![\"contraception-priest-sep-16\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/149\/2017\/05\/contraception-priest-sep-16-300x194.jpg\")
That little pill has changed everything.<\/p>\nThat little pill has changed everything.<\/p>\n
The effect of birth control and a contraceptive culture has altered our world in ways we could never have expected.<\/p>\n
Think for a moment about the effect contraception has had on the number of vocations to the priesthood and religious life.<\/p>\n
First of all, if a family has ten kids it is more likely that they are going to be happy for a few of them to pursue the priesthood or religious life. Mothers will quite happily send a few off to the seminary or monastery. If she has ten she can spare a few.<\/p>\n
But if the neat and tidy suburban career woman only has two she is going to treasure them that much more. The idea that one would become a priest would be a shocking idea, but there is another more subtle attitude shift beneath this.<\/p>\n
When mother and father decided to limit their family to two children by artificial means they usually do so in order for the woman to go back to work. The silent statement is, \u201cWhat is most important to this family is to have as much income as possible.\u201d and \u201cThe career. The career is everything! It comes first. Children? Meh.\u201d<\/p>\n
This attitude is then transmitted to the children who also put career first. Will there be any vocations from a home like that? Probably not.<\/p>\n
Think further of the effects of this revolution in family life on the question of vocations. Before the invention and acceptance of artificial contraception a young man considering the priesthood would look around and weigh up his option.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s say he lived in Philadelphia in the 1950s. He came from an Italian American family. He sees his Dad, his uncles, his grandfather. They are working class. They sweat in dangerous jobs \u00a0to support their large families. They come home to a little house full of kids. Its a good life, but its a hard life.<\/p>\n
The priest, on the other hand, doesn\u2019t have his own wife and family, but he\u2019s in Philadelphia. He gets sent to St Anthony of Padua parish. He\u2019s surrounded by a big extended Italian family. He has status. He\u2019s the priest. He gets an education. Maybe he travels to Rome. He lives in a big house with maybe three or four other priests. They have a \u00a0nice Italian mama who cooks and cleans and looks after them.<\/p>\n
The point I\u2019m making is that, from a human point of view, the young man\u2019s choice is fairer. With a wife and family he will have certain joys and certain sorrows and sacrifices. With the priesthood he will have certain joys and certain sorrows and sacrifices.<\/p>\n
You pays your money and you makes your choice.<\/p>\n
But think of the young man\u2019s choice in today\u2019s contraceptive culture. To be married and have a family doesn\u2019t seem to require any sacrifices at all. Indeed, it seems like the passport to perfection. You get married. You eventually have two nice trophy children. Your wife continues her education and career. You\u2019re both earning enough money to have everything. No sorrows. No sacrifice.<\/p>\n
Of course I know it doesn\u2019t always pan out that way, but that is what seems to be on offer.<\/p>\n
On the other hand, for a young man to be a priest? He\u2019s faced with a life of loneliness\u2013stuck in Rectory by himself with onerous duties and little reward.<\/p>\n
Again\u2013I know it is not really like this, but this is what it may very well appear to be.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s to be done?<\/p>\n
I happen to feel optimistic about the problem because I think the pendulum is going to swing back. I think an increasing number of young people are going to reject the contraceptive culture and choose a life giving alternative, and with that will be an increasing number of young men and women who choose a religious vocation, and they\u2019ll be choosing for all the right reasons.<\/p>\n
Why do I think this? Because a lie cannot sustain itself. All that is false eventually implodes. It can\u2019t last.<\/p>\n
On the other hand, all that is beautiful, good and true will always be attractive. Like fresh shoots on a tree that has been felled, it will spring back.<\/p>\n
Image Creative Commons via Bing<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" That little pill has changed everything. The effect of birth control and a contraceptive culture has altered our world in ways we could never have expected. Think for a moment about the effect contraception has had on the number of vocations to the priesthood and religious life. First of all, if a family has ten […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":557,"featured_media":22641,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n