If your a catholic,is it completely forbbiden to use contraception?

Question

I want to convert catholicism but I don't want children.Is it okay to be a catholic and use contraception?
Surely not all catholic's don't use it?

Answer 1

No.

The Catholic Church allows natural forms of birth control.

Judeo-Christian tradition has taught for thousands of years:
1. Single people should be celibate.
2. Married people should be faithful to each other (adultery is wrong).
3. Married couples should welcome God's gift of children and, therefore, artificial birth control is against the will of God.

Here is the United States Conference of Catholic Bishop's website on Natural Family Planning: http://www.usccb.org/prolife/issues/nfp/

With love in Christ.

Answer 2

The Catholic Church is completely against artificial contraception, but actively encourages natural forms of birth control.

Truth be told, artificial forms of contraception have a 70% effectiveness rate at best. Natural birth control has 99%. Logic suggests, Catholic or not, one should opt in favor of natural birth control.

You will want to check out VALID Catholic sources for the natural birth regulation technique that bests suits your situation. I know from experience that natural forms of birth control are indeed far moer reliable than artificial contraception.

NOTE: Keep in mind that people are merely procreators. The real Creator is the one who works the miracle of life. If God wills a human being to be born, the conception WILL happen no matter what steps the couple takes to "control" birth.

Do all Catholics practice natural forms of birth control? Mostly likely not, but so what? You cannot justify a wrong doing on your part because of other peoples' wrong doing.

Seriously. . . You will probably not want to hear this but if not having kids is that important, the only way to guarantee staying childless is by practicing abstinence.

Answer 3

There is no religion where all appreciators, followers, and members are in perfect adherence to all the dictates prescribed by it leaders or recorded in its ancient texts and modern commentaries.

I also suspect this is true of the leaders, too. I also think it very likely that there is no major/mainstream/largely populated religious movement or organization extant today, but that there are not dissenting members, or already divergent factions forming related denominations who have taken with them the ideas they liked and left the rest.

Our Constitution is famous for stating that we should protect dissenters and let them speak-- that the peaceful way for governments to change is through discussion and persuasion among the membership. The Declaration of Independence is revered for stating that when leadership is bad it should be changed or departed from.

Organized religions are organizations, just like governments, and elementary schools. Nobody follows every rule perfectly. If that were true, the rules would serve no purpose. We have no rules against what no one does.

Rules change, history changes, organizations change over time.

I am not Catholic and no one ever told me they are Catholic and use contraceptives ... I just think it's likely that there are some such people.

It's okay by me. To me, the worst that could happen is excommunication --- and if you're not catholic right now... wouldn't you be in no worse of a state than now, simply not being a mainstream catholic again. Keep researching and seeking advice and make an informed decision.

Answer 4

Well, if you aren't married it shouldn't be an issue, since Catholics believe that sexual activity is solely the right of a married couple.

And yes, contraception is completely forbidden. It doesn't matter if not all Catholics abide by this. A sin is still a sin- and this is a MORTAL sin- the BIG kind. Popular behavior is NOT the determining factor in what is a sin, God's law is.


It goes against the very nature of the sexual union of husband and wife. Sexual intimacy is supposed to be about a complete giving of self to your spouse, and if both spouses do that then everyone is happy.

If you say- I give you everything EXCEPT my fertility...well, that is sad.

Chemical contraception works by aborting babies, usually before Mom knows she is pregnant.

Go to catholicity.com and request their CD MArriage and the Eucharist. It's free if you request it via snail mail.

It will explain much better than I can here!

Answer 5

Contraception is forbidden. Any Catholic who uses contraception is in grevious sin. Natural Family Planning can be used for a serious reason (pregnancy may harm mother) but it leave open the possibility of conception. By tracking the woman's cycle, you avoid sexual activity during the period of highest fertility but any activity beyond that could still conceive a child so this method remains open to life.

Catholics believe in the pro-creative aspect of sex. But this is only one part. Marriage is a sacrificial union. The husband must submit fully to the wife and vice-versa, and both submit fully to God. When contraception is used, it removes the fullness of love that should be experienced between the couple.

I suggest the book "Life Giving Love" by Kimberly Hahn. It will help you understand the Catholic teaching on contraception. Also, listen to the talk "Marriage and the Eucharist" available on www.biblechristiansociety.com. There are many talks avaiable there that will help you understand Catholic Doctrines.

Answer 6

It is forbidden for Catholics to use contraception for the purpose of having sex without procreating. Certain hormonal therapies used to correct a medical condition are allowable, even it if means "going on the pill" as long as the purpose is not to be able to have sex without procreating.

If you don't want to have children, that's fine. You just can't be married. For Catholics, marriage is a sacrament that involves the willingness to procreate. If you aren't willing to procreate, you aren't willing to be in a sacramental marriage.

If you're willing to have kids but have a grave reason for delaying pregnancy (illness, financial troubles, etc.), then you can use periodic abstinence to delay pregnancy. This allows every act of intercourse to be fully complete, not thwarted by barriers or hormonally induced infertility, while giving you the ability to plan for the arrival of your next child in a time period that is more suitable for your situation.

Many Catholics do violate the Church's teaching on contraception, either because they are poorly taught (don't know any better) or openly disobedient. This is between them and God.

Answer 7

When Catholics marry, they promise to be "open to the gift of chldren". Therefore using an artificial means to be closed to the possibility of children would be a violation of their marriage vows. The raising of children is a fundamental part of marriage. Therefore one should not enter into marriage without a willingness to have children. Catholics however may use Natural Family Planning, an extremely reliable and simple method, to space their children appropriately, for a sufficiently serious reason. This is not the so-called "rhythm method", which no-one has used in at least forty years. If you are not ready to embrace the fullness of Christian truth, you should not enter the Catholic Church, because that is what you will find there.

Answer 8

Catholic moral teaching considers the use of contraceptions immoral. This is because sex as understood in its entirety ends not with pleasure but naturally with procreation. Pleasure is not the goal of sex. It merely facilitates the achievement of the natural goal of sex which is perpetuation of the human race. Basic biology will help you understand that sex is the necessary condition for reproduction. Look at it this way, we eat not for pleasure but for nourishment, yet there is the element of pleasure when we satisfy our hunger. The element of pleasure drives us to attain the natural purpose of eating which is nutrition. Nutrition becomes easy because of the element of pleasure. In the same way, preservation of human species is made easier by the element of pleasure in sex. Now if you do not want the natural consequence of sex, because you are not ready for it, then do not engage in sex. If you engage in it for pleasure alone, then you would be abusing it because it is not for pleasure. And by the way, don't make use as reference for your conversion the things "many" so-called Catholics do, instead convert based on the merits of the Catholic teachings and the lives of those who "truly" are practicing Catholics -they are very few because it is not easy to be a "true" Catholic.

Answer 9

Contraception is forbidden.

You might want to look into Natural Family Planning which closely monitors a woman's reproductive cycle to let her know the days of the month in which conception is likely. It is much more than just looking at a calendar and it is very effective.

Answer 10

The only two forms of birth control allowed by the Roman Catholic church are abstinence and Natural Family Planning. I am at work and apparently my employers have filters on my internet searches, so I cannot read the linked articles but I bet there is some relevant info here:

http://www.catholic.com/library/morality_ethics.asp

and here:

http://www.familyministries.org/nfp.htm