The following comes from a September 28 California Magazine article by Krissy Eliot:
As Pope Francis ended his widely hailed U.S. visit yesterday and flew home, he left behind at least one disappointed American: UC Berkeley professor of public health Malcolm Potts.
Once again the Pope ignored the urging of family planning advocates such as Potts, who has repeatedly—and most recently in a letter to the editor of The New York Times—called on the Pope to resolve turmoil in the Catholic Church over its opposition to married priests and its condemnation of contraception. And he said the Pope could do so by making one simple statement: “I reject the teaching of St. Augustine that sexual intercourse transmits original sin.”
A millennium and half ago, St. Augustine—who wrote of his struggles with lust—declared that the primary purpose of sex and marriage was the procreation of children. Such thinking has permeated church doctrine ever since. By 1968, after the introduction of The Pill and other artificial methods of contraception, most U.S. Catholics believed that the church would drop its ban on contraception. But Pope Paul VI instead reiterated Augustine’s beliefs with the encyclical Humanae Vitae.
Potts suggests that the requirement that priests be celibate explains why it’s so difficult to recruit priests today, and that the prohibition against artificial birth control helps explain why so many U.S. parishioners have left the church. The most recent Gallup Survey on the subject found that not only do 89 percent of Americans say they believe birth control to be morally acceptable, but so do 82 percent of U.S. Catholics.
Noting that he is “known around campus as the professor with the condom ties, ” Potts also contends that refusing contraceptive options unfairly robs a woman of her autonomy. “The definition of a slave is someone who can’t control their body,” he says. “If you can’t separate sex from childbirth, you can’t control what happens in your life.”
Aside from statistical evidence that access to family planning can solve other societal problems, Potts notes that sex is not just about babies. “Most humans have sex because they love each other. And to suggest that that transmits original sin … is really a horrible teaching,” he says.
Asked why, given his arguments about female autonomy, he has not included an appeal to the pontiff for the Catholic Church to abandon its moral prohibition of abortion, Potts draws a distinction. “Abortion is a different set of decisions. As a person who has performed abortions, I respect people who have a different opinion on that,” he says. “I don’t respect people who have a different opinion on contraception. That’s crazy.”
And although he is not Catholic, he nonetheless says he knows enough about Catholicism to understand that acceptance of abortion probably won’t change in the next 50 years, if ever. The prospects seem greater for swaying official church views on birth control—eventually.
Mortal sin dulls the intellect.
“” Potts also contends that refusing contraceptive options unfairly robs a woman of her autonomy. “The definition of a slave is someone who can’t control their body,” he says. “If you can’t separate sex from childbirth, you can’t control what happens in your life.”” What a moron. Women have complete control over whether to have sex in the first place. Contraception has made women, and men, slaves in a far ore profound way than the superficial thinking of this professor can comprehend.
“Women have complete control over whether to have sex in the first place.”
As a woman who has been raped, I denounce this shameful statement as absolutely false. It is also shockingly insensitive to the suffering of the 1/3 of all living women who have been raped, the millions more who have been taken against their wills even within marriage, and the countless legions of women around the world, throughout history and pre-history who definitely have NOT “had complete control over whether to have sex in the first place.” The awful truth is every female is vulnerable, even our mothers, the elderly, nuns, babies, toddlers. Criminals and invading armies sometimes kill us and still rape us after we are dead! In the name of truth and…
Being raped is NOT having sex.
Spoken like a man. I just love it when men tell women what to do with their bodies. Kind of proves the idea that women aren’t granted their autonomy when men think they get to dictate their choices.
Spot on, Dan!
Dan – I agree. Birth control has made women into sex slaves, and they don’t even know it. They think they are free.
And let’s not forget that the birth control pill is a Class One Carcinogen. Why is a “professor of public health” (yeah right!) advocating that women take a known cancer-causing drug. Talk about war on women………
honor, retract and disown this completely and absolutely false statement!
We have a Married Priest in our Parish, who ‘Poped Up’ to full communion. He is a Great Priest and His Wife a tremendous asset to the Church. I think that Saint John Paul II was right on track with this program, and it should continue and be spread as an option to even more Men.
Lets get rid of the Homosex Infiltrators from the ‘Pink Palace’, and by allowing Genuinely Married Priests to remain as Priests we can thus further reduce the opportunities for Pederast infiltrators causing further harm to us all.
” – in a speech just feet from the Liberty Bell and the Philadelphia Independence Hall – Pope Francis clearly stated his views on religious liberty.
“In this place, which is symbolic of the American way, I would like to reflect with you on the right to religious freedom,” the Pope told the massive crowd. “It is a fundamental right which shapes the way we interact socially and personally with our neighbors whose religious views differ from our own.
“Religious freedom certainly means the right to worship God, individually and in community, as our consciences dictate. But religious liberty, by its nature, transcends places of worship and the private sphere of individuals and families.”
The Pope went on…
{The Pope went on to warn of the danger of squelching religious liberty, making comments that many conservatives believe were veiled references to homosexual activists who have been targeting Christian ministries and businesses in an effort to force their agenda.
“In a world where various forms of modern tyranny seek to suppress religious freedom, or try to reduce it to a subculture without right to a voice in the public square, or to use religion as a pretext for hatred and brutality, it is imperative that the followers of the various religions join their voices in calling for peace, tolerance and respect for the dignity and rights of others,” the Pope said”
Malcolm Potts, what a pathetic role model for the population controllers.
Pope Potts looks so sinful and Sad. I hope he is not questioning Jesus assertion that sleeping with anyone other than your wife is mortal sin.
Ok, so there is a non-Catholic who doesn’t understand Catholic teaching. Why is this even news?