Melinda Gates Talks Catholic Faith and Funding Contraceptives to Fight AIDS

[rug]

March 20, 2014|1:21 pm
By Stoyan Zaimov, Christian Post Reporter

American philanthropist Melinda Gates talked about her Roman Catholic faith and funding contraceptives in the global fight against AIDS, noting that many Catholics disagree with official church doctrine on the contraception issue.

"Even though I am Catholic I believe in contraceptives, just like the majority of Catholic women in the United States who report using contraceptives, and I shouldn't let that controversy be the thing that holds us back," Gates, co-founder of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, shared at the TED 2014 conference in Vancouver on Tuesday, The Vancouver Sun reported.

The Catholic Church teaches against the use of contraception, defining it as "any action which, either in anticipation of the conjugal act (sexual intercourse), or in its accomplishment, or in the development of its natural consequences, proposes, whether as an end or as a means, to render procreation impossible." This includes sterilization, condoms and the birth control pill.

Results of a far-reaching poll of Roman Catholics around the world commissioned by Univision were released in February and showed that contraception is the issue Catholics disagree with the most when it comes to doctrine. Seventy-eight percent of respondents to the poll of 12,048 Roman Catholics across five continents said that they support the use of contraceptives, with support as high as 91 percent in Latin America.

http://www.christianpost.com/news/melinda-gates-talks-catholic-faith-and-funding-contraceptives-to-fight-aids-116459/

[PumpkinAle]

1. Commonsense prevails.

I seem to remember reading that the vast majority of Catholics use birth control at some point - people do not want numerous children as in past.