Vatican spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi
Posted on 07/25/2008 1:42:01 PM PDT by NYer
.- It is “paid propaganda to promote the use of contraceptives” said Vatican spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi today as he harshly criticized an "open letter to the Pope," which was run as a paid advertisement in the Italian newspaper "Corriere della Sera". The ad was signed by several "Catholic" organizations that are using the 40th anniversary of Humanae Vitae to criticize the Church’s teaching.
“First and foremost,” said Fr. Lombardi, “the authors are a part of a number of groups that are well known for their dissenting positions which are not limited to the mere teaching of marital morality but are also concerned with many other subjects (for instance the ordination of women) and that therefore for some time have been against the Magisterium of the Church.” Their outspoken rejection of the Church is “nothing new,” Lombardi said.
CNA first broke news of the letter on July 18, for more information on it read our story by clicking here.
The spokesman for the Holy See further noted that the long list of signers "should not impress, because it is often several national chapters of the same group, and many of these groups are fairly insignificant."
The "hardest accusation" that the dissident groups level against the Church, Lombardi says, is that “the Catholic position is the cause for the spreading of AIDS and therefore of pain and death, hindering enlightened public-health policies.” This claim, the spokesman asserted, “is openly groundless.”
“The spreading of AIDS – explained Fr. Lombardi – is completely independent of the religious affiliation of a population or the influence of the ecclesiastic hierarchies, and the policies in response to AIDS that are mostly based on the widespread use of condoms have largely failed. The response to AIDS requires far deeper and wider actions, where the Church is working on several fronts.”
Above all, the Vatican’s spokesman highlighted that the letter “does not remotely broach the true issue that is at the heart of the Humanae Vitae, i.e. the connection among the human and spiritual relation between husband and wife, the practice of sexuality as its expression, and its fecundity.” In the “letter,” pointed out Fr. Lombardi, “the word ‘love’ never appears. It seems the groups that wrote the letter are not interested in it at all. It seems the only hope of the couples and the world lies in contraception alone.”
“To understand the meaning of the Encyclical and its prophetic value,” explained Fr. Lombardi, “one should instead read again the Pope’s speech of May 10th to the participants in the meeting held in the Lateran for the 40th anniversary of the Humanae Vitae.”
After all, concluded Lombardi, “it’s clear it is not an article that expresses a theological or moral position, it is paid propaganda to promote the use of contraceptives. One should also wonder who paid for it and why.”
Ping!
Remind me how you can be plausibly pro-life while standing against contraceptives to prevent unwanted pregnancy? Oh, that’s right, you expect everyone to be celibate like you. Their is so much unborn blood on these people’s hands it’s insane. I say this having been raised Catholic, their position in this matter is nonsense. We’re already fighting a war against one group that thinks it should be the 10th century again, it’d be nice if Rome could join the modern world.
Right, that makes sense.
People that practice fornication and/or sodomy are going to say "hang on, we can't use a condom, it goes against Catholic teaching." Apparently, they're going to be sufficiently indifferent to Catholic teaching to screw around but at the same time, concerned enough about it, to not use condoms.
These people are idiots.
Your question doesn't even make logical sense.
Contraception was the first step on the road to abortion and euthanasia, as well as sexual confusion and the objectification of women. Before the Anglicans/Episcopalians jumped ship in 1930, every major Protestant denomination opposed contraception. Every one. That's only 75 years ago, hardly the tenth century.
Before you reject that out of hand, read the article. It is quite persuasive.
My pleasure.
It's all right HERE
Humanae Vitae. A prophetic document written 40 years ago which predicted that the use of contraceptives would lead to widespread promiscuity which in turn would lead to more , not less demand for abortion. Was it right?
Well, 5 years after Humanae Vitae, we got Roe v Wade which legalized abortion and we have had it ever since. Despite all the condom giveaways, the "Pill" and all the other methods available, we still abort millions.
Go figure.
By teaching that God endows us with free will -- which some will abuse, thus testifying to its authenticity -- so that we may enjoy the dignity of freely choosing the good. God doesn't want us as house pets or as slaves. God has no need of us or anything else; he creates us out of love, which is his nature, and through his wisdom, which knows that our joy in him will be greater for having chosen him freely.
you expect everyone to be celibate like you.
Chaste, not celibate.
I support the Catholic church because they're four square against sin and evil. They are a beacon in an increasingly corrupt and immoral modern world.
Was this “open letter to the Pope,” signed by Father Curran, by any chance?
Because the anti-family, anti-life, pro-promiscuity as the highest good modern world is such a paradise... /sarcasm And of course although it's a free society, everybody must toe the politically correct line on sex and sexuality -- no dissidence from liberal nostrums allowed! Religious freedom, fuhgeddaboutit -- "we"'re in a "war" here against those evil Cat'licks.
Not to overlook the fact that some birth-control pills are themselves agents of “early, silent abortion”.
Not to overlook the often permanent damage that the “pill” can do to the female body in various ways.
Not to overlook the fact that there can be “failures” in the use of any contraceptive.
And certainly not overlook the objectifying of women (mentioned by another poster on this thread) that has been the fallout from the widespread use of contraceptives.
Ping to you: credit to you for mentioning the “sexual confusion and objectification of women” brought about by a contraceptive society.
Which reminds me: contraception is the reason why the birth rate (replacement) in the western world has dropped dramtically, while Middle Eastern countries continue to produce large families.
In Europe, for example, the dismal demographics show that while the rate of the Europen birthrate has fallen to BELOW REPLACEMNT and may not fully recover for generations, the birthrate of the immigrant middle-eastern (Islamic) population averages 6-7 children per family.
It will only take another 15-20 years for the demographics of Europe to be stunningly changed (if it hasn’t already happened).
Ping to you: credit to you for mentioning the “sexual confusion and objectification of women” brought about by a contraceptive society.
Which reminds me: contraception is the reason why the birth rate (replacement) in the western world has dropped dramtically, while Middle Eastern countries continue to produce large families.
In Europe, for example, the dismal demographics show that while the rate of the Europen birthrate has fallen to BELOW REPLACEMNT and may not fully recover for generations, the birthrate of the immigrant middle-eastern (Islamic) population averages 6-7 children per family.
It will only take another 15-20 years for the demographics of Europe to be stunningly changed (if it hasn’t already happened).
Sorry for double post
Please back up everything you just said with statistics to show me how they are still not the most effective way of preventing abortion. The stigmatization of sex doesn’t lead to less sex, just less safe sex.
Clementine Hall
Saturday, 10 May 2008
Venerable Brothers in the Episcopate and in the Priesthood,
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
I welcome you with great pleasure at the conclusion of your Congress which has involved you in reflecting on an old and ever new problem: responsibility and respect for human life from its conception. I greet in particular Archbishop Rino Fisichella, Rector Magnificent of the Pontifical Lateran University, which organized this International Congress, and I thank him for his words of welcome. I then extend my greeting to the distinguished Speakers, the Lecturers and all the participants who have enriched these busy days of work with their contributions. Your papers fittingly contribute to the broader output on this topic - so controversial, yet so crucial for humanity's future - which has increased in the course of the decades.
In the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, Gaudium et Spes, the Second Vatican Council was already addressing scientists, urging them to join forces to achieve unity in knowledge and a consolidated certainty on the conditions that can favour "the proper regulation of births" (n. 52). My predecessor of venerable memory, the Servant of God Paul VI, published his Encyclical Letter Humanae Vitae on 25 July 1968. The Document very soon became a sign of contradiction. Drafted to treat a difficult situation, it constitutes a significant show of courage in reasserting the continuity of the Church's doctrine and tradition. This text, all too often misunderstood and misinterpreted, also sparked much discussion because it was published at the beginning of profound contestations that marked the lives of entire generations. Forty years after its publication this teaching not only expresses its unchanged truth but also reveals the farsightedness with which the problem is treated. In fact, conjugal love is described within a global process that does not stop at the division between soul and body and is not subjected to mere sentiment, often transient and precarious, but rather takes charge of the person's unity and the total sharing of the spouses who, in their reciprocal acceptance, offer themselves in a promise of faithful and exclusive love that flows from a genuine choice of freedom. How can such love remain closed to the gift of life? Life is always a precious gift; every time we witness its beginnings we see the power of the creative action of God who trusts man and thus calls him to build the future with the strength of hope.
The Magisterium of the Church cannot be exonerated from reflecting in an ever new and deeper way on the fundamental principles that concern marriage and procreation. What was true yesterday is true also today. The truth expressed in Humanae Vitae does not change; on the contrary, precisely in the light of the new scientific discoveries, its teaching becomes more timely and elicits reflection on the intrinsic value it possesses. The key word to enter coherently into its content remains "love". As I wrote in my first Encyclical Deus Caritas Est: "Man is truly himself when his body and soul are intimately united.... Yet it is neither the spirit alone nor the body alone that loves: it is man, the person, a unified creature composed of body and soul, who loves" (n. 5). If this unity is removed, the value of the person is lost and there is a serious risk of considering the body a commodity that can be bought or sold (cf. ibid). In a culture subjected to the prevalence of "having" over "being", human life risks losing its value. If the practice of sexuality becomes a drug that seeks to enslave one's partner to one's own desires and interests, without respecting the cycle of the beloved, then what must be defended is no longer solely the true concept of love but in the first place the dignity of the person. As believers, we could never let the domination of technology invalidate the quality of love and the sacredness of life.
It was not by chance that Jesus, in speaking of human love, alluded to what God created at the beginning of the Creation (cf. Mt 19: 4-6). His teaching refers to a free act with which the Creator not only meant to express the riches of his love which is open, giving itself to all, but he also wanted to impress upon it a paradigm in accordance with which humanity's action must be declined. In the fruitfulness of conjugal love, the man and the woman share in the Father's creative act and make it clear that at the origin of their spousal life they pronounce a genuine "yes" which is truly lived in reciprocity, remaining ever open to life. This word of the Lord with its profound truth endures unchanged and cannot be abolished by the different theories that have succeeded one another in the course of the years, and at times even been contradictory. Natural law, which is at the root of the recognition of true equality between persons and peoples, deserves to be recognized as the source that inspires the relationship between the spouses in their responsibility for begetting new children. The transmission of life is inscribed in nature and its laws stand as an unwritten norm to which all must refer. Any attempt to turn one's gaze away from this principle is in itself barren and does not produce a future.
We urgently need to rediscover a new covenant that has always been fruitful when it has been respected; it puts reason and love first. A perceptive teacher like William of Saint-Thierry could write words that we feel are profoundly valid even for our time: "If reason instructs love and love illumines reason, if reason is converted into love and love consents to be held within the bounds of reason, they can do something great" (De Natura et dignitate amoris, 21, 8). What is this "something great" that we can witness? It is the promotion of responsibility for life which brings to fruition the gift that each one makes of him or herself to the other. It is the fruit of a love that can think and choose in complete freedom, without letting itself be conditioned unduly by the possible sacrifice requested. From this comes the miracle of life that parents experience in themselves, as they sense the extraordinary nature of what takes place in them and through them. No mechanical technique can substitute the act of love that husband and wife exchange as the sign of a greater mystery which (as protagonists and sharers in creation) sees them playing the lead and sharing in creation.
Unfortunately, more and more often we see sorrowful events that involve adolescents, whose reactions show their incorrect knowledge of the mystery of life and of the risky implications of their actions. The urgent need for education to which I often refer, primarily concerns the theme of life. I sincerely hope that young people in particular will be given very special attention so that they may learn the true meaning of love and prepare for it with an appropriate education in sexuality, without letting themselves be distracted by ephemeral messages that prevent them from reaching the essence of the truth at stake. To circulate false illusions in the context of love or to deceive people concerning the genuine responsibilities that they are called to assume with the exercise of their own sexuality does not do honour to a society based on the principles of freedom and democracy. Freedom must be conjugated with truth and responsibility with the force of dedication to the other, even with sacrifice; without these components the human community does not grow and the risk of enclosing itself in an asphyxiating cycle of selfishness is always present.
The teaching expressed by the Encyclical Humanae Vitae is not easy. Yet it conforms with the fundamental structure through which life has always been transmitted since the world's creation, with respect for nature and in conformity with its needs. Concern for human life and safeguarding the person's dignity require us not to leave anything untried so that all may be involved in the genuine truth of responsible conjugal love in full adherence to the law engraved on the heart of every person. With these sentiments I impart the Apostolic Blessing to you all.
You first. You are the one who brought up the question you are now asking me.
You provide your statistics first.
Is there any documented evidence that prolonged use of chemical contraceptives leads to infertility and/or cancer?
Because the contraceptive mentatlity teaches that a preborn child is a product of conception. To be prevented if at all possible and to be disposed of when prevention fails. It teaches a preborn child’s worth depends on if the parent’s want him or her. It teaches that sex is nothing more or less than any other biological function. There is no moral dimension to it.
Remember there could never have been a Roe vs Wade without a Griswold vs Connecticut.
The source of the bloodthirsty culture of death is the very notion itself that any human being's existence is unwanted.
One cannot truly call oneself pro-life as long as one accepts the anti-life contraceptive mentality.
Oh, that’s right, you expect everyone to be celibate like you.
I am not celibate and I do not use contraception.
How painfully lame your logic is.
Their is so much unborn blood on these people’s hands it’s insane.
The introduction of mass-produced contraception preceded by three years the bloody wave of mass abortion: it paved the way. Contraception is the source, sustenance and mainstay of the abortionist and his best friend and propagandist.
I say this having been raised Catholic, their position in this matter is nonsense.
Your position is the one that flies in the face of right reason and empirical facts.
We’re already fighting a war against one group that thinks it should be the 10th century again, it’d be nice if Rome could join the modern world.
Pace Guillaume Apollinaire, Rome is the only modern cultural force.
Islam is attempting to return the world to the 7th century, but secular humanism and the contraceptive mentality is trying to return the world to the 2nd century and the days of decadent ancient Rome with its rampant homosexuality, adultery, orgiastic abandon, disintegrating families and debauched individuals.
The future is Catholicism and life, or else death through Islam or secularist moral rot.
I was referring simply to the Catholic church. I can see several of you want to take this down a hyperbolic and insulting road, I’ll have none of it. I will not be reading or responding to any further comments on this matter. My position is clear, my logic is common sense. There are gray areas. The best way to prevent an abortion is chastity, but then that is also the best way to prevent a child. I think the Vatican stick up for itself quite well. It surely has the resources.
MeanMachine
Since Jul 16, 2008
Common sense? That’s subjective. It’s the world you live in.
Come here, drop a bomb, insult the church.
Then take offense because some people are offended?
Many of us responded with considerable seriousness and calm to your initial and quite insulting comment.
Have you even bothered to read the information you were provided?
I have enormous respect for Jesus Christ, I have no respect for the Catholic Church. Why are you worshiping mortal men and buildings? They’ve become the Pharisees, and I don’t think I have to explain to you why I’m not going to take any kind of sexual morality lecture from them.
“The future is Catholicism and life, or else death through Islam or secularist moral rot.”
This is actually an interesting comment and I think it has a lot of truth. I think if the Catholic Church would focus on the areas in which it can become a bulwark to the Islamofascist madness, it could do a lot of good.
Tell us something we haven't heard a gagillion times before on here newbie.
Why do you care? You just said we were a bunch of Pharisees.
I did not say you were a Pharisee, I said the Catholic Church, by which I mean the Vatican, was. You are not ever bothered by the vulgarity of it? By the way I say this as a lapses Catholic. To the extent I’ve ever been religious I’ve been Catholic.
Look, I’m new here, I didn’t come on to bad mouth the Catholic Church. I shouldn’t have said anything, I was just bothered by it.
It’s one thing to, as Buckley said, stand athwart the current of history and yell Stop! It’s another thing to lose sight of your true mission by addressing moral issues of a generation ago yelling Wait! But What About All This From Before!
Sorry writing this on an iphone. Pardon my glibness. Also, lapsed, not lapses, obviously.
The Church has not changed it's position so they can be like countless other denominations that change positions based on popular vote. The Church does not bow to the secular culture or tantrums by the CINO dissidents.
Will send you FReepmail when I have time
That was clear.
I can see several of you want to take this down a hyperbolic and insulting road, I’ll have none of it.
You paved the road with your hyperbole, your insults and your disrespect.
I will not be reading or responding to any further comments on this matter.
My, what a surprise.
My position is clear, my logic is common sense.
Were that true, you could defend it with discourse.
There are gray areas.
And nuances. And penumbras that emanate.
The best way to prevent an abortion is chastity, but then that is also the best way to prevent a child.
There are no people more chaste than a man and wife in the very act of procreation. Abstinence is merely one form of chastity.
I think the Vatican stick up for itself quite well. It surely has the resources.
The Holy See's job is not to defend itself from slanders, but to proclaim the entire Gospel of Jesus Christ - not the false Gospel of the Lambeth Conference of 1930.
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Welcome to FreeRepublic.
I joined FR six years ago as a rather lackadaisical Catholic. I made it to church on Sundays and Holy Days - never had a desire to leave the Church - but I was dangerously close to the lukewarm that Jesus warned he would spit out of His mouth.
I hope you’ll stick around. You may find a lot of your questions answered here. May the Holy Spirit breathe new life into you. God bless.
Thanks, I appreciate it. I’m fairly young and still trying to figure things out. Hopefully in the future I’ll refrain from digging myself too deep into a hole.
Most newbies go through a bit of a trial by fire. :)
I’ve learned so much here, I cannot begin to tell you. If you’re like many young Catholics I know, you could probably learn more in one day on FR than you did in 10 years of religious ed.
Welcome and please stick around. It is good that you ask these questions about the Church; many do, and we are happy to answer.
Idiotic and absurd.
If you’re a fan of Buckley, grab yourself a copy of “Nearer My God.”
Grammar-schmammar, eh?
LOL
You’re posts are that of a petty, half-baked, anti-Catholic sniper.
And I think you do have to explain why you're "not going to take any kind of sexual morality lecture from them" because your position doesn't make sense.
The Church's job is not to "change with the times", it is to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the teachings of Christianity as preserved from its founding. The members of the Church do not become "Pharisees" because they are sticking to a moral code that existed from the time of Christ up until 1930.
It's instructive that the denominations that fell away at that time have also fallen into every kind of sexual and religious immorality.
If you are a lapsed Catholic, I am a renegade Episcopalian. I experienced from the inside what happens when a church follows your suggestion and jettisons its traditional religious teachings for the "Spirit of the Age".
Here's the summary from somebody who was THERE: first the ECUSA approved of contraception. Then they adopted the whole feminist thing -- ordaining women, then supporting "feminist" causes which of course led the church to start supporting abortion and sending priests to march in D.C. with the pro-abortion groups, carrying banners proclaiming that ECUSA supported "women's right to choose". Then of course they revised the prayer book to take out all sexist, patriarchal, etc. references. The next step was to consecrate as a bishop a practicing homosexual and 'gay rights' advocate who left his wife and two daughters to live in sin with another man. Meanwhile, bishops abandoned the doctrines of the Trinity, the Incarnation, the divinity of Christ, etc. The denomination is bleeding members, whole parishes and even dioceses are leaving.
That's all very modern and up to date, and it is pernicious and destructive. Nobody can call the Episcopalians 'Pharisees', I suppose, but they have abandoned almost every pretense of Christianity and now proclaim the United Nations Millenium Development Goals instead of the Nicene Creed. With my own eyes I saw the MDGs in a glass case at a local "rainbow" parish where an antique Bible used to be.
The problem is, once you change an important part of Church doctrine just because it's a pet peeve of yours or because you want to get right with social activism and the spirit of the times, then you have NO rational defense to everybody else's desire to change other important parts of Church doctrine. Then you have nothing left.
I'm a Catholic now because the Church really believes and doesn't waver because doctrine is unpopular. I've been where they tried it the other way and I'm here to tell you that it destroyed that denomination.
It's contraceptive attitudes like the one you have expressed in your post that will result in the death of western civilization!
Think I'm full of hyperbole? Well, look at the following chart:
| Table 2 UN Ranking |
Country | Fertility rate (2000-2005) (births/woman) |
Fertility rate (2005-2010) (births/woman) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Niger | 7.45 | 7.19 |
| 2 | Guinea-Bissau | 7.10 | 7.07 |
| 3 | Afghanistan | 7.48 | 7.07 |
| 4 | Burundi | 6.80 | 6.80 |
| 5 | Liberia | 6.80 | 6.77 |
| 6 | Democratic Republic of the Congo | 6.70 | 6.70 |
| 52 | Pakistan | 3.99 | 3.52 |
| 53 | Bolivia | 3.96 | 3.50 |
| 54 | Swaziland | 3.91 | 3.45 |
| 57 | Saudi Arabia | 3.81 | 3.35 |
| 58 | Tajikistan | 3.81 | 3.35 |
| 59 | Honduras | 3.72 | 3.31 |
| 62 | Philippines | 3.54 | 3.23 |
| 63 | Laos | 3.59 | 3.21 |
| 67 | Jordan | 3.53 | 3.13 |
| 69 | Syria | 3.48 | 3.08 |
| 74 | Egypt | 3.17 | 2.89 |
| 75 | Bangladesh | 3.22 | 2.83 |
| 76 | Dominican Republic | 2.95 | 2.81 |
| 77 | India | 3.11 | 2.81 |
| 78 | Nicaragua | 3.00 | 2.76 |
| 85 | South Africa | 2.80 | 2.64 |
| 126 | Albania | 2.25 | 2.06 |
| 127 | United States | 2.04 | 2.05 |
| 128 | Iceland | 1.99 | 2.05 |
| 133 | Ireland | 1.97 | 1.96 |
| 137 | France | 1.88 | 1.89 |
| 144 | Norway | 1.80 | 1.85 |
| 147 | Finland | 1.75 | 1.83 |
| 148 | United Kingdom | 1.70 | 1.82 |
| 150 | Denmark | 1.76 | 1.80 |
| 151 | Sweden | 1.67 | 1.80 |
| 152 | Serbia | 1.75 | 1.79 |
| 153 | Australia | 1.76 | 1.79 |
| 155 | Netherlands | 1.73 | 1.72 |
| 156 | Luxembourg | 1.67 | 1.66 |
| 157 | Belgium | 1.64 | 1.65 |
| 160 | Canada | 1.52 | 1.53 |
| 161 | Barbados | 1.50 | 1.50 |
| 163 | Estonia | 1.39 | 1.49 |
| 164 | Portugal | 1.45 | 1.46 |
| 165 | Macedonia | 1.56 | 1.43 |
| 166 | Switzerland | 1.42 | 1.42 |
| 168 | Austria | 1.38 | 1.42 |
| 169 | Spain | 1.29 | 1.41 |
| 173 | Italy | 1.29 | 1.38 |
| 174 | Malta | 1.46 | 1.37 |
| 175 | Germany | 1.35 | 1.36 |
| 176 | Croatia | 1.35 | 1.35 |
| 177 | Russia | 1.30 | 1.34 |
| 178 | Greece | 1.38 | 1.33 |
| 190 | Poland | 1.25 | 1.23 |
| 191 | Ukraine | 1.15 | 1.22 |
The replacement rate is about 2.1. So those countries with a birth rate less than 2.1 are dying off. Is there any wonder why Europe is being filled with Muslims?
Freep-mail me to get on or off my pro-life and Catholic List:
Please ping me to note-worthy Pro-Life or Catholic threads, or other threads of interest.
MeanMachine , that was one of the three big hurdles I had to cross to convert to Catholicism (the other two being the Sacrement of Penance and the Veneration of the Mother of God). They are related in many ways by the way.
Simply put, contraception is against life. Contra means against and ception is short of inception or the start of life. Worse, since all forms of artificial contraception have a 'failure rate' (meaning life results), either you are running the same 'risks' of an 'unwanted child' albeit at a lower percentage level or you will end up embracing the murder of a child via abortion.
It might be nice to believe that we could have sex without consequences but that is objectively not true. Moreover, generations now of a false sense of 'free love' (n.b. 'free love' has been part of every communist or atheist anti establishment movement I can recall going back centuries. On close examination they all fail.) show how actually awful the lives of those sad seekers are. Study Hugh Hefner's life as an example.
Before I wander down this path too far, do these points resonate with you?
I think the Mormons have the right idea. If members of their church had published a letter like this, the very next week their local ministers would have them in for a meeting, or gone to their home for a visit. It would be explained to them that they were in professed on open opposition to the fundamental beliefs of the church. A few days later they would receive a letter stating their name was removed from the roles of their church.
I am very, very supportive of those who practice the Catholic faith...**all** of it!
I wish their Pope would grow a backbone and excommunicate people who signed this letter. I would especially like to see him excommunicate a fair number of Catholic priests, bishops, college administrators, and professors who preach the religion of Karl Marx and give the sacraments to politicians who vote for abortion.
wintertime ( former Catholic)
Interesting comparison.
In the USA, three demographic groups still espouse large families:
When I was younger there were many things Catholic that I disagreed with because they were opposed to something I was doing in my life. After all it was my life and I could do whatever I wanted if it didn’t hurt anyone else.
I came to a point where I figured that one Christian Religion was as good as the next. I spent several years doing Bible studies from other faith groups.(Baptist, Methodist, non-denom) I never joined another church, but I church shopped. It always left me with more questions than answers, then I meandered back home to Rome.
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