What Are The Effects Of Catholic Beliefs On Practising Catholics? On A Young Unmarried Woman.

GCSE Religious Studies (Philosophy & Ethics)

Laura Smith AO2

What Are The Effects Of Catholic Beliefs On Practising Catholics?

On A Young Unmarried Woman.

For a young unmarried Catholic, it is expected of them to go into chastity, whether male or female. Chastity means that there should be no sex outside of marriage.

“All the baptised are called to chastity”

Catechism of the Catholic Church (para.2348)

Contraception shouldn’t be issue for an unmarried woman, as she shouldn’t need to use it. Also, abortion isn’t an issue, even if she was raped. If she did become pregnant, she would still have to give birth to the child and then either keep it or give it up for adoption.

These ‘rules’ for sex and contraception are very hard to stick to in today’s society. Many factors contribute to the woman being led to have sex in today’s society. Peer pressure is one of them especially if she has friends that like to talk about what they do with boys, so she might feel left out if she has nothing to talk about. Also, if she is in a long-term relationship, she might be scared that she would loose her boyfriend if they didn’t have sex. This might be even worse for her if her boyfriend wasn’t Catholic and didn’t understand the moral values of the catholic traditions. The media contribute a great deal to sex in our society, with programmes such as with programmes such as “Sex and the City”, “Sex Tips for Girls” and reality shows such as “Big Brother” promoting sex, so to a girl who is chaste she might feel that she is in the minority. Also, natural desires might contribute to sex, as God gave us natural desires to have sex otherwise we wouldn’t.

There are many people that will help people through Chastity. The Catholic Church builds up a strong community of people.

“Chastity is a moral virtue. It is also a gift from God, a grace, a fruit of spiritual effort. The Holy Spirit enables one whom the waters of baptism has regenerated to imitate the purity of Christ.”

Catechism of the Catholic Church (para.2345)

Prayer would also help the girl as she could talk to someone who would listen, and some people say that you might even get a response.

On A Married Couple with several children who do not ...

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There are many people that will help people through Chastity. The Catholic Church builds up a strong community of people.

Catechism of the Catholic Church (para.2345)

Prayer would also help the girl as she could talk to someone who would listen, and some people say that you might even get a response.

On A Married Couple with several children who do not want anymore.

Natural Family Planning is expected to be used as a couple’s form of contraception. This drastically reduces someone’s sex life, which could put a strain on the couple, as they can only have sex for one week a month, rather than whenever they like. Also, in the back of a woman’s mind, she might have the thought that she could be pregnant. A non-catholic partner might worry about it and want to use contraception.

If a pregnancy did occur, then the couple wouldn’t be able to have an abortion. An adoption would be allowed, but it would be very hard letting go of a child that a woman has been carrying for 9 months, so there would be a lot of emotional consequences, especially for the child when he or she finds out that they were adopted. If they keep the child, there could be money problems, if the child is disabled or if there isn’t a lot of money anyway. There could be a problem with time if both parents worked, which would mean one parent would have to give up work for a while which could lead to money problems. Also, the parents could be getting on a bit and may not have enough energy to cope with another child and could lead to guilt. Also, the woman might get post-natal depression.

The positive aspects are that a baby is supposed to bring happiness to a couple and bring a couple closer.

Natural Family Planning might mean that the couple’s conscience would allow them to use contraception, which meant they might feel guilty ‘sinning’ by using artificial contraception.

Protestants are allowed to use contraception because the church recognised the fact that people were living in extreme poverty and had to limit the amount of children they had somehow but also be able to show their love for each other so this meant that the Anglican church allowed contraception to be used by protestants.