To obstinately deny an infallible teaching of the Catholic Church is an act of heresy. That being said, when it comes to contraception, a variety of studies and surveys conclude that the majority of Catholic women support the practice of contraception. Even so, the “98 percent of Catholics use birth control” mantra is hogwash.
The USCCB has repeatedly debunked the claim, effectively arguing that the percentages are skewed and designed to pave the way for acceptance of the Obama mandate. This is all good, but such arguments do not address the fundamental problem.
From LifeSiteNews By John-Henry Westen and Kathleen Gilbert
The flow of medical supplies waiting to be distributed to tens of thousands of earthquake victims in Haiti was delayed for weeks by a massive supply of condoms dominating the space of the main storage facility there, an eyewitness with insider information has told LifeSiteNews.com (LSN).
The central pharmaceutical supply center, known as PROMESS (Program on Essential Medicine and Supplies), is home to the operations of the World Health Organization (WHO)/Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) in the area. "Without PROMESS we would have had a second catastrophe," Dr. Alex Larsen, Haitian Minister of Health, said at the PROMESS warehouse recently.
However, the glut of condoms at that same warehouse delayed the massive influx of aid pouring in from around the world, according to an inside source, and may have cost lives. The source reported that shipping containers of medical supplies were unable to be unloaded, sorted and distributed since an enormous supply of condoms clogged the facility till early February, when the condoms could be removed. The condoms were estimated to take up about 70% of the space in the 17,000 sq. ft. warehouse.
The supplies pouring into the region are enormous. Reliefweb reports that “from 16-21 January alone, 483,091 kg of pharmaceutical supplies and 4,990 kg of non-pharmaceutical health supplies, like rubber gloves and masks, arrived at Port-au-Prince airport.”
Nicholas Reader of the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said he was "not aware" of the problem, and directed LSN to the World Health Organization for more information. Paul Garwood, the communications officer for emergencies and humanitarian affairs at the World Health Organization, also said he was unaware of the issue. Garwood forwarded the request to colleagues in Haiti, who have not responded as of press time.
While WHO officials are not speaking specifically about the condom clog, they have in more general terms admitted logistical hardships in dealing with the influx of supplies.
"Trying to both respond to the massive health needs in Haiti following the quake and organize the large volume of supplies entering the country has been a great challenge," according to WHO/PAHO representative in Haiti, Dr Henriette Chamouillet.
The scenario of medical supply buildings in the developing world taken up mostly by condoms and severely lacking in health care supplies is not new.
When Canadian General Romeo Dallaire returned from Rwanda in the aftermath of the Rwandan Massacre he noted in a 1996 speech that military personnel referred to UN and other foreign aid as "covering the country with rubber."
Dallaire explained that tons of condoms and other contraceptives were being shipped to and distributed around the region in quantities far beyond what the population could use and in place of much more needed food, medicine and other critically needed aid. Medicine stores, he said, were filled with contraceptives and extremely short of any supplies to treat wounded Rwandans.
With business-savy ingenuity some in the developing world have turned the condom dumping by the West to their advantage. The BBC reported in 2004 that in one Indian city alone 600,000 condoms a day were used in the sari-weaving industry. Sari weavers use the lubrication in the condoms to soften the loom's shuttle making weaving faster, without risking stains to the silk.
The United Nations strategy of massive promotion of condoms as the primary solution to the AIDS crisis is reflected even in recent reports, with no sign of letting up.
For cultures which value life, and family, the condom push into their cultures is highly offensive. Carol Ugochukwu, President of United Families of Africa in Enugu, Nigeria, commented in a 2000 interview noting that Western delegations at the United Nations were trying to "exterminate the whole race" with their promotion of condoms.
Ugochukwu expressed exasperation that Canada, the US and Europe wasted most of the time at UN conferences trying to gain approval for homosexuality while the needs of African women such as food, shelter, and clean drinking water were largely ignored. "[B]ig organizations," she said, "spend so much money, but when they find out you are dealing with all that [dying children and mothers] they are not interested. You have to say you are dealing with reproductive rights before you are given support."
Ugochukwu concluded, "[Westerners] now come in with condoms - condoms are everywhere! They spend so much money on condoms and they make our children promiscuous. They say it will stop AIDS - but it is getting worse! It makes no sense to me."
The bishops of the United States have issued a 60-page pastoral letter on marriage that offers an overview of Catholic teaching on the sacrament while addressing the challenges posed by contraception, same-sex unions, divorce, and cohabitation.
The draft of the document, which earned praise from pro-life and pro-family leaders, underwent nearly 100 changes before it was approved by a 180-45 margin. For example, in the section on contraception-- which cites Humanae Vitae seven times-- the sentence “this is an intrinsically evil action” was changed and expanded to
This is objectively wrong in and of itself and is essentially opposed to God’s plan for marriage and proper human development. It makes the act of intercourse signify, or speak, something less than the unreserved self-gift intended in the marriage promises.
The draft’s key paragraph condemning the legal recognition of homosexual unions remained unchanged:
The legal recognition of same-sex unions poses a multifaceted threat to the very fabric of society, striking at the source from which society and culture come and which they are meant to serve. Such recognition affects all people, married and non-married: not only at the fundamental levels of the good of the spouses, the good of children, the intrinsic dignity of every human person, and the common good, but also at the levels of education, cultural imagination and influence, and religious freedom.
Source(s): these links will take you to other sites, in a new window.
The federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has accused Belmont Abbey College of discriminating against its female employees by not covering contraceptives in its health insurance plan.
The EEOC stepped in after eight teachers filed a complaint over what they considered a discriminatory health insurance policy, and what Belmont Abbey says is simply faithfulness to basic Church teaching.
In December 2007 Belmont Abbey, a conservative Catholic campus in North Carolina, stopped offering abortion, contraception, and sterilization coverage that had been accidentally included as part of its employee health insurance packages.
"As a Roman Catholic institution, Belmont Abbey College is not able to and will not offer nor subsidize medical services that contradict the clear teaching of the Catholic Church," said Belmont Abbey President William Thierfelder. "There was no other course of action possible if we were to operate in fidelity to our mission and to our identity as a Catholic college."
After faculty members filed complaints with the EEOC and the North Carolina Department of Insurance, Belmont Abbey says the EEOC told the school in March 2009 that it would close the file on the discrimination charge, as it had not found the school's decision in violation of its statutes. But the agency later reversed itself, and issued a determination letter to the school on August 5 affirming that the ban amounted to gender discrimination, because it pertains only to women.
"By denying prescription contraception drugs, Respondent (the college) is discriminating based on gender because only females take oral prescription contraceptives," wrote Reuben Daniels Jr., the EEOC Charlotte District Office Director in the determination. "By denying coverage, men are not affected, only women."
Belmont Abbey College has been directed by the EEOC to reach an agreeable resolution with faculty. If this does not happen, Daniels will advise the parties of available enforceable court alternatives.
BAC president Dr. William K. Thierfelder said he was surprised at hte EEOC's reversal, and called their decision "disappointing."
"We are disappointed that this matter has taken this very unusual twist, but we remain committed to ensuring that all of the College's policies and practices follow the teachings of the Catholic Church, which includes valuing all life and treating individuals with dignity and respect, and providing equal opportunities for all," said Thierfelder in a statement on behalf of the school.
"The College is confident that its actions ultimately will be found to be in compliance with all federal and state laws and with the U.S. Constitution," said the statement. "Accordingly, the College will be asking the EEOC to reconsider each of the current determinations it has made in connection with the charges filed against the College."
The Cardinal Newman Society (CNS), who has included Belmont Abbey in its list of top conservative Catholic campuses in the U.S., told EEOC acting chairman Stuart Ishimaru in a letter today that "It is ironic that the federal agency responsible for protecting against discrimination has so blatantly engaged in an inexcusable violation of religious liberty in its Belmont Abbey ruling,"
CNS also is sending a letter to all Catholic bishops in the United States, informing them of the EEOC action against Belmont Abbey College, and highlighting the dangerous precedent this ruling sets to force Catholic employers to include contraceptive coverage in employee health plans.
"No Catholic college or other institution should be required by government to violate the Catholic Church's clear moral teachings," said Patrick J. Reilly, President of The Cardinal Newman Society. "The apparently increasing insensitivity to religious beliefs should frighten all employers and employees. We urge religious leaders to stand in defense of Belmont Abbey College."
To respectfully express concerns:
Reuben Daniels, Jr., EEOC Charlotte District Office Director 129 West Trade Street Suite 400 Charlotte, North Carolina 28202 phone: 1-800-669-4000 fax: 704-344-6734
Stuart Ishimaru, Chairman, U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission 131 M Street, NE Washington, DC 20507 Phone: (202) 663-4900 TTY: (202) 663-4494 info@eeoc.gov
In President Obama's Fiscal Year 2010 Proposed Budget, the president recommends that Congress eliminate funding for abstinence education and instead pour funds into condoms and contraceptive-based sex education.
The proposed budget calls for an additional $150 million for contraceptive-only education, which includes competitive grants, research, evaluation and authorization for $50 million in new mandatory condom grants to states, tribes and territories, according to an Abstinence Clearinghouse press release.
The budget eliminates the $133 million set aside for CBAE (Community Based Abstinence Education) and Title V Abstinence Education Program, the two main federal abstinence-education initiatives.
Pregnancy centers and other charitable organizations throughout the country would be among those affected by the elimination of CBAE funds. Read the rest of this entry >>
This summer marks the fortieth anniversary of Pope Paul VI's prophetic encyclical, Humanae Vitae (Of Human Life), in which he describes what the future would look like if the world were to accept the contraceptive lifestyle. It is the Church teaching around which all the Church's enemies (with the exception of Muslims), including many dissident clergy and lay Catholics, are most united.
Following a reflection on what the natural law teaches about the nature of man and the purpose of the marriage act, the 1968 document reflects upon the consequences of artificial birth control -- including a loss of respect for women, a breakdown of the family, greater infidelity, sexual license among the young, and the threat, since realized in China and other nations, that governments would impose family planning on their people.
The document, a mere dozen pages, even predicted the worldwide, massive ridicule and opposition to the teaching. Pope Paul writes:
"To tell the truth, the Church is not surprised to be made, like her divine founder, a 'sign of contradiction,' yet she does not because of this cease to proclaim with humble firmness the entire moral law, both natural and evangelical. Of such laws the Church was not the author, nor consequently can she be their arbiter; she is only their depository and their interpreter, without ever being able to declare licit that which is not so by reason of its intimate and unchangeable opposition to the true good of man."
One consequence of the contraceptive lifestyle that the Pope does not directly discuss is its profound efffect on western demographics. Mark Steyn has written: "The design flaw of the secular social-democratic state is that it requires a religious-society birthrate to sustain it."
According to Steyn:
"Much of what we loosely call the Western world will not survive this century, and much of it will effectively disappear within our lifetimes, including many if not most Western European countries. There'll probably still be a geographical area on the map marked as Italy or the Netherlands--probably--just as in Istanbul there's still a building called St. Sophia's Cathedral. But it's not a cathedral; it's merely a designation for a piece of real estate. Likewise, Italy and the Netherlands will merely be designations for real estate. The challenge for those who reckon Western civilization is on balance better than the alternatives, is to figure out a way to save at least some parts of the West."
... the Lambeth Conference of 1908 affirmed its opposition to artificial contraception in words harsher than anything appearing in Humanae Vitae: “demoralizing to character and hostile to national welfare.” In another historical twist that must have someone laughing somewhere, pronouncements of the founding fathers of Protestantism make the Catholic traditionalists of 1968 look positively diffident. Martin Luther in a commentary on Genesis declared contraception to be worse than incest or adultery. John Calvin called it an “unforgivable crime.” This unanimity was not abandoned until the year 1930, when the Anglicans voted to allow married couples to use birth control in extreme cases, and one denomination after another over the years came to follow suit.
I have often wondered if there is a simple, understandable way to convey the theme to which this blog is dedicated. It has been my intention to focus on Christian civilization, the Truth upon which it is founded, the beliefs that under-gird it, the freedoms that flow from it, the beauty and fullness of its life, and all that threatens it. Clearly, the greatest threat to most nations of the West is the collapse of their own populations, the vacuum that has been created, and the advance of Muslim hordes as they fill that vacuum and destroy what has been built over two millenia.
At the very root of the impending calamity is the rejection of Pope Paul's reiteration of sublime truths about the dignity of man, the sanctity of marriage and conjugal love, respect for nature, and the necessity of faithfulness to God's design, if "the true good of man" is to be realized.
To obstinately deny an infallible teaching of the Catholic Church is an act of heresy. That being said, when it comes to contraception, a variety of studies and surveys conclude that the majority of Catholic women support the practice of contraception. Even so, the “98 percent of Catholics use birth control” mantra is hogwash. 
The central pharmaceutical supply center, known as PROMESS (Program on Essential Medicine and Supplies), is home to the operations of the World Health Organization (WHO)/Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) in the area. "Without PROMESS we would have had a second catastrophe," Dr. Alex Larsen, Haitian Minister of Health, said at the PROMESS warehouse recently.
While WHO officials are not speaking specifically about the condom clog, they have in more general terms admitted logistical hardships in dealing with the influx of supplies.
The United Nations strategy of massive promotion of condoms as the primary solution to the AIDS crisis is reflected even in recent 
In December 2007 Belmont Abbey, a conservative Catholic campus in North Carolina, stopped offering abortion, contraception, and sterilization coverage that had been accidentally included as part of its employee health insurance packages.
