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To: FormerLib; Hermann the Cherusker
It is hardly credible (to Catholics, at least) that the Pope would endorse a practice which he himself agrees is an evil act.

I have yet to see anything suggesting the Pope has written that condemns using the contraceptive practice of the rythym method to be evil. Because of this, there is nothing to be considered in light of your posted quote.

I made my original comment to a Catholic (at least I think Hermann's a Catholic), who in turn was citing a theology book written by a Catholic. If NFP is contraception, and if the Pope has condemned contraception as evil, then if follows that the Pope is endorsing a practice he himself agrees is evil.

I realize this idea may seem perfectly acceptable to you non-Catholics, who think the Pope has his doctrines all screwed up anyway. However, for a Catholic who supposedly accepts the authority of the Pope, that is another matter. If a Catholic wants to claim that NFP is contraception, he runs smack up against Familiaris Consortio, Veritatis Splendor, and the CCC. That is why I questioned the orthodoxy of that theology book. As I observed, it appears to be an example of more-Catholic-than-the-Pope posturing, comparable to what we are seeing these days from the SSPX.

151 posted on 11/04/2003 6:37:26 AM PST by findingtruth
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To: findingtruth
I am a Catholic. I am simply making distinctions in words which are necessary in English to fully explicate the matter. There is no distinction in the English Language between "against conception" and "contraception". Thus, our English distinction of artifical contraception/birth control verus natural methods.

When the Pope condemns "contraception" I understand this to refer to "artificial contraception". I do not understand it to refer to periodic or total abstinence with an intent to avoid pregnancy (or indirect sterilization).
154 posted on 11/04/2003 6:51:38 AM PST by Hermann the Cherusker
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To: findingtruth; Hermann the Cherusker
If NFP is contraception, and if the Pope has condemned contraception as evil, then if follows that the Pope is endorsing a practice he himself agrees is evil.

NFP is contraception according to the definition posted by you. It sounds as if we are discussing semantics here, not theology.

156 posted on 11/04/2003 11:42:35 AM PST by FormerLib (The enemy is within!)
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