Posted on 05/12/2006 6:56:49 AM PDT by NYer
May 11, 2006 - After five years trying to conceive, Kelly and Eric Romenesko decided to try in vitro fertilization.
Their twins, Alexandria and Allison, were born last year. It was a joyous event in the couple's life.
"They're miracles. They're precious," Kelly Romenesko said.
The couple were not prepared for what came next. When Kelly, a teacher at two Catholic schools in Wisconsin, told her bosses she had gotten pregnant through in vitro, they handed her a pink slip.
"I was in tears," she said. "I remember asking, 'Is this the only reason why I'm being fired?' They stated, 'Yes.'"
The schools say Romenesko agreed to follow church teachings when she was hired. One of those teachings was that the in vitro technique was morally wrong because it replaced natural conception.
"I did not know what the Catholic doctrine stated against in vitro fertilization. Yes, I signed a contract, but the contract was vague in my opinion. I didn't know what I was doing as far as in vitro goes that that went against doctrine. My understanding was it was the Ten Commandments."
People like Joseph Capizzi of the Culture of Life Foundation said that in vitro fertilization ran counter to Catholic teachings, which stress that a child should be conceived through sex between a husband and wife.
"It's not so much that it's artificial that's the problem, instead it's removing the sexual act and procreative act from the context of marriage," he said.
The church also takes issue with in vitro because embryos are sometimes destroyed, but Romenesko said there were other teachers who had in vitro in the school. She said she did not go public with her announcement but "stated it to a principal behind closed doors that we were going through this process."
Romenesko appealed to the school board, but it would not reinstate her. Now a state agency is looking into the case. Meanwhile, the Romeneskos have stopped practicing Catholicism.
"I think the issue here is the fact that Kelly was released from her job for being pregnant, not the in vitro fertilization itself," Eric said. "Our daughters have been baptized Lutheran at this point in time. Kelly and I haven't converted yet."
"It wouldn't change my ability to teach in any way," she said. "It's a shame. This shouldn't have happened."
It is entirely within the Church's right and role to teach on morality. She is about the saving of souls. A charge she received from the Lord Christ Himself.
You, who are so concerned about the Church being judgmental and unscriptural, refuse to even make a cursory reading of what she believes and find out what the theology is behind the teachings. You disdain the "men who interpret the Bible" who are bound and rooted and grounded in 2000 years of Scripture and Tradition. And you call the Church judgmental?
Mote meet beam.
My understanding was it was the Ten Commandments." >>>
I guess she missed the part that said, "thou shall not kill"
The IVF procedure fertilizes many embryos where most do not get to see the light of day. They are implanted in the mother only to have her immune system attack them, some are passed, some are selectively reduced and the others are frozen for life in liquid nitrogen.
I partially blame the church since I have yet to read anything in diocesan newspapers or hear any priest talk about it from the pulpit or see any bulletin inserts about it.
Plus the fact is IVF is a technique of animal husbandry. Kind of blurs the difference between a woman and a cow.
You are simply making an assertion that the Catholic CXhurch has no authority to absolve men of sin. You are entitled to your opinion, but it is no more than that.
"Catholic CXhurch has no authority to absolve men of sin. You are entitled to your opinion, but it is no more than that."
Show me in the scripture where they do and we'll talk.
Teaching is one thing, judging is something else. I see nothing in scripture that gives the "Church" the right or reason to judge this couple as being sinful. Show me in scripture where and I might change my mind.
The only absolution I need is from God and it's free for the asking. >>
tell me if and when God forgives your sins? How do know exactly which sin is forgiven and which sins are not?
It must not have meant much to them to begin with if her getting fired caused them to fall away. If she had been an INFORMED Catholic, she would have known what the Church taught. However there are many Catholics who ignore this teaching everyday because they want to have their own children, the same as many who ignore the Church's teaching on artificial contraception. They don't give any thought as to WHY the Church teaches what She does.
THis woman should have talked to her Pastor about this, if not before, then certainly after the babies were born.
I had priests/teachers who made Liberace look like John Wayne, a history teacher who was a notorious womanizer, and a gym teacher who received Lewinskis from my female classmates, all at a Catholic high school.
THE CHURCH didn't fire her. The principal did.
If however, a couple is using artificial means to avoid pregnancy, the unitive aspect has been destroyed, and they are not working with nature, but against it.
St. John 20, 23. of course.
Thanks for your awesome explanation. I'm always mystified when people think NFP is wrong because some people choose to use it to avoid pregnancy. It's simply using the signs God gives women to help them and their husbands decide when to express the mutual love with which God has Blessed them.
I don't know where you learned that, but it's clearly wrong. Even John Paul II taught about the unitive aspects of sexual relations in marriage. Sometimes they're procreative as well, but they won't always be. You don't have to limit the sexual act in marriage to only those times you wish to conceive children. THAT would thwart the unitive aspects of marriage that God planned when he said "the two shall become one."
Exactly, agree with the decision or not, all this couple had to do was keep their mouth shut about their business, and the church probably would never had questioned it. If she ran her mouth, knowing the doctrine of the church...she made the decision, not the church...she basically "forced their hand".
That still doesn't mean that a couple should ONLY have sexual relations when it is possible to conceive. It just means that the couple is OPEN to the gift of a child, and won't do anything by artificial means to cut themselves completely off from that gift.
If you are using natural means of family planning, but are open to the possibility of conception, you could be surprised from time to time, and as a faithful Catholic, you'll accept that child as a gift from God. If you've chosen to block conception by artificial means, you're rejecting, at all times, even the possibility of that gift, and that is sinful.
"THis woman should have talked to her Pastor about this, if not before, then certainly after the babies were born."
I know a couple who asked for advice from a deacon regarding the Church teaching on in-vitro.
They were told it was fine - and good luck with that!
They went ahead with it. Four or five embryos were inserted. Three managed to implant, and one died after a couple of weeks. That makes 2 to 3 dead embryos.
Then...there's the embryos kept frozen in case the procedure didn't work. They are still there after 4 years.
I don't know how many embryos they have in storage, but they don't plan on doing in-vitro again.
Now the husband has regrets and has since learned this was against Church teaching.
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