Replies

But only about 40 percent of the younger generation believe that birth control is always wrong;a revealing failure of the Restoration efforts of the past thirty years, which have been fundamentally opposed to birth control.

They've still got a ways to go, apparently.

Sixty-percent of young priests think that there are at least some occasions in which contraception is not always wrong.

"They've still got a ways to go, apparently.
Sixty-percent of young priests think that there are at least some occasions in which contraception is not always wrong."

I have a true life story for all moralists young and old. From the day we were married my wife and I practiced natural family planning. Among Catholics, unfortunately we are not in the majority. When I started taking chemotherapy and other drugs noted for horrible birth defects, my doctor's had me sign a consent form that required that we use not one but two forms of birth control. A young priest told me that it would be a sin to use birth control despite the situation. I told him that God did not naturally put these drugs in my body, and that my death is imminent and that I didn't want my wife saddled with a child with a birth defect. I don't have anything against people with birth defects, but a single mom/widow doesn't need one if it can be helped. He wisely did not discuss abstinence since married couples have a sensual dimension to their relationship. I finally decided to continue using natural family planning to avoid the abortifacient effect of birth control, and to use the birth control. When I went to confession to this same priest, I told him that I am guilty of not wanting another child given this situation. He absolved me. Finally, I don't know what wording appeared in Greely's survey, but I expect that it didn't begin to cover the nuances of moral decision making. If Greely is smart enough to write such a survey, we can write a computer program to tell us what to do, and we won't need priests, preachers, bibles, Churches and theologians.