A history of a Catholic stance

Joan Conneely’s recent post is on target. The American Catholic Bishops’ opposition to Obama’s health care provision to provide birth control services to all Americans is not an honest response in light of the fact that 98 percent of all sexually active Catholic women are using birth control now or have in the past. But how did this all come about?

Pope Paul VI, the new pope, after the death of Pope John XXIII, withdrew the birth control issue from the docket of the Second Vatican Council’s third and last session where it was scheduled for discussion. He was afraid of what might evolve, knowing many bishops were in favor of birth control changes. They knew Catholic women were practicing birth control in greater numbers.

He appointed a 55-member commission, which concluded the church could morally alter its teaching. Only four voted against it.

Paul VI rejected their findings, refused to let it be published and issued his encyclical, Humanae Vitae, upholding all aspects of birth control. It was rejected by the majority of Catholic theologians around the world. Pope Paul VI was so crushed by its reception he never wrote another encyclical.

And here we are 44 years later with 98 percent of Catholic women still practicing birth control. Humanae Vitae was a dead duck on arrival, and has yet to show the slightest quiver of life among the faithful.

The church’s greatest theologian, Thomas Aquinas, stated the soul is not in place at or by conception. He insisted that God creates each individual soul independent of any carnal action. He never determined, however, when the soul became present, leaving that unresolved as it is today. It will eventually require a new Vatican Council to resolve the issue.

Robert Harrison

Elk Grove Village