Catholic Review Online: How the Cafeteria Opened

H. E. Archbishop Edwin O'Brien in his column, Thoughts on Our Church, continues his series discussing the backdrop to Humanae Vitae. His latest column documents the period of discussion and then the publication of the encyclical by Pope Paul VI:

5. On June 28, 1968, Pope Paul issued “Humanae Vitae,” acknowledging the commission’s recommendations and thanking them for their efforts, while insisting that nothing could relieve him as supreme teacher of the Church from the duty of making the final decision. After no little thought and prayer, the Pope came to the conclusion that the Church’s long-standing tradition was, in fact, true to both the laws of God and to the nature of human love: “It is necessary that each conjugal act remain ordained in itself to the procreation of human life.”

6. Even before receiving the text of the encyclical, 10 faculty members of The Catholic University of America circulated a “Statement of Dissent” which overnight gained signatures of 72 other Catholic theologians. Cardinal Shehan noted, later, that “ … never in the recorded history of the Church, has a solemn proclamation of a Pope been received with so much disrespect and contempt.” Despite his majority vote on the papal commission, once “Humanae Vitae” was issued, the Cardinal was a staunch promoter of the document’s teaching.

7. Cardinal Shehan was further shocked to read on Aug. 5, 1968, that 72 priests of the Baltimore area had signed the Statement of Dissent, including 2 Sulpicians, 15 Jesuits and 55 archdiocesan priests. Each was interviewed by his respective superior or the archbishop himself, resulting in agreements to adhere to “Humanae Vitae” in teaching, preaching and pastoral practice. The evidence seems to suggest that this agreement was not adhered to. As was the case across the country, and indeed throughout the Catholic world, very little effective catechesis of, or preaching on, “Humanae Vitae” took place, and the people of the Church were left to get their information and commentary from media sources not very sophisticated in theology. (A Baltimore native, Francis Cardinal Stafford, recently recorded his experiences during those days in graphic detail – see “Humane Vitae, The Year of the Peirasmos – 1968,” www.archbalt.org.)

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It is now time to turn the page. The latest issue of The Catholic Review documents that the largest class of seminarians in 40 years has entered the Pontifical Academy of North America, a seminary of which Archbishop O'Brien was Rector. It is time to remember the past, but plan NOW for the future. God needs new Shepherds for His flock.