Replies

re: I know because they tell me they use birth control. ... I have 5 children, the subject of birth control, is like the first thing brought up by strangers.

Also, the sadness of not being able to have children or less than they would have been taken on had God sent them is always brought up.

Walk around with 5 properly dressed, well behaved children and the world sees something unique, today. That's what they will talk about. They know we are Catholic by what they see. "By their deeds you shall know them".

Remember the movie (the book) Cheaper by the Dozen, the original real one about the Gilbreth's? The public's subject of discussion around them, was always about birth. Same thing happens with my family.

Where are you three writing from, Pacific time? It's 3:15am EST where I'm at, the dog woke me up barking. I went outside with him to check things out, and found a clear night with a full moon, it's like daylight, beautiful. Going back to sleep now.

Regarding Christian Europe, and how they viewed births, the gift of children, birth control, and the time when it was abhorred, through the time it was starting to become a fashion, and it's development till it became almost the norm (1880's till 1940's), I highly recommend the book:

All for the Love of Mothers - Memoirs of a Catholic Midwife by Lisbeth Burger, like 40 short stories about the real life experiences of a Catholic midwife in a small German village. You won't be able to put down the book till you've read it from cover to cover. Fascinating to be placed in what appears today as another world, and it was just 100+ years ago. The world has been slow boiled, cooked, into something else, and no one noticed it.