Moral Teachings (Divorce, Contraception, Abortion...)

Question

Comments

Does Your Non-Catholic 'Christian' Religion Sometimes (or Generally) Tolerate Divorce?

Consider:

* How can a religion calling itself 'Christian' tolerate divorce in light of Christ's clear condemnations? For example, consider the following passages:

"It was also said, 'Whoever divorces his wife must give her a bill of divorce.' But I say to you, whoever divorces his wife (unless the marriage is unlawful) causes her to commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery." (Our Lord Jesus Christ, Mt. 5:31-32)

"Some Pharisees approached [Jesus], and tested him, saying, 'Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any cause whatever?' He said in reply, 'Have you not read that from the beginning the Creator 'made them male and female' and said, 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, no human being must separate.' They said to him, 'Then why did Moses command that the man give the woman a bill of divorce and dismiss (her)?' He said to them, 'Because of the hardness of your hearts Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. I say to you, whoever divorces his wife (unless the marriage is unlawful) and marries another commits adultery.'" (Mt. 19:3-9)

"The Pharisees approached [Jesus] and asked, 'Is it lawful for a husband to divorce his wife?' They were testing him. He said to them in reply, 'What did Moses command you?' They replied, 'Moses permitted him to write a bill of divorce and dismiss her.' But Jesus told them, 'Because of the hardness of your hearts he wrote you this commandment. But from the beginning of creation, 'God made them male and female. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother (and be joined to his wife), and the two shall become one flesh.' So they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, no human being must separate.' In the house the disciples again questioned him about this. He said to them, 'Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.'" (Mk. 10:2-12)

"Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and the one who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery." (Our Lord Jesus Christ, Lk. 16:18)

* Is it not clear from Christ's words that so-called 'divorces' are really meaningless in God's eyes? Otherwise, how could it be said that one who is divorced and remarried commits adultery? The only way it could be adultery is if the original couple is still married. And, don't forget that Scripture says that adulterers will not inherit the kingdom of God (see 1 Cor. 6:9-10).

* It should be noted that the Catholic Church never, under any circumstances, permits divorce and remarriage. Even her annulments are not divorces - they are simply affirmations that a valid marriage never existed in the first place. The Catholic Church holds that "A ratified and consummated valid marriage can be dissolved by no human power and for no cause, outside of death." (1917 Code of Canon Law, Can. 1118)

* Why is it your non-Catholic 'Christian' religion claims to love Christ, yet tolerates the violation of his commands? Scripture clearly says that... 

Jn. 14:15: "If you love me, you will keep my commandments."

Jn. 14:21: "Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me. And whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him."

Jn. 15:10: "If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and remain in his love."

Closing Quotations...

"For I hate divorce, says the LORD, the God of Israel" (Mal. 2:16)

"Divorce is born of perverted morals, and leads, as experience shows, to vicious habits in public and private life." (Pope Leo XIII)

"So long as a husband lives, be he adulterer, be he sodomite, be he addicted to every kind of vice, if she left him on account of his crimes he is her husband still and she may not take another." (St. Jerome, Doctor of the Church, c. 397 A.D.)

"Truth Himself says: 'What God has joined together, let man not put asunder.' He says also: 'It is not permitted to dismiss a wife, except for reason of fornication.' Who, then, can contradict this heavenly Legislator?" (Pope St. Gregory I the Great, Doctor of the Church, c. 601 A.D.)

"[N]ot even [the Church] can ever affect for any cause whatsoever a Christian marriage which is valid and has been consummated, for as it is plain that here the marriage contract has its full completion, so, by the will of God, there is also the greatest firmness and indissolubility which may not be destroyed by any human authority." (Pope Pius XI, "Casti Connubii", 1930 A.D.)

"You dismiss your wife, therefore, as if by right and without being charged with wrongdoing; and you suppose it is proper for you to do so because no human law forbids it; but divine law forbids it. Anyone who obeys men ought to stand in awe of God. Hear the law of the Lord, which even they who propose our laws must obey: 'What God has joined together let no man put asunder.'" (St. Ambrose of Milan, Doctor of the Church, c. 389 A.D.)

"...if marriage could be dissolved by divorce, married persons would hardly ever be without causes of disunion, which would be daily supplied by the old enemy of peace and purity; while, on the contrary, now that the faithful must remember that even though separated as to bed and board, they remain nonetheless bound by the bond of marriage with no hope of marrying another, they are by this very fact rendered less prone to strife and discord." (Catechism of the Council of Trent)

"[I]t is hardly necessary to point out what an amount of good is involved in the absolute indissolubility of wedlock and what a train of evils follows upon divorce. Whenever the marriage bond remains intact, then we find marriages contracted with a sense of safety and security, while, when separations are considered and the dangers of divorce are present, the marriage contract itself becomes insecure, or at least gives ground for anxiety and surprises. On the one hand we see a wonderful strengthening of goodwill and cooperation in the daily life of husband and wife, while, on the other, both of these are miserably weakened by the presence of a facility for divorce." (Pope Pius XI, "Casti Connubii", 1930 A.D.)

"'Therefore, while her husband is alive, she will be called an adulteress if she be found with another man. But if her husband shall have died, she has been set free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress if she has been with another man.' These words of the Apostle, so often repeated, so often inculcated, are true, living, sound, and clear. A woman begins to be the wife of no later husband unless she has ceased to be the wife of a former one. She will cease to be the wife of a former one, however, if that husband should die, not if he commit fornication. A spouse, therefore, is lawfully dismissed for cause of fornication; but the bond of chastity remains. That is why a man is guilty of adultery if he marries a woman who has been dismissed even for this very reason of fornication." (St. Augustine, Doctor of the Church, c. 419 A.D.)

"For difficult it is to imagine a more deadly pest to the community than the wish to declare dissoluble a bond which the law of God has made perpetual and inseverable. Divorce 'is the fruitful cause of mutable marriage contracts; it diminishes mutual affection; it supplies a pernicious stimulus to unfaithfulness; it is injurious to the care and education of children; it gives occasion to the breaking up of domestic society; it scatters the seeds of discord among families; it lessens and degrades the dignity of women, who incur the danger of being abandoned when they shall have subserved the lust of their husbands. And since nothing tends so effectually as the corruption of morals to ruin families and undermine the strength of kingdoms, it may easily be perceived that divorce is especially hostile to the prosperity of families and States.'" (Pope Leo XIII, "Longinqua", 1895 A.D.)

"There exists not, indeed, in the projects and enactments of men any power to change the character and tendency which things have received from nature. Those men, therefore, show but little wisdom in the idea they have formed of the well-being of the commonwealth who think that the inherent character of marriage can be perverted with impunity; and who, disregarding the sanctity of religion and of the sacrament, seem to wish to degrade and dishonor marriage more basely than was done even by heathen laws. Indeed, if they do not change their views, not only private families, but all public society, will have unceasing cause to fear lest they should be miserably driven into that general confusion and overthrow of order which is even now the wicked aim of socialists and communists. Thus we see most clearly how foolish and senseless it is to expect any public good from divorce, when, on the contrary, it tends to the certain destruction of society." (Pope Leo XIII, "Arcanum", 1880 A.D.)

"It must consequently be acknowledged that the Church has deserved exceedingly well of all nations by her ever watchful care in guarding the sanctity and the indissolubility of marriage. Again, no small amount of gratitude is owing to her for having, during the last hundred years, openly denounced the wicked laws which have grievously offended on this particular subject; as well as for her having branded with anathema the baneful heresy obtaining among Protestants touching divorce and separation; also, for having in many ways condemned the habitual dissolution of marriage among the Greeks; for having declared invalid all marriages contracted upon the understanding that they may be at some future time dissolved; and, lastly, for having, from the earliest times, repudiated the imperial laws which disastrously favored divorce." (Pope Leo XIII, "Arcanum", 1880 A.D.)

"To conclude with the important words of Leo XIII, since the destruction of family life 'and the loss of national wealth is brought about more by the corruption of morals than by anything else, it is easily seen that divorce, which is born of the perverted morals of a people, and leads, as experiment shows, to vicious habits in public and private life, is particularly opposed to the well-being of the family and of the State. The serious nature of these evils will be the more clearly recognized, when we remember that, once divorce has been allowed, there will be no sufficient means of keeping it in check within any definite bounds. Great is the force of example, greater still that of lust; and with such incitements it cannot but happen that divorce and its consequent setting loose of the passions should spread daily and attack the souls of many like a contagious disease or a river bursting its banks and flooding the land.'" (Pope Pius XI, "Casti Connubii", 1930 A.D.)

"The self-same testimony of Christ our Lord easily proves that the marriage-tie cannot be broken by any sort of divorce. For if by a bill of divorce a woman were freed from the law that binds her to her husband, she might marry another husband without being in the least guilty of adultery. Yet our Lord says clearly: Whosoever shall put away his wife and shall marry another committeth adultery (Lk. 16:18). Hence it is plain that the bond of marriage can be dissolved by death alone, as is confirmed by the Apostle when he says: A woman is bound by the law as long as her husband liveth; but if her husband die she is at liberty; let her marry whom she will, only in the Lord (1 Cor. 7:39); and again: To them that are married, not I but the Lord commandeth, that the wife depart not from her husband and if she depart that she remain unmarried or be reconciled to her husband (1 Cor. 7:10). The wife, then, who for a just cause has left her husband, the Apostle offers this alternative: Let her either remain unmarried, or be reconciled to her husband." (Catechism of the Council of Trent)

"The advocates of the neo-paganism of today have learned nothing from the sad state of affairs, but instead, day by day, more and more vehemently, they continue by legislation to attack the indissolubility of the marriage bond, proclaiming that the lawfulness of divorce must be recognized, and that the antiquated laws should give place to a new and more humane legislation. Many and varied are the grounds put forward for divorce, some arising from the wickedness and the guilt of the persons concerned, others arising from the circumstances of the case; the former they describe as subjective, the latter as objective; in a word, whatever might make married life hard or unpleasant. They strive to prove their contentions regarding these grounds for the divorce legislation they would bring about, by various arguments. Thus, in the first place, they maintain that it is for the good of either party that the one who is innocent should have the right to separate from the guilty, or that the guilty should be withdrawn from a union which is unpleasing to him and against his will. In the second place, they argue, the good of the child demands this, for either it will be deprived of a proper education or the natural fruits of it, and will too easily be affected by the discords and shortcomings of the parents, and drawn from the path of virtue. And thirdly the common good of society requires that these marriages should be completely dissolved, which are now incapable of producing their natural results, and that legal reparations should be allowed when crimes are to be feared as the result of the common habitation and intercourse of the parties. This last, they say must be admitted to avoid the crimes being committed purposely with a view to obtaining the desired sentence of divorce for which the judge can legally loose the marriage bond, as also to prevent people from coming before the courts when it is obvious from the state of the case that they are lying and perjuring themselves, - all of which brings the court and the lawful authority into contempt. Hence the civil laws, in their opinion, have to be reformed to meet these new requirements, to suit the changes of the times and the changes in men's opinions, civil institutions and customs. Each of these reasons is considered by them as conclusive, so that all taken together offer a clear proof of the necessity of granting divorce in certain cases. Others, taking a step further, simply state that marriage, being a private contract, is, like other private contracts, to be left to the consent and good pleasure of both parties, and so can be dissolved for any reason whatsoever. Opposed to all these reckless opinions, Venerable Brethren, stands the unalterable law of God, fully confirmed by Christ, a law that can never be deprived of its force by the decrees of men, the ideas of a people or the will of any legislator: 'What God hath joined together, let no man put asunder.' And if any man, acting contrary to this law, shall have put asunder, his action is null and void, and the consequence remains, as Christ Himself has explicitly confirmed: 'Everyone that putteth away his wife and marrieth another, committeth adultery: and he that marrieth her that is put away from her husband committeth adultery.' Moreover, these words refer to every kind of marriage, even that which is natural and legitimate only; for, as has already been observed, that indissolubility by which the loosening of the bond is once and for all removed from the whim of the parties and from every secular power, is a property of every true marriage." (Pope Pius XI, "Casti Connubii", 1930 A.D.)

Does Your Non-Catholic 'Christian' Religion Sometimes Tolerate Abortion (or Euthanasia)? 

Note: We do not condone violence or illegal activities.

Consider:

* How can a religion calling itself 'Christian' ever tolerate the killing of society's weakest members? 

* Do you expect that one can gain eternal life after taking the life of the innocent (if unrepentent)? Do you not realize that Christ himself said that it was necessary not to kill in order to gain eternal life?

Mt. 19:16-19: Now someone approached him and said, "Teacher, what good must I do to gain eternal life?" He answered him, "Why do you ask me about the good? There is only One who is good. If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments." He asked him, "Which ones?" And Jesus replied, " 'You shall not kill; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness; honor your father and your mother'; and 'you shall love your neighbor as yourself.'"

* How can any person claim the "right" to kill an innocent person? 

* Abortion and euthanasia, rather than giving 'freedom', makes those responsible 'slaves of sin' [Our Lord Jesus Christ: "Amen, amen, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin." (Jn. 8:34)]. 

* Are you unaware that those who might consider euthanasia later are glad to be alive?

* Are you unaware that the toleration of euthanasia leads to the purposeful taking of human life by those in the medical profession, even against the will of sick persons?

* How much do you know about abortion? Did you know that by age 45, approximately 43% of women in the U.S. may have had at least one abortion? Did you know that a child may be killed in the womb as often as every 20 seconds? Did you that abortion is a violent killing which may be painful for the unborn child? Did you know that abortion is related to promiscuity? Have you ever realized that most aborted children do not receive baptism? Did you know that abortion has been associated with many detrimental effects on women's health?

* Think the "don't impose your morality on me" argument is compelling? Is preventing someone from killing you or robbing you or raping you imposing morality or religion? Of course not! Laws against such actions are designed to protect us, not impose morality or religion. Just as you - as an innocent person - have the right not to be killed, an unborn baby also has the right not to be killed. All our rights must be limited when our actions affect others. This is a matter of natural justice. While we may have a right to free speech, we do not have a right to yell "fire" in a crowed building, because others can be hurt. Likewise, while we may have a right to drive a car, we do not have a right to drive as fast as we want because others may be hurt. We do not have unlimited rights where other people are concerned. In the case of abortion, a living child is murdered. While the mother has her rights, the child also has rights - including the very right to life. How would you allow a mother of a three month old child to kill her baby because it was 'burdensome' to her? Surely you would never provide legal sanctions for such actions. No mother has the right to kill her child, even if the child is still in her womb. It is clear that a morality has been imposed on our nation. It is the 'morality' of those who push for abortion, of those who have decided that the mothers have rights and their innocent children have none. Millions and millions of innocent children have been killed because their mothers were given 'rights' and theirs were taken away. They never had a voice to speak or access to the courts. They are the innocent victims who have had 'morality' imposed upon them. 

* Have you confused rights with power? A mother may have the power to choose that her child should live or die, but she does not have the right to do so. Most decent people instinctively know that it is wrong to deprive an innocent person of their life, and much more do they realize how wrong it would be to take the life of their own offspring. It is unnatural and immoral to kill one's own children. Clearly one has no such right, even if one has the power. Even though a child is smaller, it has an equal right to life as its parents have. You, as a mother, have no more right to kill your child than your own mother has to kill you. A child has the same right to life as its mother does, even if it is inside the womb. 

* Think you have no right to tell a pregnant woman what to do with her body? Remember that abortion has nothing to do with the rights of a woman over her body, but with the rights of the other person insider of her. Her rights end at her body. She does not have the right to end the life of the person inside her. The exercise of one's civil liberty is naturally curtailed when it endangers the life of another innocent person or even one's self (e.g. suicide). It is not just a "blob of tissue" inside of her, but a living human baby, a human life. It has its own heart, soul, blood supply, fingerprints, DNA and organs - and may even be of another sex. It is a totally different human being from her. She has no more right to kill it then she has to kill her two month old baby that she considers a 'burden'. What is growing inside her is not a disease to be treated or a sickness to be cured, but a child to be loved. In fact, her body was designed for this very purpose. While a woman has the right to control her own body, she does not have the right to kill innocent children. Far from being denied 'reproductive rights', a pregnant woman has already exercised her 'reproductive rights' and she has reproduced. What she wants to do in an abortion is not exercise her 'reproductive rights', but instead to kill an unborn child. No woman has the right to kill an innocent human being, even if she finds the other person inconvenient.

* Abortion is not a solution. Once a woman is pregnant, she is already a mother. She will either have a living child or a dead child. Killing her living child will not solve her problems, but is likely to add to them. It is a fact that many and serious consequences are associated with abortion. It is clear that many women suffer a great deal after (or during) an abortion. Although the procedure might be presented as simple, it is actually a ghastly procedure that may physically (and terribly!) hurt the unborn child and may cause many negative emotional and physical complications to the mother, even including death. It has been said that "Most women who are talked out of abortion are grateful, while many who have an abortion are remorseful." How can abortion be a solution when it takes an innocent human life, causes so many new problems for women, and when those who have had them regret them? How could such a serious a violation of God's commandments ever be a solution?

* Abortion is unnecessary. Besides being evil and wrong, abortion is plainly unnecessary! All pregnancies will terminate naturally, either by the baby's birth or by its unfortunate (but natural) death. Those which end with a new, living child bring hope to the world and a new child to love. Even if the birth mother doesn't want her child (or can't raise it), someone else will want that child. And, God wants that child! There is no such thing as an unwanted child. All children have inherent value even if their own parents cannot recognize it.

* The 'pro-choice' position is deceptive and untenable. Although they argue that they are 'pro-choice' and want 'reproductive freedom', the 'pro-choice' movement really is pro-abortion and wants the freedom to kill children. They hide their designs behind misinformation, empty slogans and deceptive terminology. They say they want 'freedom to choose', but they really they want freedom to kill. If they really wanted women to make a 'choice', why will they not give her all the non-abortion related options? Why do they hide from her the fact that her baby is a baby? They clearly have only one 'choice' in mind. If you try to argue the issue with them, their position cannot hold. Their arguments are selfish, weak and illogical. That is because there is no getting around the fact that abortion kills innocent children. The child never consented to be killed. The father may not have consented to the killing of his child. Often, if the mother was truly informed of what she was doing, she may not consent. Certainly, they can never argue it from the position of the unborn child. Since science clearly shows that the unborn baby is a living human being, they may try to ignore this inconvenient fact and just act as if the child is a non-person and hope that no one realizes otherwise. There is often an overemphasis on so-called women's 'rights', as if there were only one person involved. They encourage her to set aside the rights of her child for her own selfish desires, as if her 'convenience' was more important than the life of her child. They act as if the only way a woman can solve her problems is to kill her children. On one hand, they pretend concern and compassion for women, on the other hand they encourage her towards the destruction of her motherhood. If they are so concerned about women, why do they hide information from them concerning the serious medical and psychological risks of abortion? Why do they not tell her that the abortion might result in her death - if not now, than many years from now? In fact, there are many inconsistencies on the 'pro-choice' side. 

* "I am personally opposed, but...". What if someone was to say to you, "I am personally opposed to your murder, but I can't impose my morality on anyone"? What if the entire law changed so that you could be murdered 'legally' at the will of any other person - would you even want to go outside? The entire "I am personally opposed, but..." argument makes no sense! Murder is murder and one can't be "personally opposed, but..."! How can you be "personally opposed" to murder and not want it to be stopped, to not be 'legal'? Would it be okay if you saw the same mother kill the same child when it was one month old? Of course not. Then you'd never dream of saying "I'm personally opposed, but..."! Would you not call the police and want the mother arrested? How then can you ignore the taking of unborn life because you don't want to "impose morality"? The apostles had no problem "imposing morality", nor should those who claim to follow Christ fear to proclaim the truth and resist evil.

* Did you know that the 'work' of abortionists is sometimes 'unsuccessful' and the babies come out alive? Sometimes they kill the babies while they are being born. Sometimes they just leave them to die. After an abortion, they may sell or simply throw away the baby! 

* Do you still hold that abortion is acceptable in cases of rape or incest (estimated at about 1% of abortions)? Do you not realize that abortion in cases of rape is "killing a baby for the crime of its father"? Do you not see the similarities between abortion and rape - both are violent acts against innocent victims. Did you know that victims of rape who later had an abortion may find that they are able to get past the rape, but not the abortion? Remember that in the case of rape, they weren't responsible, whereas they were responsible for the death of their child. A mother will not forget the child she carried, and now must bear the guilt of purposefully taking a life. Furthermore, did you know that at least one study has shown that those who have been raped don't want an abortion and that those who do have an abortion suffer even more? Do you not realize that abortion doesn't solve the problem, but instead brings more trauma upon women? Are you aware that women who have an abortion may be likely to suffer many - and serious - medical and emotional problems as a result of the abortion? Do you not realize aware that there are many persons who would gladly take the child and love it as their own? Finally, ask yourself, if you had a friend and later found out that he or she were conceived in rape, would you then say it was okay for your friend's mother to kill him or her? Of course not! It would be no more right for a mother to kill her 3 month old child who was conceived in rape than it would be to kill her unborn child who was conceived in rape. One does not have the right to kill an innocent person, even if the circumstances of his or her conception were unfortunate. Truly, is far from compassionate to allow a victimized woman to commit a grave sin that will bring death to her child and is also likely to cause her to suffer various emotional and health problems. 

* Do you not realize that Scripture is clear that unborn children in the womb are persons? For example consider Rebekah's children quarreling while still within her (see Gen. 25:21-24). And, don't forget John the Baptist's reaction to Jesus - while both were still in the womb! "With John leaping with joy within her body, Elizabeth spoke for him and addressed Mary as the 'Mother of God'. Two unborn children established a relationship before either was born." (Archbishop Fulton Sheen)

Closing Quotations...

"[The one who sat on the throne] said to me, 'They are accomplished. I (am) the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give a gift from the spring of life-giving water. The victor will inherit these gifts, and I shall be his God, and he will be my son. But as for cowards, the unfaithful, the depraved, murderers, the unchaste, sorcerers, idol-worshipers, and deceivers of every sort, their lot is in the burning pool of fire and sulfur, which is the second death.'" (Rv. 21:6-8, emphasis added)

"The innocent and just person thou shalt not put to death" (Ex. 23:7)

"Life, one's own and that of others, cannot be disposed of at will: it belongs to the Author of life." (Pope John Paul II)

"Abortion and euthanasia are thus crimes which no human law can claim to legitimize." (Pope John Paul II)

"The woman who destroys voluntarily a fetus incurs the pain of murder." (St. Basil the Great, Doctor of the Church)

"[T]his horrible crime [of abortion]...will eventually draw down divine punishment on our nation." (Catholic Bishops of Iowa)

"The killing of the innocent is no less sinful an act or less destructive because it is done in a legal and scientific manner." (Pope John Paul II)

"Can. 1398 A person who procures a completed abortion incurs a latae sententiae excommunication." (1983 Code of Canon Law)

"[T]o kill a human being, in whom the image of God is present, is a particularly serious sin. Only God is the master of life!" (Pope John Paul II)

"Among all the crimes which can be committed against life, procured abortion has characteristics making it particularly serious and deplorable." (Pope John Paul II)

"Therefore from the moment of its conception life must be guarded with the greatest care, while abortion and infanticide are unspeakable crimes." (Second Vatican Council)

"Those who give drugs causing abortions are murderers themselves, as well as those who receive the poison which kills the fetus." (St. Basil the Great, Doctor of the Church, c. 369 A.D.)

"It may be said that a society shows itself just to the extent that it meets the needs of all its members, and the quality of its civilization is determined by the way in which it protects its weakest members." (Pope John Paul II, 2002 A.D.)

"Every individual is a living expression of unity, and the human body is not just an instrument or item of property but shares in the individual's value as a human being.. It follows, therefore, that the body cannot be treated as something to be disposed of at will." (Pope John Paul II)

"But no word has the power to change the reality of things: procured abortion is the deliberate and direct killing, by whatever means it is carried out, of a human being in the initial phase of his or her existence, extending from conception to birth." (Pope John Paul II)

"Nay, as it is forbidden in Genesis to take human life, because God created man to his own image and likeness, he who makes away with God's image offers great injury to God, and almost seems to lay violent hands on God Himself!" (Catechism of the Council of Trent)

"Human life finds itself most vulnerable when it enters the world and when it leaves the realm of time to embark upon eternity. The word of God frequently repeats the call to show care and respect, above all where life is undermined by sickness and old age." (Pope John Paul II, 1995 A.D.)

"Every human person, no matter how vulnerable or helpless, no matter how young or how old, no matter how healthy, handicapped or sick, no matter how useful or productive for society, is a being of inestimable worth, created in the image and likeness of God." (Pope John Paul II)

"[S]entimentality blinds the mind and leads it to hold monstrous theories and to extol immoral and fatal practices. Is it not such false pity which claims to justify euthanasia and to remove from man purifying and meritorious suffering, not by a charitable and praiseworthy help but by death" (Pope Pius XII)

"To claim the right to abortion, infanticide and euthanasia, and to recognize that right in law, means to attribute to human freedom a perverse and evil significance: that of an absolute power over others and against others. This is the death of true freedom: 'Truly, truly, I say to you, every one who commits sin is a slave to sin' (Jn 8:34)." (Pope John Paul II, 1995 A.D.)

"Some go so far as to take potions, that they may insure barrenness, and thus murder human beings almost before their conception. Some, when they find themselves with child through their sin, use drugs to procure abortion, and when (as often happens) they die with their offspring, they enter the lower world laden with the guilt not only of adultery against Christ but also of suicide and child murder." (St. Jerome, Doctor of the Church)

"As far as the right to life is concerned, every innocent human being is absolutely equal to all others...Before the moral norm which prohibits the direct taking of the life of an innocent human being 'there are no privileges or exceptions for anyone. It makes no difference whether one is the master of the world or the 'poorest of the poor' on the face of the earth. Before the demands of morality we are all absolutely equal'." (Pope John Paul II)

"Taking into account these distinctions, in harmony with the Magisterium of my Predecessors and in communion with the Bishops of the Catholic Church, I confirm that euthanasia is a grave violation of the law of God, since it is the deliberate and morally unacceptable killing of a human person. This doctrine is based upon the natural law and upon the written word of God, is transmitted by the Church's Tradition and taught by the ordinary and universal Magisterium." (Pope John Paul II, 1995 A.D.)

"Human life is sacred and inviolable at every moment of existence, including the initial phase which precedes birth. All human beings, from their mothers' womb, belong to God who searches them and knows them, who forms them and knits them together with his own hands, who gazes on them when they are tiny shapeless embryos and already sees in them the adults of tomorrow whose days are numbered and whose vocation is even now written in the 'book of life' (cf. Ps. 139: 1, 13-16). There too, when they are still in their mothers' womb - as many passages of the Bible bear witness - they are the personal objects of God's loving and fatherly providence." (Pope John Paul II, 1995 A.D.)

"Finally, those who hold high office among nations and pass laws may not forget that it belongs to public authority by appropriate laws and penalties to defend the lives of the innocent, and the more so as those whose lives are endangered and are attacked are less able to defend themselves, among whom surely infants in their mothers' wombs hold first place. But if public magistrates not only do not protect those little ones, but by their laws and ordinances permit this, and thus give them over to the hands of physicians and others to be killed, let them remember that God is the judge and the avenger of innocent 'blood which cries from earth to heaven' [Gen. 4:10]." (Pope Pius XI)

"Fundamentally, democracy is a 'system' and as such is a means and not an end. Its 'moral' value is not automatic, but depends on conformity to the moral law to which it, like every other form of human behavior, must be subject: in other words, its morality depends on the morality of the ends which it pursues and of the means which it employs... But the value of democracy stands or falls with the values which it embodies and promotes... The basis of these values cannot be provisional and changeable 'majority' opinions, but only the acknowledgment of an objective moral law which, as the 'natural law' written in the human heart, is the obligatory point of reference for civil law itself." (Pope John Paul II)

"[I]t is never licit to cooperate formally in evil. Such cooperation occurs when an action, either by its very nature or by the form it takes in a concrete situation, can be defined as a direct participation in an act against innocent human life or a sharing in the immoral intention of the person committing it. This cooperation can never be justified either by invoking respect for the freedom of others or by appealing to the fact that civil law permits it or requires it. Each individual in fact has moral responsibility for the acts which he personally performs; no one can be exempted from this responsibility, and on the basis of it everyone will be judged by God himself (cf. Rom. 2:6; 14:12). To refuse to take part in committing an injustice is not only a moral duty; it is also a basic human right." (Pope John Paul II)

"Why sow where the ground makes it its care to destroy the fruit? where there are many efforts at abortion? where there is murder before the birth? for even the harlot thou dost not let continue a mere harlot, but makest her a murderess also. You see how drunkenness leads to whoredom, whoredom to adultery, adultery to murder; or rather to a something even worse than murder. For I have no name to give it, since it does not take off the thing born, but prevent its being born. Why then dost thou abuse the gift of God, and fight with His laws, and follow after what is a curse as if a blessing, and make the chamber of procreation a chamber for murder, and arm the woman that was given for childbearing unto slaughter?" (St. John Chrysostom, Doctor of the Church)

"The moral gravity of procured abortion is apparent in all its truth if we recognize that we are dealing with murder and, in particular, when we consider the specific elements involved. The one eliminated is a human being at the very beginning of life. No one more absolutely innocent could be imagined. In no way could this human being ever be considered an aggressor, much less an unjust aggressor! He or she is weak, defenseless, even to the point of lacking that minimal form of defense consisting in the poignant power of a newborn baby's cries and tears. The unborn child is totally entrusted to the protection and care of the woman carrying him or her in the womb. And yet sometimes it is precisely the mother herself who makes the decision and asks for the child to be eliminated, and who then goes about having it done." (Pope John Paul II, 1995 A.D.)

"Even when not motivated by a selfish refusal to be burdened with the life of someone who is suffering, euthanasia must be called a false mercy, and indeed a disturbing 'perversion' of mercy. True 'compassion' leads to sharing another's pain; it does not kill the person whose suffering we cannot bear. Moreover, the act of euthanasia appears all the more perverse if it is carried out by those, like relatives, who are supposed to treat a family member with patience and love, or by those, such as doctors, who by virtue of their specific profession are supposed to care for the sick person even in the most painful terminal stages... The request which arises from the human heart in the supreme confrontation with suffering and death, especially when faced with the temptation to give up in utter desperation, is above all a request for companionship, sympathy and support in the time of trial. It is a plea for help to keep on hoping when all human hopes fail." (Pope John Paul II, 1995 A.D.)

"The Church's canonical discipline, from the earliest centuries, has inflicted penal sanctions on those guilty of abortion. This practice, with more or less severe penalties, has been confirmed in various periods of history. The 1917 Code of Canon Law punished abortion with excommunication. The revised canonical legislation continues this tradition when it decrees that 'a person who actually procures an abortion incurs automatic (latae sententiae) excommunication'. The excommunication affects all those who commit this crime with knowledge of the penalty attached, and thus includes those accomplices without whose help the crime would not have been committed. By this reiterated sanction, the Church makes clear that abortion is a most serious and dangerous crime, thereby encouraging those who commit it to seek without delay the path of conversion." (Pope John Paul II)

"Therefore, by the authority which Christ conferred upon Peter and his Successors, in communion with the Bishops - who on various occasions have condemned abortion and who in the aforementioned consultation, albeit dispersed throughout the world, have shown unanimous agreement concerning this doctrine - I declare that direct abortion, that is, abortion willed as an end or as a means, always constitutes a grave moral disorder, since it is the deliberate killing of an innocent human being. This doctrine is based upon the natural law and upon the written Word of God, is transmitted by the Church's Tradition and taught by the ordinary and universal Magisterium. No circumstance, no purpose, no law whatsoever can ever make licit an act which is intrinsically illicit, since it is contrary to the Law of God which is written in every human heart, knowable by reason itself, and proclaimed by the Church." (Pope John Paul II)

"The fact that legislation in many countries, perhaps even departing from basic principles of their Constitutions, has determined not to punish these practices against life, and even to make them altogether legal, is both a disturbing symptom and a significant cause of grave moral decline. Choices once unanimously considered criminal and rejected by the common moral sense are gradually becoming socially acceptable. Even certain sectors of the medical profession, which by its calling is directed to the defense and care of human life, are increasingly willing to carry out these acts against the person. In this way the very nature of the medical profession is distorted and contradicted, and the dignity of those who practice it is degraded... The end result of this is tragic: not only is the fact of the destruction of so many human lives still to be born or in their final stage extremely grave and disturbing, but no less grave and disturbing is the fact that conscience itself, darkened as it were by such widespread conditioning, is finding it increasingly difficult to distinguish between good and evil in what concerns the basic value of human life." (Pope John Paul II, 1995 A.D.)

"Therefore, by the authority which Christ conferred upon Peter and his Successors, and in communion with the Bishops of the Catholic Church, I confirm that the direct and voluntary killing of an innocent human being is always gravely immoral. This doctrine, based upon that unwritten law which man, in the light of reason, finds in his own heart (cf. Rom. 2:14-15), is reaffirmed by Sacred Scripture, transmitted by the Tradition of the Church and taught by the ordinary and universal Magisterium. The deliberate decision to deprive an innocent human being of his life is always morally evil and can never be licit either as an end in itself or as a means to a good end. It is in fact a grave act of disobedience to the moral law, and indeed to God himself, the author and guarantor of that law; it contradicts the fundamental virtues of justice and charity. 'Nothing and no one can in any way permit the killing of an innocent human being, whether a fetus or an embryo, an infant or an adult, an old person, or one suffering from an incurable disease, or a person who is dying. Furthermore, no one is permitted to ask for this act of killing, either for himself or herself or for another person entrusted to his or her care, nor can he or she consent to it, either explicitly or implicitly. Nor can any authority legitimately recommend or permit such an action'." (Pope John Paul II, 1995 A.D.)

"Some people try to justify abortion by claiming that the result of conception, at least up to a certain number of days, cannot yet be considered a personal human life. But in fact, 'from the time that the ovum is fertilized, a life is begun which is neither that of the father nor the mother; it is rather the life of a new human being with his own growth. It would never be made human if it were not human already. This has always been clear, and... modern genetic science offers clear confirmation. It has demonstrated that from the first instant there is established the programme of what this living being will be: a person, this individual person with his characteristic aspects already well determined. Right from fertilization the adventure of a human life begins, and each of its capacities requires time - a rather lengthy time - to find its place and to be in a position to act'. Even if the presence of a spiritual soul cannot be ascertained by empirical data, the results themselves of scientific research on the human embryo provide 'a valuable indication for discerning by the use of reason a personal presence at the moment of the first appearance of a human life: how could a human individual not be a human person?'. Furthermore, what is at stake is so important that, from the standpoint of moral obligation, the mere probability that a human person is involved would suffice to justify an absolutely clear prohibition of any intervention aimed at killing a human embryo. Precisely for this reason, over and above all scientific debates and those philosophical affirmations to which the Magisterium has not expressly committed itself, the Church has always taught and continues to teach that the result of human procreation, from the first moment of its existence, must be guaranteed that unconditional respect which is morally due to the human being in his or her totality and unity as body and spirit: 'The human being is to be respected and treated as a person from the moment of conception; and therefore from that same moment his rights as a person must be recognized, among which in the first place is the inviolable right of every innocent human being to life'." (Pope John Paul II, 1995 A.D.)

Does Your Non-Catholic 'Christian' Religion Sometimes (or Generally) Tolerate Contraception? 

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Does Your Non-Catholic 'Christian' Religion Sometimes (or Generally) Tolerate Homosexual Behavior? 

Note: Of course, while homosexual behavior is rightly rejected, individual persons who engage in such behavior must still be loved ("hate the sin, love the sinner").

Consider:

* How does a religion calling itself 'Christian' accept homosexual behavior in light of Scripture's clear condemnation of such actions. For example, consider the following passages:

"You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; such a thing is an abomination." (Lev. 18:22)

"Do you not know that the unjust will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor boy prostitutes nor practicing homosexuals nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor robbers will inherit the kingdom of God. That is what some of you used to be; but now you have had yourselves washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God." (1 Cor. 6:9-11)

"I wish to remind you, although you know all things, that (the) Lord who once saved a people from the land of Egypt later destroyed those who did not believe. The angels too, who did not keep to their own domain but deserted their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains, in gloom, for the judgment of the great day. Likewise, Sodom, Gomorrah, and the surrounding towns, which, in the same manner as they, indulged in sexual promiscuity and practiced unnatural vice, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire." (Jude 1:5-7)

Closing Quotations...

"[C]ertain special sins are said to be against nature; thus contrary to sexual intercourse, which is natural to all animals, is unisexual lust, which has received the special name of the unnatural crime." (St. Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church and "greatest theologian in the history of the Church")

"Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that 'homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered.' They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved." (Catechism of the Catholic Church)