Contraception Five

A pastor from a church far way told a friend of mine that if he talked about contraception from the pulpit, he would lose most of his congregation. Why not? Why is he afraid of challenging his parish with the Truth? Is this a numbers game for him? Does he understand that his silence is consent and leads to the loss of faith and even souls?

I am writing about contraception because I have been in conversation with some people about this issue this week.

The number of contracepting Catholics remains one of the most serious statistics of our times.

I am not referring to non-Catholics in these statistics. Only Catholics. For the Millennial Catholics, this means that the vast majority of people who are in their parishes will not be practicing Catholics. To contracept is to be in serious sin. What does this mean for the local communities, for socializing, for bringing up your children among those who have, basically, lost their faith?

What does it mean for those who are trying to live by the teachings of the Church and do NFP? Where is their support? How do these good and faithful young couples develop great friendships when the marriages are not based on the same principals and ideals?

I do not doubt these statistics, as my experience talking with women is that the vast majority do contracept. I do not doubt these statistics having worked in RCIA for years and knowing that this topic was the big stumbling block for so many couples coming into the Church.

I have to admit, that the older women who have contracepted all their married life are the most difficult  with whom to discuss this issue. They get angry and defensive. They are convinced contraception will eventually be accepted by the Church.

They are not open. If they were open, they would be willing to discuss all the aspects.

http://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=9990

“Data for the report come from the 2006–2008 National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG), which gathered information on contraceptive use from a nationally representative sample of women,” the Guttmacher Institute stated in “Countering Conventional Wisdom: New Evidence on Religion and Contraceptive Use.” “Our analysis focuses on women who identify as Catholic,  Mainline Protestant and Evangelical Protestant and includes information about attendance at religious services and religiosity.”

Among the report’s findings-- all of which refer to women of reproductive age (15-44):

25% describe themselves as Catholic, 25% as evangelical, and 22% as mainline Protestant

30% of Catholic women attend Mass weekly, while 50% of evangelicals and 24% of mainline Protestants worship weekly

46% of Catholic women say religion is very important to their daily lives, compared to 77% of evangelicals and 44% of mainline Protestants

98% of Catholic women-- and 99% of all women-- have at one time used artificial contraception.

“68% of Catholic women use highly effective methods: sterilization (32%, including 24% using female sterilization,) the pill or another hormonal method (31%) and the IUD (5%).

“Only 3% of married Catholic women who do not want to become pregnant rely on natural family planning