The official RC position is against effective methods of contraception, but that is certainly not the practice of the great majority of Catholics. Most of the Catholic faithful believe that the Vatican lost touch with the reality of family planning decades ago, probably because a celibate male hierarchy has surrendered its power to think rationally about matters involving sex.

I think it is a sign of a healthy church for members to make up their own minds about impractical dogma. Even the Vatican understands that if it tried to crack down on this then Catholicism would rapidly self destruct.

All church organizations are highly conservative because that is the nature of religion. Some people find it easy to be led in that direction but others do not. Those who can embrace change and think originally and rationally are more likely to survive in a changing world. Liberal thinkers are therefore the strrong but flexible mortar that holds a church together.

Church discipline tends to smash the liberal thinkers.