Editorial

Embracing assent

This month marks the 40th anniversary of a watershed event in modern Church history: Pope Paul VI's release of Humanae Vitae ("Of Human Life"), reiterating the Church teaching's regarding conjugal love and its opposition to contraception.

Set against the backdrop of the cultural upheavals of 1968, it triggered an unprecedented wave of public dissent. Within 24 hours, scores of theologians had mobilized to issue a statement of opposition -- before many U.S. bishops had even read the pope's words.

The theologians opened their statement with words of respect for the Church's teaching role, but it became impossible to view their dissent as anything but pulling the rug out from under papal authority, especially on sexual morals. And with eventually hundreds of prominent theologians voicing opposition, the message was clear: Catholics not only had a right to dissent, but they still could consider themselves faithful members of the Church in doing so.

Viewed with the benefit of four decades' distance, the consequences of the dissent and the way it unfolded have been disastrous -- polarization, division and a generation of Catholics disinclined to look beyond their personal preferences and explore the richness of their faith and its teachings.

It would be unfair to attribute ill will or disloyalty to many of the theologians and prelates who opposed the encyclical. To many of them, the document appeared to symbolize a medieval-style unwillingness to embrace the intoxicating scientific progress of the day.

Many commentators have noted, however, that Pope Paul's courageous stance has been increasingly vindicated with the passing of years. His link between contraception and other moral questions like abortion has become clearer. The slope was indeed slippery, and the consequences have been grave.

But Pope Paul also correctly identified that contraception by itself was harmful, and its consequences are physical and psychological as well as spiritual. As moral theologian Janet Smith points out (see Page 9), contraception has proven to have an unhealthy impact on social relationships, women's bodies and even the environment. (For a free copy of Smith's OSV pamphlet, "Sex and Contraception," send your request with a self-addressed stamped envelope to our address listed on Page 2.)

Because contraception treats a woman's fertility like a pathology or disease that needs medical treatment, and disengages sex from the whole reality of the spouses, it has a creeping dehumanizing effect that harms both women and men (see the reflections of a former pro-choice atheist and now pro-life Catholic on Page 14).

Many of these ideas, of course, were later developed by Pope John Paul II with his "theology of the body," affirming the beauty of the Church's vision of marriage and sexuality. A whole cadre of new theologians, a generation removed from the dissenters, has sprung up to study and develop it.

Polls suggest the vast majority of U.S. Catholics still reject the Church's teaching on contraception. More likely, they don't understand it and have never had it explained to them.

With the wisdom gained over the past 40 years, it is time for the Church -- especially pastors, theologians and committed laity -- to do better at providing fellow Catholics with the education necessary to embrace an "opportunity for assent" to this teaching.