Tag Archives: eros

Investigating NFP: Supporting Families

2 Replies

Those who have been following my series on NFP, especially Pius’ speech about large families, may find this short article interesting.

"In his weekly pastoral letter, Archbishop Agustin Garcia-Gasco of Valencia, Spain, said greater charity must be shown to those families that are most in need, for while ‘the working class was considered the poor in the past, today’s poor are the families.’”

"In his letter, the archbishop warns that in today’s world, ‘Choosing to have a family and raise kids is seen by many as way of ending up poor.’"

"’Families are the poor of our time,’ he said, noting that ‘all of us can contribute to establishing social changes so that the right to have a family is a reality.’ ‘There are many countries that have policies harmful to families,’ he warned."

If anyone knows where the full text of the Archbishop’s letters can be found, please let us know.

Update 03/25/06: Here’s an automated translation of the whole letter.  It’s not perfect, but it’s readable.

“Did you mean adoption?”

12 Replies

This is fascinating. Apparently the search engine at Amazon.com was prompting users who searched for "abortion" whether they meant to type "adoption," purely for intersecting reasons of technical and typographical chance. They have changed it, but similar problems are bound to crop up more often as large amounts of information are increasingly subject to user searches by algorithmic sorting of relevance.

Still, it is an excellent example of processes not directly under the control of humans coming up with results that humans perceive as holding a human bias, despite the absence of one. Welcome to the age of miscommunication between people and software.

No, Peter, this isn’t about miscommunication.  It’s about a bunch of whining hypocrits who, despite all their posturing and pontificating about the importance of choice, got their panties all twisted when an algorithmic anomaly presented users with *gasp* a choice.  If they wish to protect the right to abortion, that’s their prerogative; we can argue about that later.  Just don’t sing the praises of choice and then freak out when someone, even accidentally, offers choices for pregnant women that don’t require blind and uncritical acceptance of the supposed necessity of killing their children. 

"I thought it was offensive," said the Rev. James Lewis, a retired Episcopalian minister in Charleston, W.Va. "It represented an editorial position on their part."

You’d think "adoption" was a dirty word or hate speech.  I guess it’s just not the politically correct choice.

Investigating NFP: Pius XII

25 Replies

Click here to read the previous post in this series.

I have recently come to the (re)realization that bishops are the authoritative teaching body of the Church. As such, it is their responsibility to properly and effectively teach such sticky subjects as the regulation of births. However, those teachings must be in accord with the Bishop of Rome and magisterium of the Church, so I still think there is merit in exploring the relevant papal documents. Let us then continue by hearing the thoughts of Pope Pius XII.

I had thought that Pius XII had written an encyclical about contraception. As it turns out, the only statements he made about the subject were in in various allocutions (addresses) to associations of doctors and the like. These don't carry nearly the same weight as encyclicals and are certainly not infallible. An exploration of the doctrinal authority of papal allocutions can be found here, but I cannot vouch for its accuracy. Nevertheless, Paul VI quotes from these addresses extensively in Humane Vitae, thus lending some of theauthority of an encyclical. I searched for the texts of these addresses and only found the 1951 Address to Midwives on the Nature of Their Profession and the 1958 Address to Officers and Representatives of the Associations for Large Families-of Rome and of Italy. If anyone knows where I might find the rest of them, I'd be indebted. Anyhow, here's the address to midwives.

Continue reading →

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Christopher West in Pittsburgh

Leave a reply

Those reading and commenting on my series of posts about NFP might be interested in this.

God, Sex and the Meaning of Life: An Introduction to Pope John Paul II’s Theology of the Body

Christopher West
Wednesday, April 5, 2006 7:30 p.m.
Many think they understand what the church teaches about the body and the relationship between man and woman. However, the deeper reasons – the why of these teachings – are not well understood. The human body is meant to be a sign of God’s own life and love in the world. Join Christopher West for a thought provoking presentation that will enrich your understanding of human sexuality and the spiritual power it contains.

Christopher West teaches the theology of the body at St. John Vianney Theological Seminary in Denver and at the John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family in Melbourne, Australia. He also serves as the Theology of the Body Staff Advisor for the GIFT Foundation. His books, extensive lecturing, numerous tapes, and his radio and TV appearances have sparked an international groundswell of interest in John Paul II’s theology of the body. He is married to Wendy and has three children.

Comments and Questions:  Diocese of Pittsburgh Department for Communications