Precisely what I have been saying for a long time has been fulfilled with frightening accuracy. The campaign to teach Catholics about "the Church's teaching on birth control" turns into "Natural Family Planning Awareness Week." NFP has become Catholic birth control. The USCCB is officially saying so and even spreading propaganda throughout every diocese in the country. If anyone has ever denied that NFP is now Catholic birth control, I hope they will take a look at this.
How much do you think they will talk about "grave reasons"? Will they really present NFP as something reserved only for emergency situations? Will couples be told that it is a "grave sin against the very nature of married life" to use NFP without a sufficiently grave reason?
Most definitely not, as is made clear by the title of the program, "A Way of Life, a Way of Love." They are NOT presenting NFP the way that Pope Pius XII did in his "Allocution to Italian Midwives." They are presenting it as the Catholic alternative to the pill.
What about fruitfulness as one of the 3 essential foundations of marriage? What about generosity in accepting children from God? Has the entire traditional Catholic view on marriage been tossed out the window?
Yes, clearly it has. To me this represents the apostasy of the post-conciliar Church even more than the New Mass or ecumenism. They have completely destroyed the authentically Catholic truth about marriage. And as the above excerpt makes clear, it can be traced back to that disastrous debacle of an encyclical, Humanae Vitae.
Which is worse, abusing NFP or using condoms or worse, the pill?
Hmmm ... my sister is married to a Roman Catholic. They have three children, the youngest of whom is nine years old. My sister *chose* to have a tubal ligation. Her husband said that was her decision & did not try to stop her. One interesting comment she made was that she did not want her husband's sisters to know she had done it but that they were going to be suspicious anyway when she never became pregnant again. The whole intermarriage debate notwithstanding (and yes, I realize that as a Catholic, my b.i.l. is whimping out on his duties -- I had to tell him his kids asked ME what the statue of the lady was in my neighbor's yard and I said it was Jesus' mother and that if he wanted to further expound on my answer, he'd better hop to it ...),
I would like to ask the participants on this thread a couple questions:
If YOU are Roman Catholic, and you are married, how many children do you have? Are you finished having more children or is there a possibility you will add to your quiver?
I apologize for being nosey, but I am looking for some authenticity to these claims that good Catholics are hard-pressed to use even natural family planning with a clear conscience. I give you all due respect, and please answer only if you can comfortably disclose such specific info about yourselves. Thank you.