>>Among Catholics of my generation this seems to be the biggest stumbling block to accepting church dogma. In their real lives they might not want a pregnancy at any given time. Also, to state the obvious, what are a bunch of celibate old white men doing telling them what to do with their bodies?
Mike, we're all sinners. ;-) and celibate old white men don't tell anybody what to do: religion is voluntary and people can go behind their priest's back or leave as they please. People who want to ask these sorts of questions need to consider why the claimed 98% are still Catholic if it's so out-of-step.
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1
