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Monday, January 19, 2015

DID POPE FRANCIS REALLY SAY THAT CATHOLICS CAN LIMIT THERE CHILDREN BY USING ARTIFICIAL CONTRACEPTION SO THAT THEY WON'T BE LIKE RABBITS? THE NATIONAL CHISMATIC REPORTER SEEMS TO INDICATE THIS! NASTY! NASTY! NASTY!



The National Chismatic Reporter is stunned  by Pope Francis reaffirmation of natural marriage and natural family planning. So Joshua J. McElwee makes it sound like that Pope Francis stated something new today, that Catholics shouldn't have children like rabbits, meaning that each time they have sex they should conceived, but rather they should use licit, Church approved methods of spacing their children and limiting the number. Obviously this is natural family planning, not artificial birth control. But the NCR as nasty as they are, make it sound like the pope infallibly made up a new teaching never heard before. 

Spinning the pope, the left has to do this now that Pope Francis is so clearly orthodox in his teaching and seems to have taken into account what Cardinal Burke asked of him during the Syond on the Family, to clarify his teachings and clarify he has!

From the National Chismatic Reporter (NCR): POPE APPROVES BIRTH CONTROL! Really? 

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The pontiff has also made what appears to be an unprecedented statement that Catholics may have a moral responsibility to limit the number of their children, while reaffirming Pope Paul VI’s ban on artificial means of birth control.
Francis’ statement about development aid was a clarification of an earlier warning against what he called an "ideological colonization" of family life, made during a meeting with families in the Philippines last week. Speaking to media Monday, Francis recounted a story of a public education minister he knew who was offered money to construct new schools for the poor.
To receive the money, said Francis, the minister had to agree to use a course book with students that taught what the pontiff called "gender theory."
"This is the ideological colonization," said the pope. "It colonizes the people with an idea that changes, or wants to change, a mentality or a structure."
"It is not new, this," he continued. "The same was done by the dictators of the last century. They came with their own doctrine -- think of the Balilla [youth groups of Fascist Italy], think of the Hitler Youth."
"They colonized the people," he continued. "How much suffering -- peoples must not lose liberty."
"Every people has its own culture," said Francis. "But when imposed conditions come from the imperial colonizers, they seek to make [peoples] lose their own identity and make an homogeny."
Francis was speaking Monday in a nearly hour-long press conference aboard the papal plane traveling back to Rome from the Philippines. He was answering a question about remarks he made last Friday, in which he warned against such colonization in an apparent reference to efforts to legalize same-sex marriage and to use of contraception.
During the press conference the pope also confirmed details of his upcoming trip to the U.S. in September. For the second time in a week, Francis too reaffirmed Catholic teaching prohibiting the use of birth control.
Reaffirms prohibition on birth control
Francis said Pope Paul VI, whose 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae outlined the contraceptive ban, was warning against a "Neo-Malthusianism, " a reference to a theories that suggested in the 1960s and ’70s that exponential global population growth would lead to an irreversible world food crisis.
Citing the low rates of birth specifically in Italy and Spain, Francis said such Neo-Malthusianism "seeks to control humanity."
At the same time, however, Francis made a statement that seems without precedent for a pope, suggesting that parents may have a responsibility to limit the number of their children, saying: "This does not signify that the Christian must make children in series."
Telling the story of a woman he met in a parish in Rome several months ago who had given birth to seven children via Cesarean section and was pregnant with an eighth, Francis asked: "Does she want to leave the seven orphans?"
"This is to tempt God," he said, adding later: "That is an irresponsibility." Catholics, the pope said, should speak of "responsible parenthood."
"How do we do this?" Francis asked. "With dialogue. Each person with his pastor seeks how to do that responsible parenthood."
"God gives you methods to be responsible," he continued. "Some think that -- excuse the word -- that in order to be good Catholics we have to be like rabbits. No."
"This is clear and that is why in the church there are marriage groups, there are experts in this matter, there are pastors," Francis said. Using the term for a practice that follows church law, he continued: "I know so many, many licit ways that have helped this."Francis was speaking about birth control in response to a question from a Filipino journalist. Use of contraception in the Philippines is a contentious issue, as the Philippine government only recently approved contraceptive access against forceful opposition from Catholic bishops.
The pope's responses regarding birth control and ideological colonization were part of a wide-ranging conference that touched on a number of other subjects, including: Corruption in church structures, the place of women in church leadership, and global mistreatment of the poor that the pontiff said could be likened to a new form of "state-sponsored terrorism."
‘Ideological colonization’
Continuing to clarify his concept of "ideological colonization," Francis said he heard concerns about the matter from African bishops during last fall's Synod, who told him they often face difficult choices when presented with conditions of acceptance on much needed financial aid.
"I say to many that I have seen this," said the pope.
Francis compared such colonization to criticisms he has frequently made about the process of globalization -- saying that the homogenizing of peoples is "the globalization of the sphere -- [where] all the points are equidistant from the center."
"It is important to globalize but not like the sphere -- like the polyhedron," he continued. "Namely, that every people, every part, conserves its own identity without being ideologically colonized."

21 comments:

Rood Screen said...

"Francis made a statement that seems without precedent for a pope, suggesting that parents may have a responsibility to limit the number of their children..."

How is this without precedent? Paul VI said, "If therefore there are well-grounded reasons for spacing births, arising from the physical or psychological condition of husband or wife, or from external circumstances, the Church teaches that married people may then take advantage of the natural cycles..."

Unknown said...

Amazing. Read the Catechism.

Paul said...

Again, I repeat, the three most dangerous words today: "Pope Francis says".

If one is producing children like a rabbit, perhaps one should stop behaving like a rabbit.

Anonymous said...

How many children do you have JBS?

Gene said...

The Pope's language is bombastic, ambiguous, and confusing. I can easily see how the Left would be able to spin it. I believe the Pope is deliberately sending mixed messages.

Jusadbellum said...

Sadly, since most Catholics get their news and information about all things including what they are to believe from secular sources, many who currently use contraception because they assumed it was OK will hear about this for the first time and be bewildered. Many will laugh at the suggestion and assume that without condoms or pills they would indeed 'breed like rabbits' because after all, given our diet of sexual promiscuity, are we not just animals in heat who cannot or ought not control ourselves?

Have we not been taught that we must masturbate, we must look at some porn or be prudes? We must 'spice things up' and try ever new positions to keep things fresh?

Are we not told that God loves us anyway and besides love means the free and cost-less exchange of bodily fluids and that if you don't get with the program it will be a desert like solitary confinement for you?

The Pope repeats a basic Catholic doctrine that almost no pastor (except the occasional retired guest priest) utters or even indirectly mentions in the prayers of the "faithful" lest someone be scandalized by doctrine....and people get the vapors.

Now is the time to bring it up! Now is the time to introduce people perhaps for the first time to the theology of the body and the very defensible Catholic position.... now is the time.

But we won't. It's too 'risky'. So we'll all go back to sleep.

Anonymous said...

I was on another (non-Christian news site) website commenting on the article about the Pope's comments, and mentioned that one should be chaste even within marriage. One responder asked incredulously, WHY WOULD I BE CHASTE WITHIN MY OWN MARRIAGE?????

Teaching moment.

I doubt I will change anyone's mind, but I often jump into these frays just to get the Catholic view out there. I am intentionally controversial and blunt so that no one can misunderstand how radical Catholic Christianity is (in this society). My comments are often designed to suggest Catholicism is too hard for them. I figure that will provoke their pride, sort of like reverse psychology.

(BTW, I often include "all those who read my comments" in my prayers at night, that they may receive the graces necessary for conversion.)

Anonymous said...

I do think the Pope sends mixed messages - whether deliberate or not I don't know. The latest comment that Catholics don't need to breed like rabbits is a slap in the face to large Catholic families who will no doubt feel rightly aggrieved as he has made more of a nod in the direction of those who limit their families - the majority doing so by artificial means because natural birth control is not as reliable as artificial means. I can see some Catholics looking down their nose at large families attending Mass. Another unfortunate gaff by His Holiness.

Jan

Gene said...

Catholic doctrine and PRACTICE (the two should not be spoken of separately) are the last barrier against total cultural and moral decline…period. Of course Church teachings are difficult for the average person, raised amid secular moral relativism, to accept. Of course they sound absurd to the smug, self-serving mentality of a "liberated" generation (liberated from what). The Church, through her teachings against our anti-life cultural mentality which includes abortion, contraception, gay marriage, promotion of the homosexual lifestyle, and the acceptance of adultery and promiscuity, offers a clear alternative to the nihilism of the modern world. It is the only alternative…Catholic doctrine just screams "REPENT AND BELIEVE THE GOSPEL." This is the message that needs to be clearly sent…
Not some pseudo-hip message about Catholics effing like rabbits (a junior high joke) or watered down quips about "who am I to judge" or other such ambiguous and dangerous off-the-cuff comments. What slaps in the face to devout Catholics and true believers. This Pope is totally indefensible…I believe everything he says is calculated to weaken Catholic practice and, therefore doctrine.

Rood Screen said...

Anonymous,

I'm not sharing personal information with someone who goes by "Anonymous".

Anonymous said...

JBS is just as anonymous to me as anonymous is to you.

WSquared said...

"One responder asked incredulously, WHY WOULD I BE CHASTE WITHIN MY OWN MARRIAGE?????"

Um, because our spouses have the right to ask that we respect their God-given dignity, and because we aren't convenient handy-dandy sex toys "for better, and for worse"?

Wow. Just... wow.

Teaching moment.

Yeah, I'll BET it was. The problem is that the larger culture sees no third way between providentialism or the pill, whereas the Catholic Church's Magisterium does.

Rood Screen said...

Anonymous,

"JBS" allows regular commentators to tell me apart from others. When there are multiple comments here from "Anonymous", it becomes difficult to follow the conversation. Choosing a distinct online identity is a matter of courtesy and avoids confusion. But this has been explained to you before. There, however, one-time commentators who understandably choose "Anonymous".

Rood Screen said...

It's hard to believe a spouse would publicly disparage chastity, although I've met couples who openly tolerated pornography in their marriage.

Jdj said...

WSquared, you got that right! Thanks. Folks it's just not that complicated. KISS: Keep It Simple Stupid...

Gene said...

WSquared, Very true. The media and many others still seem to define everything, every relationship, on the basis of sex. Our culture is totally obsessed with it. Hollywood has cheapened marriage to the point of a sexual farce and raised sexual intercourse to the level of a sacrament. We are in so much trouble.

Anonymous said...

JBS, maybe I'll take a page from your book....leave of the "J", and just call myself "BS". Would that be more courteous...less confusing?

Or maybe I could be SBS....(Senior BS) and you could remain JBS (Junior BS).

Anonymous 2 said...

Okay, I will ask the stupid question: Is it possible that the responder on the Christian blog to which WSquared referred did not understand the meaning of the word “chaste” and confused it with “celibate”? Just asking.

George said...

Anon2
It is not only possible but quite possible. Some people do confuse the two. Too many Catholics today, having an understanding of chastity, do not embrace it but rather disdain it as imposing on their freedom to conduct themselves as they wish and to accord their behavior with their unchaste desires.Any who propose to them otherwise are equated with meddlesome and impertinent retrogrades.

WSquared said...

The media and many others still seem to define everything, every relationship, on the basis of sex. Our culture is totally obsessed with it. Hollywood has cheapened marriage to the point of a sexual farce and raised sexual intercourse to the level of a sacrament. We are in so much trouble.

Ironically, Gene, our culture is so obsessed with sex...

...but doesn't seem to know-- or want to acknowledge-- what it's actually for.

This is a culture that rags on celibate Catholic priests for having "no experience." But Father knows that sex can make babies, and he doesn't have to have long "experience" in the myriad ways in which human beings get their jollies to know that.

In fact, it seems to be the folks who fixate on the latter who feign ignorance on sex's linkage with procreation, or don't want it to exist, even as they pay that linkage backhanded compliments such as talking about "protection" and sanctimoniously lecturing those with big families on "what causes that."

WSquared said...

Anon2, you may be onto something. George is spot on. It's easy to confuse chastity with "not having sex" in a culture that knows no third way between pornography and Puritanism (and the Catholic Church has tons of fun messing with people's heads, since her Magisterium condemns both). Chastity simply means holistic integration of one's sexuality within one's person, which is what one would expect with increased emotional and spiritual maturity.

Chastity is required of all Catholic Christians: it is not "not having sex," as some people seem to think, and sex is not a "sin"-- if it were, why would the Church love children and families so much? The level of incoherence and rank stupidity in that sort of thinking that seems to be pervasive is just... something else. Calling it "absurd" would be charitable. Again, some people seem to have immense trouble understanding Where Babies Come From. Moreover, there was one person who came here once to rag on the Church's teaching on human sexuality, thinking that "ordered to procreation" meant trying to conceive during every act of sexual intercourse. Really, folks: what part of "unitive and procreative" in the Catechism did you not understand?

For Catholic priests in the Latin Rite, chastity requires celibacy. For married laypeople chastity means not lusting after one's spouse or objectifying them, so it actually involves more than just "saving yourself for marriage" (as if hanging on white knuckled until saying "I do" in a "church wedding" and a wedding ring on one's finger makes behaving like a raging neanderthal "respectable." It doesn't). For both priests and laypeople, chastity is necessary for the self-control needed to love others in a self-sacrificing way.