September
10, 2013 Martin Mallon
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CONTRACEPTION AND CONSCIENCE – BACK TO BASICS
An interesting development in the Church’s approach to contraception was explicated in The Tablet on September 6, read here , when:
The Bishop of Arundel and Brighton, Kieran Conry, who is responsible for evangelisation in England and Wales, said that enforcing strict teaching on the use of contraception risked turning people away from the Church and said that most practising Catholics had accommodated the teaching while following their own consciences.
The Bishop was launching a campaign "to bring four million lapsed Catholics back to church, Bishop Conry said that Catholics had made up their own minds about contraception and that most were happy to live "with ambiguity"." He goes on to point out that Pope Paul VI intended people to use their consciences in relation to contraception, when the pope promulgated Humanae Vitae:
"It's important to remember that [author of Humanae Vitae] Paul VI made it quite clear you follow your conscience," he added. "Many people may not be happy with what Church says but it seems this is not turning people away. People make accommodation."
Bishop Conry is making clear that Humanae Vitae’s teaching on contraception for married couples was never intended by Paul VI to be an infallible teaching; the pope was giving guidance and it was then up to individuals to use their conscience. See here for an earlier article on The Formation of Conscience .
The problem for the church arose when the curia and many bishops insisted that Humanae Vitae was an infallible statement on contraception within marriage, despite Paul VI making it clear that it was not. Many left the church over this particular issue. So it is good to see Conry accept the encyclical in the spirit it was intended by Paul VI and perhaps this will help the church come to terms with it’s teaching on contraception.
Much damage has been inflicted on the church and, more importantly on individual Catholics, by the insistence that church teaching on contraception was infallible, when clearly it wasn’t. This pragmatic approach by Bishop Conry, that intended by Paul VI, reveals a more Christian attitude that will hopefully now be used throughout the church.
It also appears that Conry’s approach is also a reflection of Pope Francis being in charge, which gives people like Conry the courage to show the loving face of Christ in church teachings rather than emphasising obedience to magisterial teachings at any cost. Pope Francis has insisted that there will be no backlash from the CDF.
Once again it is obvious how important it is for us all to continue to pray for this Pope and his ongoing reformation of the curia and the church under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
See also David Frost's famous interview with Cardinal Heenan on the subject of Human Vitae. Full text here ...with the final famous words:
David Frost : But if a person is really following their conscience and using some form of contraceptive and goes to the priest and says so, then the priest should say, "God bless you ", and not refuse them the sacraments.
Cardinal Heenan : Of course not, of course not. Perhaps you don't know, 'but in the pastoral letter I wrote immediately after the Encyclical was published, I insisted on this. I said, don't let this prevent you from receiving the sacraments—remember ? David Frost : Yes I do, I read that. I read that but you've never said it as clearly or as forthrightly. Thank you.
Cardinal Heenan : I didn't have Mr. Frost to help me to express myself.
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