In response to my statement that the Catholic Church is supposed to inform believers, who then must make the final decision regarding their own lives, Don(Wyziwyg)T says:

That would seem, Joe, to be a very convenient and effective get out clause, worthy of the most unscrupulous corporate interests, absolving the Catholic Church from any responsibility for the behaviour of its followers, from users of birth control right up to child abusing priests.

C'mon, Don, what are you trying to say? To my mind, you're just not making sense. What I said, is how things actually work in real life. People DO make the final decisions regarding their own lives. Even if they happen to profess a religious belief, they are not puppets controlled by outside forces. Each individual has final responsibility and culpability for his own actions.

And yes, it has always been Catholic teaching that each individual has final responsibility and culpability for his own actions.

-Joe Offer-