Dear Aidan,

The context of this discussion is the church.

While others may have different ideals, the purpose of the church is to help people to reach God. While this discussion covers the Catholic church's numerous failures, this is still its stated ideal.

In this context, worldly pleasures are a distraction: reaching God requires full concentration and devotion of one's time and energy, so indulging in pleasures diverts one's time and energy away from God. If children result, then even more time and energy is required to feed and cloth them, etc., so practically none remains for God.

Nevertheless, a happy and faithful marriage is not inconsistent with celibacy, so long as this marriage is not consummated. It is quite possible for a man and a woman to share their life and support each other on the spiritual path, yet remain celibate. A perfect example are Shri Ramakrishna (1836-1886) and his wife, Sarada Devi (1853-1920). This is what he had to say to those already married:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NLmeYC-bWI

To Foxy. I get what you mean. I'm not Catholic, but I'm Christian, and see where things have fallen short and then do the same thing a while later. My figuring is that the Catholic Church, like Christian groups as a whole, will survive this. If I remember it correctly, Jesus said the gates of hell will fight against Jesus's kingdom, (current, not the future hopes of a kingdom promise fufilled), but that the church will not not fall. Take heart in that. God promised the same thing that Israel will always be His people, and though they've lost their country and now have it back, throughout history Jewish heritage never died off. I think the same promise is there among the churches of the world. Though I'm sure they can all be disciplined, like Israel was in the Old Testiment, I don't think they will die off.

Just my reasoning and encouragement that the Catholic Church will survive this.

Thank You so much to everyone who has continued this
conversation. I am grateful for all of your opinions.

Personally I am optimistic that Catholicism will
survive. If you've been around for thousands of years
surely you will have learned a few things. That doesn't
mean that the church will be perfect or that parts of it
won't wither and die, or that it won't make mistakes.
Some things will have to change - and hopefully they will
with more commitment and genuine leadership and a willingness
to confront both the difficulties and opportunities that
the church faces.

Again, Thank You for all your comments.
They are deeply appreciated.

Yuyutsu,
If we try to reach God by our own efforts, it would indeed take all our time and energy. Even so, what you see as distractions are more accurately seen as a core part of God's purpose for us. Parenting in particular is the closest we can experience to giving love in the way God gives us love. And God certainly doesn't want our ives to be devoid of pleasure.

Fortunately we don't have to try to reach God by our own efforts, for God reaches out to us.

Dear Aidan,

We cannot reach God by our own efforts, but we can turn towards Him and remove those obstacles that we placed ourselves on the way to Him. The more addicted we are to keeping those obstacles, the more difficult it is to get rid of them, but the more we love God, the easier it is to discard them. Also by loving others, we forgive ourselves and allow ourselves to remove those obstacles that we placed out of guilt.

We should not confuse our own desires with God's purpose: pleasures can happen by God's will and that is fine (pain too), but it is the desire for pleasure (and for avoiding pain) which is a problem, rather than pleasure itself - and that desire is ours alone, we alone are responsible and must not blame God for it. So long as we seek pleasures - the pleasures of the flesh and the pleasures of the mind, God will not stop us, yet those pleasures compared with the eternal bliss of uniting with God, are like the light of a firefly compared with the light of the sun.

If we have children then parenting is a duty. While living we have many duties which we should carry out - and we should do so lovingly. By directing this love to God and fulfilling our duties without expectations, we can remove those obstacles that we placed on the path. The rest will occur by God's grace alone.