Hi netters, Just found something from the net on the topic of the Church's stand on family planning. Found it in one of the Catholic sites. There we have the same instance of a third person asking Father Mateo on his query on the church's stand on family planning / birth control.. Regards in Christ, Samji / Dubai
Father Mateo Archives, November 27, 1993, Birth Control I want to thank you for your response to my previous question, to which now I've found another one for you. You have probably dealt with this question before, cause this is an important issue in today's world. Currently, I have some friends asking me about birth control, and where the church stands on it. What way does the church feel is best for married couples and what is their stand point on condoms? Dear Mike, God has fashioned marriage as a sacred covenant between wife and husband to form a union so close as to make them one person. "Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh" (Genesis 2:24). This is the first and oldest of God's covenants with human beings, immensely older than his covenant with Israel and His covenant through Jesus Christ with His Catholic Church. Therefore it involves all human beings, not just Jews and Catholics. God's purpose in this marriage covenant is twofold: mutual love and the transmission of human life. This twofold purpose involves the whole being of husband and wife, spiritual and psychic as well as physical. Physically and spiritually, the two partners achieve both mutual love and the new life of their children through the spiritual/physical marriage act. Deliberately to frustrate God's purpose in the marriage act through artificial interference with its lifegiving nature is seriously sinful and contrary to the will of God. The marriage act between two unmarried people is the mortal sin of fornication. If one or both are married (to someone else, of course), the act is adultery, a mortal sin. If fornication or adultery is committed while using a condom or other artificial contraceptive, there is the sin of contraception as well as the sin of fornication or adultery. Obviously, one evil (fornication) cannot change another evil (contraception) into a good, or vice versa. Artificial contraception is wrong and sinful because by positive and artificial intervention it deliberately frustrates an important purpose of what is intended by God to be a sacred and life-giving act within the marriage covenant. Now, what if a married couple cannot at present afford the expenses of another child? In that situation, they may practice periodic continence: abstaining during the wife's fertile periods. Periodic continence is moral: 1) if the husband and wife both agree; 2) if during times of abstinence they are not liable to fall into sins of masturbation, contraception, or adultery; 3) if they have serious justifying reasons for limiting the number of their children. These reasons might be financial: they might be reasons of health, et al. Therefore, our doctrine does not condemn prudent limitation of family size. It forbids artificial means thereto. Most American dioceses have Family Bureaus which refer enquirers to information workshops and support personnel in aid of natural methods of family planning. One has only to call the local Chanery office to find out. For further reading on this subject: 1) John F. Kippley. Sex and the Marriage Covenant. 2) Charles D. Provan. The Bible and Birth Control. This book is useful, but shows considerable anti-Catholic bigotry. 3) Pope Paul VI. Encyclical on Human Life. Humanae Vitae. 4) John Hardon, The Catholic Family. 5) Lawler and others, Catholic Sexual Ethics. 6) May, W.E., Sex and the Sanctity of Human Life. 7) W.A. Corbett. Financial Guide for Catholics. 8) Natural Family Planning: Why It Succeeds. Sincerely in Christ, Father Mateo -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp **************************************************************** This mail is generated from JOYnet, a Jesus Youth mailing list. To unsubscribe, send a mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe to this mailing list, visit http://www.jesusyouth.org/joynet For automatic help, send a mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] In case of any issue related to the mailing list contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] ****************************************************************
