Artificial Birth Control QUESTION from Mark April 22, 2000 A person whom I work with is a Eucharistic Minister at a local Catholic Parish. She has always portrayed herself as a loyal and practicing Catholic. I really believe that she believes she is a good Catholic. BUT...
Upon returning to my room she stated that another single colleague with children was bragging about her love affairs with various men. This lady who is the Eucharistic Minister (I may add that her husband is also a Eucharistic Minister with her) said that she asked this girl if she was using any birth control and told her she should be. She then told me what she told her.
I told this Eucharistic Minister that the other woman should not be having affairs to begin with and that she should not be on any birth control. This Eucharistic Minister let me know that she is on The Pill and has been for years (she is 52 yrs. old)
I explained to her that it is against church teaching and that she shouldn't be on any artificial birth control. I also explained to her that the pill could very possibly caused her to have abortions if a break through ovulation occurred and the egg was fertilized. She acted surprised but then said I don't believe that.
The next day I gave her a pamphlet on NFP and what the church teaches about artificial birth control. She took it very angrily and reluctantly but I hadn't heard anything for months.
Fast forward about 3 months: She refers to the woman having the affairs again has the one who is being with men and should be using something but is not. Again I reiterated that first of all she shouldn't be doing anything with men since she's not married and secondly she should not be using any artificial birth control.
The next few days I prayed about it and brought in an audio cassette called CONTRACEPTION: Why Not? by Janet E. Smith, Ph.D. I asked her if her son who is got a non-catholic girl pregnant and is getting married this June in their Catholic Parish participated in the Churches Pre-Canna Classes. She said yes she thought so and I then proceeded to offer her the tape for the three of them to sit down and listen to. I told her the tape explains NFP far better than I ever could. She looked at the cassette and flat out said no she wasn't interested.
As a side note the future daughter-in-law is going through RCIA to be accepted into the church. This woman also told me that she said to the future daughter-in-law during her pregnancy You're not going to have any more kids are you? You're going to use something aren't you? The future daughter-in-law said oh no-no more kids.
I then proceeded to call her parish priest and explained that he has a Eucharistic Minister on the birth control pill and that she is very public about in the local community and is publicly encouraging others to use artificial contraception.