Translate

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Birth Control Debate: Why Catholic Bishops Have Lost Their Grip on U.S. Politics—and Their Flock m Padgett/TIME

http://swampland.time.com/2012/02/13/birth-control-debate-why-catholic-bishops-have-lost-their-grip-on-u-s-politics-and-their-flock/

"Yet in his refusal to cave completely to the religious liberty campaign, Obama has illustrated the reality that the bishops no longer speak for most U.S. Catholics—the nation’s largest religious denomination and a critical swing-voter group—on a host of moral issues, according to polls.

Not on abortion or the death penalty (a majority of Catholics believe those should remain legal); on divorce or homosexuality (most say those are acceptable); on women being ordained as priests and priests getting married (ditto); or on masturbation and pre-marital sex (ditto again, Your Excellencies). And especially not on contraception. Ever since Pope Paul VI reaffirmed the Church’s senseless ban on birth control in 1968, few doctrines have been as vilified, ridiculed and outright ignored by Catholics – evidenced by a recent study showing that 98% of American Catholic women have used some form of contraception. It’s hard to believe, as the bishops would have it, that those women simply succumbed to society’s pressure to do the secular thing. They’ve decided, in keeping with their faith’s precept of exercising personal conscience, that family planning is the moral and societally responsible thing to do—for example, preventing unwanted pregnancies and therefore abortions. And it explains why a recent Public Religion Research Institute poll found most Catholics support the contraception coverage mandate even for Catholic-affiliated organizations. Presumably most endorse Friday’s compromise."
Read more: http://swampland.time.com/2012/02/13/birth-control-debate-why-catholic-bishops-have-lost-their-grip-on-u-s-politics-and-their-flock/#ixzz1mMqDNOlX

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Most Catholics don't go to Mass. Should we eliminate Mass since so few participate?

Also... Perhaps you should read this article before quoting that false 98% figure again: http://www.catholicvote.org/discuss/index.php?p=26675

I know telling the truth is not important to you, but you look like a fool every time you throw lies around hoping they stick.

Anonymous said...

Most Catholics don't go to Mass. Should we eliminate Catholics since so few participate?

Or should we ask ourselves why the Vatican has emptied our churches of people and of meaning, instead of casting invectives at priestly women who resurrect our faith in the face of blind institutionalized discrimination?