So What's The Current Position On Abortion, Birth Control,

[southern california guy]

I'm an old fashioned Catholic and so I'm anti-abortion, don't really believe in birth control, and definitely don't believe in sex before marriage. But I've been outside of the Catholic church for so long that my views are no longer scripturally based -- and instead based upon the real life consequences that happen no matter what.

What are the current Catholic churches positions on these issues? Do they vary? What's the official Catholic churches position?

Edited February 2, 2009 by Lil Red
edited to fix title of thread

[Apotheoun]

The Catholic Church teaches (as she always has) that abortion, contraception, and sex outside of marriage are immoral.

[HisChildForever]

[quote name='Apotheoun' post='1767148' date='Jan 30 2009, 10:17 PM']The Catholic Church teaches (as she always has) that abortion, contraception, and sex outside of marriage are immoral.[/quote]

I want to add on to this (to be clear that there are no "loopholes") and say that sexual intimacy outside of marriage is immoral.

[CatherineM]

The truth never changes.

[Vincent Vega]

[quote name='CatherineM' post='1767180' date='Jan 30 2009, 11:35 PM']The truth never changes.[/quote]
Despite what some would like to you believe....

[Hilde]

NFP is an accepted form of birth control.

[MithLuin]

Well, so is abstinence, but no one calls that 'birth control'

[HisChildForever]

[quote name='Hilde' post='1767261' date='Jan 30 2009, 11:06 PM']NFP is an accepted form of birth control.[/quote]

It is not considered birth control because there is nothing controlling about NFP - it is natural.

[Lil Red]

[quote name='southern california guy' post='1767141' date='Jan 30 2009, 08:15 PM']I'm an old fashioned Catholic and so I'm anti-abortion, don't really believe in birth control, and definitely don't believe in sex before marriage. But I've been outside of the Catholic church for so long that my views are no longer scripturally based -- and instead based upon the real life consequences that happen no matter what.

What are the current Catholic churches positions on these issues? Do they vary? What's the official Catholic churches position?[/quote]
+J.M.J.+
[url="http://www.scripturecatholic.com/contraception.html"]here's a great Scriptural resource on contraception[/url]

[url="http://www.scriptureforlife.org/"]here's another site concerning conception and abortion.[/url]

[Lil Red]

[quote name='southern california guy' post='1767141' date='Jan 30 2009, 08:15 PM']What's the official Catholic churches position?[/quote]
+J.M.J.+
[url="http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/p3s2c2a5.htm"]here's the Catechism of the Catholic Church on the fifth commandment (you shall not kill):[/url]
2258 "Human life is sacred because from its beginning it involves the creative action of God and it remains for ever in a special relationship with the Creator, who is its sole end. God alone is the Lord of life from its beginning until its end: no one can under any circumstance claim for himself the right directly to destroy an innocent human being."56

2261 Scripture specifies the prohibition contained in the fifth commandment: "Do not slay the innocent and the righteous."61 The deliberate murder of an innocent person is gravely contrary to the dignity of the human being, to the golden rule, and to the holiness of the Creator. The law forbidding it is universally valid: it obliges each and everyone, always and everywhere.

Abortion

2270 Human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception. From the first moment of his existence, a human being must be recognized as having the rights of a person - among which is the inviolable right of every innocent being to life.72

2271 Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable. Direct abortion, that is to say, abortion willed either as an end or a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law:

[indent]You shall not kill the embryo by abortion and shall not cause the newborn to perish.75

God, the Lord of life, has entrusted to men the noble mission of safeguarding life, and men must carry it out in a manner worthy of themselves. Life must be protected with the utmost care from the moment of conception: abortion and infanticide are abominable crimes.76[/indent]

2272 Formal cooperation in an abortion constitutes a grave offense. The Church attaches the canonical penalty of excommunication to this crime against human life. "A person who procures a completed abortion incurs excommunication latae sententiae,"77 "by the very commission of the offense,"78 and subject to the conditions provided by Canon Law.79 The Church does not thereby intend to restrict the scope of mercy. Rather, she makes clear the gravity of the crime committed, the irreparable harm done to the innocent who is put to death, as well as to the parents and the whole of society.

2274 Since it must be treated from conception as a person, the embryo must be defended in its integrity, cared for, and healed, as far as possible, like any other human being.
[indent]
Prenatal diagnosis is morally licit, "if it respects the life and integrity of the embryo and the human fetus and is directed toward its safe guarding or healing as an individual. . . . It is gravely opposed to the moral law when this is done with the thought of possibly inducing an abortion, depending upon the results: a diagnosis must not be the equivalent of a death sentence."82[/indent]

2275 "One must hold as licit procedures carried out on the human embryo which respect the life and integrity of the embryo and do not involve disproportionate risks for it, but are directed toward its healing the improvement of its condition of health, or its individual survival."83

[indent]"It is immoral to produce human embryos intended for exploitation as disposable biological material."84

"Certain attempts to influence chromosomic or genetic inheritance are not therapeutic but are aimed at producing human beings selected according to sex or other predetermined qualities. Such manipulations are contrary to the personal dignity of the human being and his integrity and identity"85 which are unique and unrepeatable.[/indent]

[Lil Red]

+J.M.J.+
under the sixth commandment (you shall not commit adultery):

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.158 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:159
[indent]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.160 [/indent]
2371 "Let all be convinced that human life and the duty of transmitting it are not limited by the horizons of this life only: their true evaluation and full significance can be understood only in reference to man's eternal destiny."161

[Hilde]

[quote name='HisChildForever' post='1767293' date='Jan 31 2009, 06:17 AM']It is not considered birth control because there is nothing controlling about NFP - it is natural.[/quote]
NFP is natural birth control. The Catholic Church is against contraception as birth control, but not NFP.

[MithLuin]

NFP is an acceptable practice according to the Catholic understanding of marriage being free, total, faithful and fruitful self-donation.

'Using' NFP as birth control is not totally acceptable, and there's a reason people can be a bit touchy about the term.

Kinda like if you referred to a DNR order as 'euthanasia' - the effect may be the same, but the intent and how it is carried out is a different matter entirely. It's what you don't do, rather than an action you take.




But seriously, it's not like the Catholic stance on these issues [i]changes[/i]!

[HisChildForever]

[quote name='Hilde' post='1767527' date='Jan 31 2009, 11:25 AM']NFP is natural birth control. The Catholic Church is against contraception as birth control, but not NFP.[/quote]

Yes, I know this. However, NFP is not considered birth control because the couple is open to life, whereas those who use birth control are not. Furthermore, it is not even considered "natural" birth control because "natural" birth control is usually argued as the withdrawal method.

[Nihil Obstat]

[quote name='HisChildForever' post='1768099' date='Jan 31 2009, 10:02 PM']Yes, I know this. However, NFP is not considered birth control because the couple is open to life, whereas those who use birth control are not. Furthermore, it is not even considered "natural" birth control because "natural" birth control is usually argued as the withdrawal method.[/quote]
Call it responsible spacing of births then.

Of course we're both recognizing that it should never be used selfishly, as the term 'birth control' implies on these forums, but in the strictest sense of the word you could call it that.
This is only semantics though, obviously.