The Pope drops Catholic ban on condoms in historic shift

[7,052,770]

The slow pace is irritating, but at least progress is being made...

[7,052,770]

The contraception ban is incredibly asinine and may go down down history as the one thing that destroyed the Church.  Hopefully the next pope will reverse it before it's too late.

[7,052,770]

As for NFP, basically the Church says it's okay because it does not involve undertaking some artificial action to prevent pregnancy; since pregnancy is naturally impossible for some period of time. St. Thomas Aquinas taught contraception was a sin against nature. Since the method realisticidealist discussed is natural it is permitted. However, this does not mean any sex act is licit if it doesn't require artificial contraceptives; it still needs to be the same act (vaginal intercourse between a married man and woman).

And anyone with a brain can see that that's complete BS, and thankfully virtually no married Catholic couple believes that.

[7,052,770]

Interestingly, the only Catholics who support the contraception ban are either super conservatives who think the woman's role is solely to raise kids, or well-meaning celibate men who just don't have a concept of it all.

I know this first hand -- before I was dating my wife, the ban seemed silly but didn't offend me like it does now.

It is easily reason #1 why letting celibate men have 100% of the decision power is a terrible idea.  It worked in the past, but it doesn't any more.  The Church has changed rules and processes all throughout its history to stay with the times, and it's way past due to do it again.