Love as Christ Loved

I strongly disagree. Not only morally, but I have strong objections to birth control bc of the physical ramifications. I was on it for 4 years and from the get go I gained serious weight, suffered depression, extreme mood swings, extremely painful periods, migraines, VERY LOW libido (so harmful to marriage, esp newlyweds, I wanted so badly to be intimate with my husband I literally COULD NOT)–not to mention the risk of cancer and other serious illnesses that birth control leaves you susceptible to. When I finally quit birth control, my entire body came back to life. My periods aren’t regular, but when they come, I’m not hospitalized. I don’t have the mood swings, I’ve been more energetic, it’s been easier to lose weight, and the depression eased up and it became way easier to treat now that I know what was genetic/actual mental illness and what was just my chemical reaction to birth control.Not to mention the strain birth control puts on relationships. I was a newly wed when I started taking it, and birth control was so detrimental to my marriage! We really struggled! It puts up this barrier between you and your spouse, it closes off any chance to ACTUALLY be united through openness to life, as well as makes sex and intimacy only about pleasure! How is that unifying??? I’m not going to say that I feel like I would have been ready to have kids the instant we got married, but the fact is, my husband and I probably wouldn’t have struggled from the instant we said I do at the altar if we had trusted God with our marriage and let HIM decide our path instead of deciding for ourselves what we could and couldn’t handle by leaving God out of it.

The pill also effects the environment by amount peed out which goes into the ocean and affects other animals in ways which stops them from reproducing.

“Women Priests” in the news again?

So… the pope reaffirmed Church teaching today and the mainstream press is having their predicable outcry of accusations of misogyny and patriarchal domination.

A reply from Marcel Lejeune:

“The Catholic Church has never “banned” women from being priests. But, this is what the press is reporting after Pope Francis affirmed Church teaching (was he supposed to change it?).

Jesus was a man and so were his 12 Apostles. Thus, the Church has no authority to change what Jesus gave us. If it is given by Christ, we are protectors of the teaching – not masters of it. A priest is married to his bride - the Church. No woman can “be” a “husband” to the Church as a priest.

Some say that Jesus didn’t come as a woman or call women to be His apostles because he wouldn’t have been able to do so because of the cultural norms of His time. My answer has always been – if this is the case, then please give me one other example of Jesus failing to speak truth because of the culture. There are none. Jesus was a radical for His time who rejected the cultural norms regarding the sick, imprisoned, Gentiles, laws of purification, Sabbath restrictions, lepers, tax collectors, AND women. God doesn’t make mistakes.

Others say that women are merely treated as unequals to men and this is a sexist power-grab by the men. Women can do anything a man can.

This is also untrue. Women can’t be men and men can’t be women. True equality doesn’t come from what we “do”. True equality comes from who we are. Yet, men and women have different functions and abilities. We are created to compliment one another and still we are equal.

So, our equality must not be based in how we function or what we can “do”. It is based in something much deeper – being created in the image of God. It is based in our human nature.

I don’t expect the press to “get” the Catholic Church, because we are always supposed to be a sign of contradiction to society. But, I expect them to do their homework, not make ignorant statements about doctrine, or try to open a can of worms they have no understanding about.

Maybe I expect too much.

Why do Catholics honor the saints? - Tyler Blanski