While most Catholics (at least those not in politics) accept Church teaching on abortion, a majority don't understand the Church's stand on artificial contraception; so they don't follow it.
Canon Lawyer Pete Vere thought likewise, until he investigated the history of abortion and contraception.
Vere found that abortion and contraception are nothing new, they are ancient, and that from the time of Moses on up to the time just after the Reformation, many herbalists knew how to concoct fertility reducing and abortifacient potions. In fact, the Hippocratic oath [which physicians no longer take] the doctor swore "Nor will I give a woman a p[l]essary to procure abortion", or another translation has "I will not give to a woman an abortive remedy."
What shocked Vere was the discovery that sorcery was often involved with those who sought to thwart God's gift of fertility to couples. In Eve's Herbs: A History of Contraception and Abortion in the West (2002) North Carolina State University History Professor Dr. John Riddle shows "that abortion and contraception are often linked to pagan gods (or more commonly, goddesses); and...that the Christian church has struggled against abortion and contraception for centuries." The first catechism, the Didache (80AD) has these words,"2:2 {Thou shalt do no murder, thou shalt not commit adultery,} thou shalt not corrupt boys, thou shalt not commit fornication, {thou shalt not steal,} thou shalt not deal in magic, thou shalt do no sorcery, thou shalt not murder a child by abortion nor kill them when born,"
In other words, "in ancient and medieval times, contraception and abortion were often considered a form of sorcery and witchcraft, rather than a form of medicine."
Today we should all clearly understand that abortion is murder, but also that at minimum artificial contraception is putting God to the test, but at maximum equivalent to sorcery.
6 comments :
Great post... along the same lines
NFP vs. Contraception I
www.youtube.com/watch?v=v56Z1DIMI58
NFP vs. Contraception II
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ti9ZBGRf9qc
NFP vs. Contraception III
www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0UomDP6ExM
Jay, what does your wife think about how much time you blog? Mine is all over me!
Lucky you
So does your wife bother you about how much you blog?
So does your wife bother you about how much you blog?
This is interesting. Gary chided me for posting the same Scripture verse more than once. And yet, he has posted the same question several times. How odd.
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