As a note, I'm only halfway through reading this thread, but I've seen enough wrong info about Catholics and birth control to get my knickers in a tizzy.
Firstly, I'd like to mention that I am a practicing (though I don't abide by all teachings of the church), post-Vaticain II Catholic. Note, POST Vaticain II. I promise you, it's not even the same church as pre-1960s.
With that in mind, the teachings of the modern Catholic Church do not prohibit birth control. Not in the least. In fact, they downright encourage it.
What the Church teaches is responsability. As of the Vaticain II counsil, there are two functions to a marraige - a loving union, and makin' babies. But, it would be irrisponsible to let one get in the way of the other. Or to let your relationship to God (or your sanity) suffer because of one or the other.
But what does that mean in real life?
It means to keep your head on straight - if you can't support a baby, don't have one. But you don't want to let that get in the way of the "loving" couple side of your relationship - then use birth control. If you've got more kids than you can handle (one really can't emotionally handle as many kids as they produce), then you should make sure you're not having more kids. Now, the prefered method of birth control is selective abstinence (charting the woman's cycle, and only allowing intorcourse durring her infertile times), but the Church realizes that this isn't always going to happen.
Of course, the flip side is that if you're in a possition to support children (emotionally, spiritually, and finantially), you shouldn't be blocking that.
Any questions? |
