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Question Title Posted By Question Date
legitimate dissent and birth control Brenda Sunday, September 12, 2004

Question:

(if u could get this to me by tomorrow, that would be VERY helpful!)

this is what i'm being told:

'There is (because of Vatican II) something called Legitimate Dissent. There are 5 steps that include looking at the actual church doctrine and looking at yourself and situation. Basically it's for a situation such as a Catholic couple has two kids and cannot afford anymore so they use birth control. As long as they do the process of Legitimate Dissent, it's not considered a sin. Well, obviously their reasons have to be legitimate. You can't say I'm going to kill this person and it's okay cause I don't like them and that's enough.'

is that true?

Question Answered by Bro. Ignatius Mary, OLSM+


Brenda:

No, this is not true. In fact it is liberal bull feces.

There is NO dissent from dogma or definitive teaching of the Church. All Catholics MUST believe and obey the teaching on birth control.

Artificial means of birth control is grave sin. No amount of "dissent" or "following one's conscience" will change that.

If a couple has serious reasons to limit the size of their family, then they must either abstain from the marital embrace or they must use Natural Family Planning (which, by the way has the same or higher percentage of success in avoiding pregnancy as any artificial means when done correctly, so why use something else anyway?).

It must be noted, however, that a Catholic cannot use even Natural Family Planning just for the heck of it, for selfish reasons, or reasons of lack of faith.

Your question says that the couple cannot afford it. Why? If for reasons beyond their control is one thing, if it is because they want to live a certain lifestyle that is something altogether different.

Many couples think they cannot afford another child. Maybe they can't as long as the drive a BMW and have a half million dollar house, live in the nicest part of town and the like.

If this lifestyle makes it too difficult to have more children then the couple needs to sell their expensive possessions buy a cheaper house in another part of town and drive a Chevy. To insist on maintaining a high lifestyle in lieu of having more children is most likely an act of selfishness. Children do not need all those possessions. What they need is love and they can be loved in the not-so-great-a-neighborhood in a $40,000 house, and a 15 year old Chevy.

On the other end of the scale, a family who is in financial crisis of debt either through no fault of their own (like medical bills), or through mismanagement of the family credit cards, one can use Natural Family Planning TEMPORARILY until the crisis is over. One must, of course, make diligent effort to bring the financial crisis to an end.

As for those in poverty, if it is discerned in a serious way that more children will not be prudent, then Natural Family Planning is the answer for the being.

But there is no such thing as Legitimate Dissent against dogma and definitive teaching (Level 1 and Level 2 teaching). There can be "some" disagreements with Level 3 and Level 4 teaching, but not in a spirit of "dissent", rather any disagreement must be in a spirit of respect and desire to know and obey the truth.

AND.... even if disagreeing with some Church teaching that we are allowed to have disagreement, OBEDIENCE to the teaching is STILL required. REBELLION is a serious and grave sin and is NEVER justified regardless of what level of teaching we are discussing.

For example, if one disagrees with the City Council about a stop sign at an intersection believing it should be a yield sign instead, you are still required to stop until the city council actually and formally replaces the stop sign with a yield sign.

The birth control teaching is Level 2 teaching and thus is not up for debate or dissent of any kind.

God Bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary