{"id":3041,"date":"2008-07-26T23:53:00","date_gmt":"2008-07-26T23:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/2008\/07\/the-pope-v-the-pill.html"},"modified":"2008-07-26T23:53:00","modified_gmt":"2008-07-26T23:53:00","slug":"the-pope-v-the-pill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/07\/the-pope-v-the-pill.html","title":{"rendered":"The Pope v. The Pill"},"content":{"rendered":"

There’s been a lot of ink spilled lately on the 40th anniversary of the landmark encyclical Humanae Vitae<\/a><\/i>. But one of the most insightful and objective examinations of the subject, I think, seems to be this one<\/a>, from John Allen, from the op-ed pages of the Sunday New York Times: <\/p>\n

Forty years ago last week, Pope Paul VI provoked the greatest uproar against a papal edict in the long history of the Roman Catholic Church when he reiterated the church\u2019s ban on artificial birth control by issuing the encyclical \u201cHumanae Vitae.\u201d At the time, commentators predicted that not only would the teaching collapse under its own weight, but it might well bring the \u201cmonarchical papacy\u201d down with it.<\/p>\n

Those forecasts badly underestimated the capacity of the Catholic Church to resist change and to stand its ground.<\/p>\n

Down the centuries, Catholics have frequently groused about papal rulings. Usually they channeled that dissent into blithe disobedience, though occasionally a Roman mob would run the Successor of Peter out of town on a rail just to make a point. In 1848, Pope Pius IX was driven into exile by Romans incensed at his refusal to embrace Italy\u2019s unification.<\/p>\n

Never before July 25, 1968, however, had opposition been so immediate, so public and so widespread. World-famous theologians called press conferences to rebut the pope\u2019s reasoning. Conferences of Catholic bishops issued statements that all but licensed churchgoers to ignore the encyclical. Pastors openly criticized \u201cHumanae Vitae\u201d from the pulpit.<\/p>\n

In a nutshell, \u201cHumanae Vitae\u201d held that the twin functions of marriage \u2014 to foster love between the partners and to be open to children \u2014 are so closely related as to be inseparable. In practice, that meant a resounding no to the pill.<\/p>\n

The encyclical quickly became seen, both in the secular world and in liberal Catholic circles, as the papacy\u2019s Waterloo. It was so out of sync with the hopes and desires of the Catholic rank and file that it simply could not stand.<\/p>\n

And in some ways, it didn\u2019t. Today polls show that Catholics, at least in the West, dissent from the teaching on birth control, often by majorities exceeding 80 percent.<\/p>\n

But at the official level, Catholicism\u2019s commitment to \u201cHumanae Vitae\u201d is more solid than ever.<\/p>\n

During his almost 27-year papacy, John Paul II provided a deeper theoretical basis for traditional Catholic sexual morality through his \u201ctheology of the body.\u201d In brief, the late pope\u2019s argument was that human sexuality is an image of the creative love among the three persons of the Trinity, as well as God\u2019s love for humanity. Birth control \u201cchanges the language\u201d of sexuality, because it prevents life-giving love.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a claim many Catholics might dispute, but the reading groups and seminars devoted to contemplating John Paul\u2019s \u201ctheology of the body\u201d mean that Catholics disposed to defend the church\u2019s teaching now have a more formidable set of resources than they did when Paul VI wrote \u201cHumanae Vitae.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition, three decades of bishops\u2019 appointments by John Paul II and Benedict XVI, both unambiguously committed to \u201cHumanae Vitae,\u201d mean that senior leaders in Catholicism these days are far less inclined than they were in 1968 to distance themselves from the ban on birth control, or to soft-pedal it. A striking number of Catholic bishops have recently brought out documents of their own defending \u201cHumanae Vitae.\u201d<\/p>\n

Advocates of the encyclical draw assurance from the declining fertility rates across the developed world, especially in Europe. No country in Europe has a fertility rate above 2.1, the number of children each woman needs to have by the end of her child-bearing years to keep a population stable.<\/p>\n

Even with increasing immigration, Europe is projected to suffer a population loss in the 21st century that will rival the impact of the Black Death, leading some to talk about the continent\u2019s \u201cdemographic suicide.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not coincidentally, Europe is also the most secular region of the world, where the use of artificial contraception is utterly unproblematic. Among those committed to Catholic teaching, the obvious question becomes: What more clear proof of the folly of separating sex and child-bearing could one want?<\/p>\n

So the future of \u201cHumanae Vitae\u201d as the teaching of the Catholic Church seems secure, even if it will also continue to be the most widely flouted injunction of the church at the level of practice.<\/p>\n

The encyclical\u2019s surprising resilience is a reminder that forecasting the Catholic future in moments of crisis is always a dangerous enterprise \u2014 a point with relevance to a more recent Catholic predicament. Many critics believe that the church has not yet responded adequately to the recent sex-abuse scandals, leading to predictions that the church will \u201chave to\u201d become more accountable, more participatory and more democratic.<\/p>\n

While those steps may appear inevitable today, it seemed unthinkable to many observers 40 years ago that \u201cHumanae Vitae\u201d would still be in vigor well into the 21st century.<\/p>\n

Catholicism can and does change, but trying to guess how and when is almost always a fool\u2019s errand.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For more, check out this very good analysis of the controversy surrounding the encyclical right here<\/a>, from Cardinal James Francis Stafford.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There’s been a lot of ink spilled lately on the 40th anniversary of the landmark encyclical Humanae Vitae. But one of the most insightful and objective examinations of the subject, I think, seems to be this one, from John Allen, from the op-ed pages of the Sunday New York Times: Forty years ago last week,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":204,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-links-r-us","category-ripped-from-the-headlines"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Pope v. 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The Pill"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/","name":"The Deacon's Bench","description":"Where a Roman Catholic Deacon Ponders the World","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/5a7b3c6e9d155e382842aa310ff9b1ee","name":"Deacon Greg Kandra","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/114\/1144d939be636f641ea021e1d347f9fdx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/114\/1144d939be636f641ea021e1d347f9fdx96.jpg","caption":"Deacon Greg Kandra"},"description":"A Roman Catholic deacon serving the Diocese of Brooklyn, New York, Greg Kandra is News Director for the diocese's cable channel, NET (New Evangelization Television.) Prior to that, Deacon Greg worked for 26 years as a writer and producer for CBS News, where he contributed to \"The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric,\" \"60 Minutes II,\" \"48 Hours,\" (Emmy Award, Writers Guild of America Award) and \"Sunday Morning.\" He was co-writer for the acclaimed documentary \"9\/11,\" hosted by Robert DeNiro. (Emmy Award, Christopher Award, Peabody Award, Writers Guild of America Award.) His radio essays were featured in the bestselling book \"Deadlines and Datelines\" by Dan Rather. He's also a two-time winner of the Catholic Press Association Award. Other places you may find him: AMERICA, U.S. CATHOLIC, CATHOLIC DIGEST, REALITY (Redemptorist Communications) and THE BROOKLYN TABLET. He also contributes homiletic reflections to the parish resource CONNECT!, published by Liturgical Publications. In November 2009, he began serving a three-year term as a consultant to the Communications Committee of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). Deacon Greg grew up in Maryland (Go Terps!) but he and his wife today live in the beautiful borough of Queens, New York. You can contact Deacon Greg at dcngreg@gmail.com.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/author\/gkandra"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/204"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3041"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3041\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}