Opus Dei’s View Of Contraceptives? "the intrinsic evil" No Kidding!

[leftchick]

I am returning from an appt. this morning and listening to The Connection on NPR. The guests are a Dominican Nun (Liberal) and an Opus Dei Priest from Dallas,TX. The conversation is about the New (OD Approved) Pope. A wacky OD man from TN calls and goes on and on Yelling at the priest for not telling why condoms are an "intrinsic evil" and as an OD priest he should be talking about it.

I found it so bizarre when I got home I googled it. Here is what came up. Rubbers as well as all forms of contraception are indeed an "Instrinsic Evil"! I guess my husband and I have been SINNING for a very long time. :eyes:

http://www.population-security.org/cffc-97-01.htm


Sexuality, Reproduction, and Women -- An Ideology
Opus Dei’s expression of its views on sexuality and reproduction rivals the Vatican’s in its ferocity and frankness.

▪ on contraception: Opus Dei refers to “the intrinsic evil of systems of birth control inasmuch as they disfigure the nature of human sexuality.”7 Father Lino Ciccone, an academic close to Opus Dei, declares contraceptives “the first step on a way of death” and says users are guilty of “grave sin... of a seriousness and weight which are difficult to quantify but certainly enormous.”8 Contraceptives are also linked to marital failure:
“If divorce in Western countries affects 35 percent of couples, it is only 3 percent among couples who only use natural methods of birth control,” claims Francois Geinoz, the director of the Opus Dei-linked Limmat Foundation.9 Sounding a common theme among Opus Dei members that family-planning programmes are a form of “neocolonialism” Geinoz suggests that participants from developing countries see family planning “as new American methods for exercising power on the masses of the South.”’10



The rest of that link is quite fascinating for those not familiar with the RW wackos that make up OD and the huge influence they have at the Vatican.

[bryant69]

1. Well

That's interesting. So I take it they believe in Sex as strictly for procreation?

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[leftchick]

2. Yes indeed

more kids, more kids, more kids, more kids is all that wacky caller from TN was talking about!

[Bunny]

3. Well, not quite. They do not accept any artificial means of BC.

The only Pope-approved method of birth control is the rhythm method. And do you know what they call people who practice the rhythm method? Parents.

[leftchick]

10. LOL! My Mom and Dad used it!

My Mom was also an RN and God Bless her they had 7 kids! I guess they had the wrong rhythum!

;)

[youthere]

16. My folks had rythym..

and nine children!

[LeftyMom]

15. Actually, it's NFP

Usually some variant of the sympto-thermal method, although the mucus-only Billings method is taught in some places.

The difference between rythym and newer church-approved methods is that rythym involves making an educated guess at your fertile time based on previous cycles. That's almost useless if your cycles aren't regular. Newer methods involve observation of physiological signs (mucus, cervical position, basal temperature) to determine one's place in thier cycle and current fertility. As a result, they work well for women with odd cycles.

Sympto-thermal works well for me, I'm not Catholic, I just prefer it to the side effects I experienced with hormonal birth control. :shrug:

[Stryguy]

23. Yes Basal temperature does work

It works quite well.

I've seen couples use basal temperature for 15+ years with no suprises. I highly suggest it for the married couple wanting to take a break between kids.

Of course most of these couples used condoms during fertile times.

[greatauntoftriplets]

19. Catholic roulette....

:eyes:

My parents sinned and only had two kids. Of course, after I was born, the doctor told my mother that another baby would probably kill her. So they took precautions.

Apparently, in the church's eyes, I would have been better off without a mother.

:sarcasm:

[leftchick]

20. My Mother Got YELLED at by the Pastor of our Church

When she had her tubes tied. It was a matter of life and death for her if she became pregnant again and the Dr. insisted she have the operation. After 7 children the Pastor had the nerve to tell her she had committed a sin by having the procedure! She did not go back to mass for many years after that.

Your point is exactly right, 7 motherless children is better than Birth Control? wacko!

[greatauntoftriplets]

21. The pastor of the parish was rude to my mother...

when she had to get a new wedding ring because she had gained weight and the old one didn't fit her. She asked him to bless it and he refused.

As soon as I graduated from 8th grade and was done with the school, they stopped going to Mass.

[vpigrad]

4. As much as I hate to admit it...

after my wife was a marriage counselor for several years, people that don't use birth control generally stay together and people that do use it usually don't. They're right about that, but correlation does not imply causation.

[KC21304]

7. And I am sure you wife, the marriage counselor, told you

that there are worse things in this life than divorce, and sometimes staying in a bad marriage is one of them.

[atommom]

5. So condoms (NOT unprotected sex) are "the first step on a way of death"?

I really wish they hadn't picked a pope beloved by Opus Dei. There could be some dark times ahead...

[sui generis]

6. eh, only for devout catholics

This pope is irrelevant to modern society, and as far as I can see he isn't planning on doing anything to change that.

Instilling fear of eternal damnation and excommunication just doesn't carry as much of a punch as it used to with the ignorant peasants. The church is in trouble, and in a bed of its own making. Like America, until catholicism elects a leader who can lead the world catholic community in a positive direction, things will remain dire for the catholic church.

[atommom]

8. At the same time, we have people high in our government who

agree with Opus Dei on these issues. (Sam Brownback is one who springs to mind.) As long as that's the case, radical O.D. statements will continue to make me nervous.

[TlalocW]

9. Actually

I would think having a large amount of kids would be more of a link to marital failure than birth control. More kids = less money = more stress, and money issues is one of the biggest problems that married people have to put up with.

TlalocW

[JerseygirlCT]

11. The divorce figure is probably so low

because the women feel stuck in unhappy marriages -- tied to financial support b/c they're home raising zillions of kids. It's a way to control women, and that's just one way it manifests.

[smirkymonkey]

12. If human beings don't start to confront the problem of over-population

Mother Nature will. Sooner or later, there will be tragic consequences from having too many people and too few resources.

Personally, I could give a damn what the church says. It has no bearing on my life.

[leftchick]

13. Only 9% of US Catholics consider Birth Control wrong...

Looks like the OD approved Pope won't approve of the choices most are already making. Like myself.

~snip~

A 1992 Gallup poll showed that 80 percent of U.S. Catholics disagreed with the statement "Using artificial means of birth control is wrong." And a 1996 study conducted by Father Thomas Sweetser for the Parish Evaluation Project found only 9 percent of Catholics who consider birth control to be wrong.


http://www.uscatholic.org/soundboard/1998/jun/bc2.html

I agree with you on the overpopulation issue as well.

[smirkymonkey]

14. But that's US Catholics, I think it has greater implication in

lesser developed Catholic countries, which is where the religion and the population seem to be doing the most growing. :)

Those with less education are more likely to heed the Pope's mandate.

[leftchick]

24. I agree with you

but getting back to OD and their agenda, they want to make the Catholic Church More conservative. If you can imagine! Oh yeah and my two boys, who were both IVF Miracles!... look what they have to say:

~snip~

▪ on in vitro fertilisation: Commenting on in vitro fertilisation at an Opus Dei symposium on “the Dignity of Human Life,” a speaker, Doctor W.J. Eijk, told participants that “the ends of progress do not always justify the means employed.”’2

so MY kids don't count?!? :grr: I can't believe this is happening again. It is like the Middle Ages. These people are totaly nuts! But they have Huge influence. :(

[hector459]

17. Where is scripture does it say, "thou shalt not use contraceptives?"

Just asking.

[youthere]

18. Is anyone else reminded of

that Monty Python "The Meaning of Life" skit where the mill closes and they need to sell all the kids for scientific experiments? (the lead in for Every Sperm is Sacred)

"Bloody Catholics filling up the bloody world with bloody kids they can't afford to bloody feed!"

[Junkdrawer]

22. From the Editor's Desk of American Atheist

A hundred years from now, who will be remembered as the most evil man of the twentieth century? Adolf Hitler, you think? Perhaps, but not likely. I suspect that if there is any civilization surviving on this plundered planet a century hence, its historians will point with irrefutable evidence to Pope John Paul II as the most evil man of our times. To be sure, Hitler’s image is not likely to improve any with age. He will always be remembered as a man who brought about the deaths of some millions of innocent people, yet remained a Catholic in good standing until his death. But his crimes will pale beside those of John Paul II.

Whereas Hitler was guilty of premeditated genocide against particular groups of humans, John Paul II could be charged with premeditation of genocide against the human race itself, for advancing a “Pro-Life Program” that actually is the most fiendishly Pro-Death Program ever seen in the history of our species.

By a hundred years from now, at least a billion people will have suffered extended agony and death because of John Paul II’s opposition to birth control, sterilization, and abortion - opposition exerted by hundreds of his lobbyist minions in the parliaments and legislatures of the world. It will be understood that this pope’s “pilgrimages” back and forth across the globe were really political exercises in extortion - exercises that weakened the fabric of secular societies and strengthened the political muscle of the Vatican theocracy.


...
http://www.americanatheist.org/spr99/T2/editor.html