Father…, of …, griped and complained in several articles, about the fact that priests, in general, do not speak out enough against contraception and artificial birth control in the parishes. He said that their silence on the matter has been partly responsible for the widespread use of these things amongst Catholics. I do not totally agree with this thinking of Father….
During my 25 years of priesthood, I have always spoken out against and publicly condemned contraception and artificial birth control. I never kept silent on the issue. On the contrary, those who turned themselves deaf and dumb to the birth control subject were the parishioners themselves. In one parish where I gave a series of lectures on contraception and NFP, the local pharmacist came to the Church during the night and destroyed and ripped up my material (texts, notebooks, posters and audio-visual tapes). He was very angry that people no longer bought the pill and condom at his pharmacy! In another parish the doctor, who had been teaching the parishioners how to use contraceptives became angry and never showed up again after he found out I was telling people about the dangers and immorality of these things. The parish leaders who had contracted him complained to the bishop and I was sent away from the area.
Every homily where I mentioned artificial birth control and contraceptives had a response of sullen silence, surprise, anger and embarrassment on the part of the parishioners. They did not want to hear these things. One of the pastoral leaders that dealt with family problems in the parish turned red with embarrassment and pale with sweat just because I handed to her a text telling of the physical dangers caused by contraceptives. On my bulletin board, I put up several pages that spoke of the immorality of the pill and harm caused by contraceptives. No one read them. I even taped a talk on the dangers of STD on live video.com. Only four people watched it. At a talk that I gave on STD, one woman laughed and said to me: “Do you think that people are going to stop having sex because they fear contracting a disease?” In the USA, a lecture on contraception was canceled because no one wanted the word even mentioned. Americans fear sex more than they do God, Iraq, the economy or cancer. When I was head of the diocesan catechetical program (involving more than 2,000 catechists) and planned a day of formation speaking about NFP and contraception, only three catechists showed up. The rest refused to even hear about the issue.
As one can see, Father… is not being fair enough to priests. It is the people who are to blame. They are similar to the stiff necked Israelites that came out of Egypt and refused to accept the Ten Commandments. If it hadn't been for Moses’ insistence, God would have wiped them all out. I unfortunately do not possess Moses’ patience, goodness, meekness or mercy. If God wipes out this present generation because of the birth control sin, I say good riddance and let the matter be done with once and for all! Pope John Paul II was a saintly man who condemned artificial birth control, contraception and abortion in all of his travels. After circling the globe during many years, people still continued in their sinful ways. The problem is that we are dealing with a stiff-necked generation that refuses to abandon its wrongful practices.
If I did not decide to still stop speaking about contraception and the dignity of conjugal love, it is because of the encouragement that I received from good people and friends like Robert and Mary Joyce. The feeling I have sometimes, though is the desire to see the earth open up and swallow these hard headed fools that refuse to open their eyes to true dangers that surround them. Jesus compared people to sheep and rightly so. Sheep do not learn things easily, are very stupid and foolish. One needs great patience to lead them to the authentic pastures.
If Father… wants to be effective in the fight against contraception, let him concentrate his efforts on the bishops. If he can convince them to zealously condemn contraceptives and promote NFP, then the priests will follow their leaders and the people will follow their priests. In Brazil, the majority of bishops still have not accepted NFP nor condemned vigorously birth control. The few that are enthusiastically promoting NFP have had wonderful results in their dioceses, but their numbers are not sufficient. More bishops are needed to involve themselves in the fight. Father… could do much good for America if he had the courage to truly tell the bishops what they needed to hear instead of picking on the priests.
Father Anthony Mellace
Nenhum comentário:
Postar um comentário