What Does It Mean To Be A Catholic On The RH Issue?

What Does It Mean To Be A Catholic On The RH Issue?
By Dennis Yu

I hear every now and then statements like “I’m a Catholic but I’m pro-RH”. This has many other variations like “I’m a Catholic congresswoman, not a congresswoman for the Catholic Church”. In the U.S., there are Catholic politicians who are pro-abortion.

These persons are like vegetarians who eat meat. Nobody forces anyone to be a vegetarian. But if one decides to be a vegetarian, he should not eat meat. Otherwise, he better stop being a vegetarian so he may eat meat “freely”. You cannot eat meat and say at the same time that you are a vegetarian. You cannot have your cake and eat it, too.

Nobody forces one to be a Catholic. And even if one is baptized a Catholic, he can always leave the Church. The gate is wide open. Nobody stays in the Church by force. But if one decides to be a Catholic, or decides to stay in the Catholic Church, he should believe and observe everything that the Church teaches on faith and morals.

If you decide to stay in the Catholic Church, you should obey the teachings of the Holy Father, the representative of Christ. The teaching of Pope Paul VI is very clear. “Every action which, whether in anticipation of the conjugal act, or in its accomplishment, or in the development of its natural consequences, proposes, whether as an end or as a means to render procreation impossible" is intrinsically evil (Humanae Vitae, 14).

This teaching is also infallible (which makes it binding to the Catholics) as reiterated in 1997 by the Pontifical Council on Family (Vademecum for Confessors Concerning Some Aspects of the Morality of Conjugal Life). Karol Wojtyla, before becoming Pope John Paul II, said:

“The teaching of the Encyclical Humanae Vitae regarding the essential principles of an ethical regulation of births is marked by all the characteristics of the infallible ordinary teaching of the Church. This means that one is dealing with a teaching based upon the authority of God and imparted in His name.”

That there are “hard teachings” (like sexual morality) in the Church is no surprise. When her Founder was teaching about the Eucharist, that He is the Bread from heaven, many of those listening to Him said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?” And many of His disciples turned back and no longer followed Him. But Jesus, surprisingly, neither invited them back nor softened the truth He was proclaiming. Instead, He turned to the Apostles, and said, “Do you also wish to go away?” (cf. John 6:60-71).

St. Peter replied to Jesus: To whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. And they stayed with Jesus.

I challenge the Catholics who are in favor of contraception to change their position, to be faithful to the Church’s teachings. I invite them to listen to Jesus: you cannot accept My teachings? Do you also wish to go away?

The choice is yours. (16-VIII-2012)