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If you deny the Teaching Magisterium of the Church, you reject Catholicism. Just as there are some anti-Semotic Jews, there are anti-Catholic "Catholics" particularly in the obsessively materialistic and very poorly catechized liberal "Cathiolic" circles of the United States known as AmChurch.

Well, then count me in, I guess. FWIW, I would point out that the liberal circles of which you speak seem to comprise the majority of the American Church, as I'd say the overwhelming majority of American Catholics reject the Church's teachings on artificial birth control, for one, knowing full well what the Church's position is on the issue.

It'd be interesting, academically, to see just how far most Americans have drifted from the core teachings of the Church. It isn't, incidentally, the same thing as being bigoted against Catholics, as would be the KKK, for example.

Snidely

The precise problem is that so many CLAIM to be Catholic because their ancestors were, because they were baptized Catholic, because they were confirmed, because they attend what is offered by the supposedly "Catholic" parish of St. John/Bobby/Ted Kennedy; while totally rejecting important aspects of Catholic teaching just because the teachings are inconsistent with a desire for a rank materialist lifestyle.

AmChurch Catholicism: Why have more kids if you can'gt afford Harvard tuitions for them? Won't we be DIFFERENT from our neighbors (you betcha!)? We can be just as "American" as anybody else (defined as materialistic above all) and no one can MAKE us stop calling ourselves Catholic just because we birth conrol, wink at little Brucie's romance with Lance (after all, what business is that of the bishops?), drag Susie by the ear to the nearest abortion mill because she is NOT going to spoil our family reputation just because she insists on not using birth control like her responsible "Catholic" American parents, etc., etc., etc.

The Catholic Church would be better off expelling as many Americans AmChurch Catholics as possible, getting down to a hard core of well-catechized, believing, knowledgeable and FAITHFUL Catholics and re-evangelizing this nation's ex-Catholics but first they must understand that they ARE EX-Catholics. Then, if they don't want to live by the rules, we aren't drafting anyone.

The KKK could never damage the Church here as have faithless, rebellious, disobedient "Catholics", including bishops and priests and nuns, who mistake their warm fuzzies or political agendas for Church doctrine. No one is required to be a Catholic. No one should be allowed to dissent and remain one. There are plenty of spin-off churches that will provide the appearances without the substance.

Shape up or ship out.

The problem with the official Catholic position on birth control is that it's nonsensical.

"Every action which, whether in anticipation of the conjugal act, or in its accomplishment, or in the development of its natural consequences, proposes, whether as an end or as a means, to render procreation impossible" is intrinsically evil (Humanae Vitae 14).

Given that no form of birth control known to man renders procreation impossible, using contraception cannot be, in and of itself, intrinsically evil.

Hormonal forms of contraception carry the risk of causing a fertilized egg not to implant, which is a different form of evil. The same is true of IUDs.

Condoms, diaphragms, foam, etc., don't have this problem.

We've read dozens of posts by Catholics on this board explaining how condoms are not 100% effective. Well, that must mean that they aren't intrinsically evil, according to the official position of the Catholic church.

But wait - it gets better. If either the husband or the wife is sterile, either due to a birth defect, or a disease, or an accident, or menopause, they can have sex all they want without it being evil.

But? How can this be? How can it not be "evil" to have sex even though procreation is impossible? Don't ask me.

Also, it's not "evil" to prevent conception by keeping track of the woman's fertile periods and avoiding sex during them. Why not? Well, because this allows the possibility of procreation, if God wills it.

But? How does this differ from using foam, condoms, and diaphragms, which are actually LESS effective than the so-called rhythm method, or Billings method, which is highly effective if practiced 100% of the time? Don't ask me.

Oh, and what exactly is the "evil"? That you treat your spouse as a sex object, rather than cherish him/her.

It's double talk, from men who have never been married, and have no idea what it means to be married. They understand lust, which all men and women feel.

Oh, I forgot, they'll tell you that contraception leads to the "culture of death," whatever that is.

Here in America, the percentage of the population which is Catholic has held steady for many years at 28% or so. Of whom the vast majority use contraception.

In Rome, as I understand it, the churches are empty. Go figure. Could it be that they tell Catholics to go away, as many have told me on this thread? Hmmm . . . .

Anyway, it's Christ's church, not man's. Christ created it for his followers, not for the heirarchy.

These same birds will tell you in one and the same breath that the Pope is infallible but Vatican II was fraudulent. Again, go figure. That's the one that finally caused the light to dawn -- they don't believe 100% in everything Rome says any more than I do.