The coming election has shaped up to be a battle between those who think free contraceptives and keeping abortion legal should be our national priority and those who think jobs and reducing the national debt should be our national priority. (These were the self-identified themes at the summer conventions.)
How astonishing it is that Sandra Fluke should be a headliner at the Democratic National Convention, when her only claim to fame is her adolescent, narcissistic grousing that Catholic Georgetown University does not provide her, a law student almost certain to be wealthy, with free contraceptives.
How sad it is that two of the chief architects of the Health and Human Services mandate are Nancy Pelosi and Kathleen Sebelius, both Catholics.
The Catholic vote will be pivotal, as it always is. The recent effort to get the Obama administration to rescind the HHS mandate has again brought to the fore the sad fact that Catholics are poorly educated about the Church’s teaching on contraception.
The brave, visionary and remarkably candid Cardinal Timothy Dolan, in an interview in The Wall Street Journal, acknowledged that the Church has failed to teach on contraception: "I’m not afraid to admit that we have an internal catechetical challenge — a towering one — in convincing our own people of the moral beauty and coherence of what we teach. That’s a biggie."
The cardinal said the "flash point" was Humanae Vitae, which "brought such a tsunami of dissent, departure, disapproval of the Church, that I think most of us — and I’m using the first-person plural intentionally, including myself — kind of subconsciously said, ‘Whoa. We’d better never talk about that, because it’s just too hot to handle.’ We forfeited the chance to be a coherent moral voice when it comes to one of the more burning issues of the day."
The present struggle offers an opportunity to become that coherent moral voice.
The U.S. bishops are taking an important lead in this matter. For instance, they have developed a set of bulletin inserts about contraception and developed a very useful website about contraception. If there were only some way to get priests and laypeople to take advantage of these resources.
Let me here encourage laypeople to approach their pastors and encourage them to use the inserts.
A report has recently been issued by "The Women, Faith and Culture Project" that should help spur a renewed effort to teach about contraception. The report gives the preliminary results of a study done on "What Catholic Women Think About Faith, Conscience and Contraception."
It is a professional and measured report (funded in large part by the Our Sunday Visitor Foundation) and worth a close read.
We all know that the vast majority of Catholics reject the Church’s teaching on contraception. This study attempts to figure out what women really know and think about the teaching.
Actually, I found it terrific news that "37% of women who both attend Mass weekly and have been to confession within the past year completely accept Church teachings on family planning."
We don’t know what is cause and effect here — we don’t know whether those who accept the Church’s teaching are more likely to go to Mass and confession regularly or whether going to Mass and confession regularly helps people accept Church teaching — but it is not surprising that there is a pairing of these elements of the faith.
Still, although that figure is encouraging, we might ask why it is not higher.
Part of the answer is surely that few Catholics have ever heard an explanation or defense of the Church’s teaching. It is not surprising to learn that "85% of Catholic women believe they can be ‘good Catholics’ even if they don’t completely accept the Church’s teachings on sex and reproduction. And a full third are mistaken about what the Church teaches."
The study found that 72% of Catholic women state that the homily is their primary source of learning about Church teaching — and that priests and other religious leaders are the primary sources for 55% of women.
My guess is that few have ever heard a homily about contraception.
I have long been exhorting my seminarians to reflect on the fact that most Catholics get most of their understanding of Church teaching from the homily.
People in the pews tend to think that if issues are important, their pastor, who cares enough about their eternal salvation to dedicate his life to serving them, will speak to them from the pulpit about the issues that may threaten their eternal salvation.
If they never hear that abortion, greed, contraception, pornography, racism, missing Mass on Sunday, etc. are serious sins, they tend to think they are not serious sins. And if they don’t hear these teachings from the pulpit, they are unlikely to hear them at all.
Few Catholics attend conferences, read Catholic publications, visit Catholic websites or even read the parish bulletin and its inserts.
Many priests are hesitant to teach on moral issues from the pulpit, but if they don’t, they are seriously shortchanging their congregations.
It has not always been thus. In her book Catholics and Contraception: An American History, historian Leslie Woodcock Tentler reports that in the ’20s through the ’50s of the last century, in an increasingly contraceptive culture, priests regularly preached on contraception, and an impressive proportion of the Catholic faithful cheerfully embraced that teaching.
The more educated a Catholic woman was the more likely she was to accept Church teaching.
Today’s priests may not have a habit of teaching on moral issues, but they can cultivate that habit. And I suspect they will like the results.
Certainly, they will meet with some resistance, but they will also be the recipients of an outpouring of gratitude. I also suspect they will experience a newfound source of satisfaction in their priesthood.
When my seminarians preach on moral topics, there is a strangeness in the room; neither they nor I am accustomed to hearing homilies about greed or immodesty or laziness or contraception. But after the strangeness wears off, it is quite inspiring. The young men come alive when they speak from the heart about something they care about.
It is hard to think a congregation wouldn’t be moved by their zeal.
One of my seminarians, as a deacon, gave a homily against contraception based on the story of Jonah. He asked the congregation to consider what sins Jonah would be inveighing against were he alive today and suggested to them that contraception would be high on the list.
With trepidation, I asked what kind of response he got; he said he got a standing ovation. I doubt that even the majority agreed with him, but I think they were impressed with his courage and concern for them.
I strongly suspect that there have been more homilies about contraception in the last year than there have been since Humanae Vitae was issued (1968).
One homily, of course, won’t do the trick. There will need to be follow-up, with more homilies and conferences and inserts, but the homily will likely jump-start the whole process.
Moreover, priests also need to exhort their parishioners to be faithful in Mass attendance — even to take in a daily Mass on occasion — and to go to confession.
Providing the occasion for Eucharistic adoration would undoubtedly increase that effect of receptivity as well. Combined, everything will have a profoundly positive effect.
All of this is the work of the New Evangelization; it will galvanize Catholics to share their faith.
Jesus himself was a tireless teacher. He traveled from synagogue to synagogue; he taught on the hills and in the plains and from the water.
The great apostle Paul could not have clocked more miles; John Paul II spoke on natural family planning in nearly every country he visited. In 1999, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith published a document, "The Priest and the Third Christian Millennium: Teacher of the Word, Minister of the Sacraments and Leader of the Community." At one point it states: "From a pastoral perspective, the primary action of evangelization is, logically, considered to be preaching."
The homily is a marvelous vehicle for teaching; the congregation deserves and needs to be fed by their pastor.
Janet E. Smith holds the
Father Michael J. McGivney
Chair of Life Ethics at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit
Mark Brumley: Aren't You Ashamed?
Benjamin Wiker: The Tale of Two Benedicts
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The republicans would be many many miles ahead of Obama by now if they impressed anyone with their concern for the elderly. They don’t. They are two men who didn’t serve in the military but who are hawks on building up the thing they never joined. That’s a bad moon on the rise.
Sad to say but this election reflects the social issue divisions within the Church. It is unfortunate that so many Catholics are preoccupied with social issues and miss the big picture of jobs, economic growth, defense, etc
If the vast majority on the Catholic voting block is not concerned about contraception then the overall impact is nil. Non Catholics and the emerging block of ‘nones’ in the younger adult demo will overwhelm and render the issue moot as contraception is simply not a controversial issue outside of a small group of zealots.
Janet, I think part of the problem is that most US Bishops do not promote the reading of the “CATECHISM of the CATHOLIC CHURCH, Second Edition”.
Therefore many Catholics are uneducated.
CCC: ” 2399 The regulation of births represents one of the aspects of responsible fatherhood and motherhood. Legitimate intentions on the part of the spouses do not justify recourse to morally unacceptable means (for example, direct sterilization or contraception). “
CCC: ” 2370 Periodic continence, that is, the methods of birth regulation based on self-observation and the use of infertile periods, is in conformity with the objective criteria of morality. These methods respect the bodies of the spouses, encourage tenderness between them, and favor the education of an authentic freedom. In contrast, every action which, whether in anticipation of the conjugal act, or in its accomplishment, or in the development of its natural consequences, proposes, whether as an end or as a means, to render procreation impossible” is intrinsically evil:
Thus the innate language that expresses the total reciprocal self-giving of husband and wife is overlaid, through contraception, by an objectively contradictory language, namely, that of not giving oneself totally to the other. This leads not only to a positive refusal to be open to life but also to a falsification of the inner truth of conjugal love, which is called upon to give itself in personal totality. . . . The difference, both anthropological and moral, between contraception and recourse to the rhythm of the cycle . . . involves in the final analysis two irreconcilable concepts of the human person and of human sexuality. “
INTRINSICALLY EVIL is a mortal sin.
Each Diocese also must do a better job teaching about the accurate and scientific method of NFP - Natural Family Planning.
Also in your article, don’t forget to mention Catholic heretic and schismatic Joe Biden.
Sadly, we have way too many Liberal Bishops and priests who deliberately ignore the subject because they don’t want to take a position that goes against the Democrat Party. These charlatans are why we have the HHS Mandate , Homosexual Marriage issue, and Roe vs Wade.
“The U.S. bishops are taking an important lead in this matter. For instance, they have developed a set of bulletin inserts about contraception and developed a very useful website about contraception. If there were only some way to get priests and laypeople to take advantage of these resources.”
So what are the links for these so we can pass them along to our pastors?
Let me too express my concern for the lack of fire and brimstone, the lack of teaching that comes from the pulpit. I’d guess the average Catholic h a second grade education in the teachings of the Church. When do we continue our education? Some do. That’s what we should all be doing. Consequently, there is a lot of insurrection from within by those claiming to be Catholics. This is what ignorance of the facts will do. And continue to do. I tell my wife and children that the only way to strengthen yourself against atheists, or the snakes from within (Catholics for choice) is to know a great deal about Church teachings. Yes. We have classes where my wife and I teach our kids. We don’t have other means, no Catholic schools, so this is what we do. I tell my graduate students the me thing. Good chemistry is done by knowledgeable chemists.
Surely you jest in calling Pelosi and Sibelius Catholics. They surely incurred automatic excommunication for their efforts in the last election. Have they recanted?
DEMISE OF TRUTH
In the modern world, truth is now seriously maligned,
while error is ever increasingly wrongly defined.
Evil is being whitewashed with an aura of good and right,
while moral values and principles are driven from sight.
A nation once endowed with God-given rights has lost trust,
and is now enamored with greed, licentiousness, and lust.
Americans must again honor our religious goal.
Our intended role was once to save our Immortal Soul.
A nation without God does not have our salvation in sight.
Religious freedom was once our inalienable right.
Let the God we once trusted again be our loyal guide.
Voters must ensure the leaders now in charge are defied.
Ruled by Socialism, a nation faces grief and woe.
That history has always revealed failure we know.
The Party of Life will gain the Republic intended.
The Party of Death means life is no longer defended.
The next election will bring final defeat or survival.
The Republic must depend on voters for revival.
If the current regime is not deposed, what will that cost?
Our nation and religious freedom will surely be lost.
Bob Rowland
IX/XXIII/MMXII
To Marcy K. Here is a link to the USCCB website and bulletin inserts. http://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/religious-liberty/bulletin-inserts.cfm
Poor catechesis is a large part of the problem. But it’s not just the dissenters. Many “faithful” Catholics don’t understand the faith either. They often have an overly harsh and legalistic view of the faith. Others burden couples in ways the Church herself does not.
Another problem is with the teaching of NFP. Some NFP teachers do not do a good job of teaching the methods. Some NFP organizations have gotten into “mission creep”, where they are getting into other areas at the expense of keeping up with the method, from attachment parenthood to homeschooling to prolife politics. Some try to take on the role of spiritual director for the couple, which is inappropriate.
Because of this, and because of mainstream clergy avoiding the issue, there is very little pastoral support for couples. Especially for couples who struggle to determine fertility or couples who have medical issues that make NFP difficult. Couples shouldn’t be “Ruining their marriages with NFP” as Simcha Fisher wrote, and if they are, the need pastoral (and perhaps medical, relational, or psychological) help.
Instead, couples are often thrown in the deep end and told to swim—or else!
Contraception as an issue and as a sin has tremendous repercussions. In fact, it was Christ Himself who identified our contraceptive culture and pointed to this day as a sign of the end of days when He spoke to the wailing women as He carried the cross. Today we say “blessed are the wombs which never bore.” Unless this trend changes, what comes next is the crying out of humanity to the mountains to fall on us and to the hills to cover us, to hide us from the wrath of the Lamb. OF COURSE it only makes sense that someone who “cut his teeth” on the teachings of Saul Alinsky, that dedicated Satanist, would seize upon the Achilles’ heel of the Catholic Church—its weakness in confronting this one particularly deadly sin. Romney’s lip service to being “pro-life,” his back pedaling on the issue by saying things like, he doesn’t have any legislation changes in mind on abortion, are not a good sign for our country, even if Obama is defeated. The contraceptive mindset is its own kind of gospel, and it is competing directly against the Civilization of Love. The Catholic Church and Catholics are going to have to assert this particular teaching of the Faith. There are signs of grace now, but, whether there will be enough of a human response to that grace and a turning away from disobedience remains to be seen. Heaven help us if we go on offending God in this way! When we contracept, we not only reject Christ as the “little stranger” He is in our own children, we deny His loving providence by saying we cannot accept another child due to economic reasons—when there’s never been a moment in human history when “everyman” was more rich. Yet here we are in our abject poverty of spirit! Heaven, help us!
Humanae Vitae was truly a prophetic document. I am truly amazed at how all its predictions have come to pass.
Also, while it is true that the Church has let us down dreadfully in teaching the faithful about moral issues such as contraception, abortion, etc., it is also true that many of is were not very keen on listening either. Even today, when we not only have the Catechism and so many good books, CDs, etc., available on the Catholic Faith and its teachings, so many Catholics do not take the time to educate themselves. There is certainly enough blame to go around and we all need to do much better.
Note to Bob Rowland…..
Bob. I LOVE your poem, “Demise of Truth.” If you haven’t tried to get it published, you ought to do so. It is right on the mark and very well written (not that I am, by any means, a literary critic—just my humble opinion for what it is worth).
Thank you pjd. I really appreciate your response.
Everyone knows that true Catholics are opposed to surgical and chemical abortion, unnatural (false) affections, unnatural sexual habits, chemical and physical (unnatural) control of reproduction, and sterilization of people of any faith. Why, on this Green Earth, are Catholics who oppose unnatural intervention for our body so reviled? Choosing Catholicism over secularism is the reason.
Why we’re being reviled boils down to how we glorify God in our sexual relations (or not) - whether we take the Godly or the secularist path in life. We are created male and female and humanity procreates naturally to inhabit the world. We have been deceived into putting God aside and buying products that drug our bodies into unnatural hormonal (or physical) states and we have been sold the notion that the results of using them will bring some measure of happiness comparable to that which a faithful life would produce. Through other drugs, most notably decision-hindering alcohol, we are brought together with others with the same tendency toward unnatural relationships, and are taught that our habits are normal. It is necessary to propagate the social aspect needed to sustain sales of such lucrative unnatural products. We’ve had the wool pulled over our eyes by satan when it comes to natural sexual relations. Turning to Christ’s ways instead leads to our being reviled.
Another reason why we are reviled concerns how men and women treat each other in all (not just sexual) relationships - and this too depends on whether our acts are Godly or secularist. In this century, something that is referred to as “freedom” (a misnomer) has a been thrown about as a classic goal for everything we do. This nebulous keyword treasure is somewhat undefined, but its use has proven invaluable to many companies for marketing. There has been a definite attempt to bring the marketable aspect of “freedom” to couples to their detriment. Freedom campaigns have been used against “gay” people to perpetuate unnatural affections and ruin their lives. Men are manipulated into thinking that drinking alcohol will give them freedom that leads to sexual encounters. Women are convinced that “freedom” will not turn them to sexual promiscuity. If we are told over and over in many different (even subliminal) ways that the “freedom” we are participating in as couples will enhance our lives, sooner or later they will believe it. This is essentially brainwashing. In essence, we are being asked (told) to be fakes with a false sense of pleasure. Having forgotten what kind of freedom God gives to couples, we choose wrongly. If we take the Catholic route instead, we are reviled.
There is an attribute called bodily purity (an organic, natural thing) that has been nearly erased in our culture. Drugs and alcohol, sex devices, “freedom”, social hangouts for (your preference here), and ad campaigns are all intimately associated with killing that purity. Meanwhile, women are suffering. Having been thrown to the dogs and virtually put up for sale when it comes to “free sex”, even married men and women find that being truly happy has gone down the drain. A new definition of gratification has been dictated to us, and it’s nothing like the real thing when it comes to holiness. “Personal gratification” has replaced natural sexual gratification between male and female. “Pride” (a sin) has been sought after. New habits with unnatural (even fictional) origin have been artificially created so that we are tools for someone else’s monetary gain.
Convincing women that change is impossible has become an easy task for the artificial birth control, abortion, and sterilization industries. We have learned their lessons well. Their boilerplate responses are right there under our tongue, easy to conjure up in a second: “I don’t want a baby now,” “We can’t afford another child, “My boyfriend would never marry me,” “I don’t want another girl.” We have been duped into making unnatural habits and drugs a part of our lives instead of changing ourselves to follow God’s plan because we are told (and therefore believe) it is too hard and that we can never do it.
Birth control chemicals are basically anti-nutrients that keep the body from functioning normally. Many other drugs (like alcohol) do the same. Mental effects of habits formed through drugs like this include denial and assuring our self that we know more than anyone else does about our bodies. The emphasis here is on the individual - the “me” - whereas the decision would be completely different were God the first advocate in the process. Artificial birth control pills are chemical substances that change every cell in a woman’s body, while she is urged to think that such unnatural substances are helping her. We have been duped royally into changing our definitions of freedom and sexual relations to put God out of our lives. “Reproductive rights” have nothing to do with reproduction.
Also interesting is that the much lower birth rate among the baby boom generation means that far fewer people are becoming young adults. Too few people will be in the age 18 to 67 age group, to pay for the Social Security expected by the boomers passing into the Soc. Sec. recipient age group. So the refusal of the boomer generation to have enough children has aggravated the USA’s demographic problem. God is letting us “stew in our own juice” as a result of disobeying His law.
For an extreme example of this problem, in Greece on average 100 people of grandparent ages (60s) have only about 46 grandchildren among them. This is a major reason why Greece is spending more on their public pensions than the taxes that they collect will pay for.
TeaPot562
Bill Bannon, your remark about serving in the military rings hollow. Since when did our community organizer commander-in-chief ever serve anywhere?
Perhaps catholic women ignore the church in regards to contraception because they don’t want to have 15 children and they enjoy not being stuck in the kitchen. It’s the 21st century, the old men who run the church should take note.
I have not heard nor read anything about LOVE between a man and a woman and discipline. Contraceptives throws love out the window and lowers the sexual act to an animal act.
I have heard so much writing about love and they say it cannot be interrpreted -there are no words to express what love is!!Nonsense .
Love is putting someone else first. It is expressed many times in heroic acts of saving someone’s life. It is keeping the child you formed in your womb, rather than killing it. It is working at something you do not want to do to feed, clothe and shelter your loved ones. It is expressed in wanting to be with someone and putting that first because they want to be with you -so you put off playing golf, going to a ball game, or getting a job out of the home, leaving the work at home for someone else. I could go on—-
Mainly it is putting the sex act on animal level. And what worse way to put a woman down!!
PLEASE GOD HELP US
Will anyone please remind Catholics that in the VP debate Paul Ryan has stated a shocking pledge that the Romney/Ryan administration will NOT oppose the murder of a class of innocent little ones because of the unfortunate circumstances in which these that babies were conceived ?This is completely opposed to Catholic Faith, just as much as Biden’s comments on abortion. The Catholic Church holds life begins at conception…the Catholic Church opposes murdering these babies. Paul Ryan publically turned his back on this teaching.
Gene,
He’s (Obama) is not bent on increasing the military budget but in limiting it. Vote against Obama surely…but why pretend repubs are saints. How could Romney appoint great judges if he accepts abortion for rape, incest and health of the mother.
Anne: Ryan does not support the rape exception. Romney does. Still, the Romney/Ryan agenda means less abortion, and Ryan can legitimately support Romney’s policy as a way to reduce abortion.
The Obama/Biden agenda means promoting abortion.
What is the purpose of the gratuitous and misinformed Sandra Fluke bashing? The author apparently does not understand the concept of paying money in exchange for products, which is how many students like Fluke procure health insurance. The shoddy product Georgetown students bought from their insurance company (not from the University) resulted in Fluke’s friend having the adverse health consequences she testified about. Fluke was not asking anyone to pay for her birth control. She was advocating for a policy like a lawyer, which is the sort of thing students go to Georgetown Law to learn to do.
For the record, Georgetown provides plans with contraceptive coverage for its faculty.
Only 10% of the teachers in parochial schools accept the teaching that birth controlling is a sin as taught Holy Mother the Church. Who hires these teachers? They also believe in remarriages and of course annulments are rarely denied. Youth are being used in the U S Bishops’ schools to destroy the Catholic Faith. Randy Engel calls it the raising of the new barbarians in her book, “Sex Education, The Final Plage”.
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