible. Not so for contracepting couples. Those who choose their own will rather than following Church teaching think they are making themselves happy. What often happens is they destroy whatever opportunity they had for happiness. It's very sad actually. I've heard that mantra, "I have a right to be happy." from lots of folks defying God's law. They usually end up miserable.

The Church's teaching on marriage and sexuality is part of the good news to be celebrated and proclaimed with joy. It's not something we need to be ashamed of or hide in the basement. So please, bishops, proclaim Humane Vitae and teach your priests to proclaim it too. We wouldn't be fighting the contraceptive mandate today if you had been proclaiming the beauty of Church teaching for the last a 40 years!

5 comments:

  1. Awesome mom! I couldn't have said it better. In fact, Chris and I are going to write a letter to our bishop with some of the same message. I feel like the current situation is the Church reaping what it has sown for allowing people who openly dissent to sit comfortably in the pews without being challenged. There is so much talk about being ecumenical and not enough about being authentically Catholic. Good for you. I'm proud to be your daughter.

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  2. Thanks, Alice, I'm proud to be your mom and wish you would write more articles for the website.

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  3. So your answer for those of us who "comfortably sit in the pews" and feel that using birth control is the right choice for our families is what? Kick us out? Since the statistics show that about 90% of practicing catholics use birth control, the pews would get mighty empty. And I'd love to know how you plan to "challenge" people - plan to have them fertility tested? Question those that have fewer than 3 children? Offer free vasectomy reversals? Good grief. The issue isn't that people don't know about Humanea Vitae, it's that we have prayerfully and thoughtfully decided that preventing endless pregnancy is the right thing morally.

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  4. Check out Michael Voris on contraception and the bishops. These two recent videos: Missing the Point (2/13) and Obama's Gamble (2/14)are the latest and best. He's grabbing the bishop's bull by the horns.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekFX370kE-Y

    Obama's Gamble from 02/13 not yet on Youtube
    http://www.realcatholictv.com/premium/index.php?vidID=vort-2012-02-14&ssnID=190

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  5. Don't be silly, Anonymous (2/14 12:07). You insult your own intelligence by saying something so ridiculous.

    Of course, you can do whatever you want because God gave you free will. And nobody is going to throw you out of the Church. Nobody but you may know what you're doing -- you and God, that is. But our shepherds have the obligation to warn you that you are in danger of hell. Maybe you don't believe that. I imagine my neighbor who had the bumper sticker "Prayerfully pro-choice" doesn't believe it either. But expecting God to ignore his own moral laws and still welcome you with open arms (unrepentant) into heaven is a sin against the first commandment called presumption.

    Using contraception is a mortal sin. And every time you go to Communion while in the state of mortal sin you commit another mortal sin (of sacrilege). Honestly, I don't want you to go to hell. That's why the bishops and priests MUST proclaim Humanae Vitae -- to save souls from hell. Nobody can stop you going to hell if that's your choice, but I hope and pray you'll make a better one.

    Now you may think God is the big creampuff in the sky, but that's a risk I'm unwilling to take. I know He loves me unconditionally, but He will let me walk away from Him if I insist that my will is superior to His. So make your own choice, but be ready for the consequences.

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