High noon.

EDITOR

After 30 years of silence and foot dragging, we must clear the air. In this issue Catholic Insight brings the plea of a bishop to his fellow bishops in Canada to fully endorse Humanae vitae. ("Choose Life," pp. 17-19) This "High Noon" plea is supported by other bishops, and by priests and laity.

Older Canadians may remember the Sheriff in the movie High Noon. Surrounded by cowering townsmen, he was left to face the gun-slinging town bullies all by himself. Finally, one day at noon the time had come for a showdown. He had to put on his gunbelt, gather his courage, and face the enemy on pain of losing everyone's respect, including his own.

That's about the state of affairs of the Catholic Church in Canada today. The Church needs to utter a prophetic cry in the face of the nation's disintegrating morality. The cry must be one which reiterates the truth. It must go to the heart of the matter.

Humanae vitae

Thirty years ago the world did have a champion who dared to defy the world. His name: Pope Paul VI. His declaration of truth: the 1968 encyclical On human life (in Latin, Humanae vitae), also known as the "birth control" encyclical. He shot straight through the heart of the incipient sexual revolution. Responding to the invention of the Pill in 1959, Pope Paul rejected contraception's promises of a new golden age and, instead, recalled the validity of ancient truths and standards. But his wisdom was scornfully laughed at by the moderns, and doubted even by his own brother bishops in half a dozen countries.

It is arguably the most important encyclical of this century; it is not arguable that it is the most controversial one, the main reason being its head-on deflation of the new utopia. The birth control pill, arm in arm with increased post-world-war affluence, nevertheless revolutionized family life in Europe and North America. It made Church opposition to contraception not only appear ridiculous and outdated, but above all, it made it very annoying because it made so many people uncomfortable. When the Church took almost six years to come to a definitive conclusion about the Pill, many middle class Catholics had already adopted it and were furious to hear that their Church leaders disagreed.

It was for their sake that a majority of Canadian bishops decided to modify the Pope's ruling in their Winnipeg Statement of September 1968.

Surrounded by secular denunciations and gasps of unbelief, the bishops, supported by some laity, convinced themselves that the Pope's stand was tactically mistaken. Translated into theological terms, this meant that they believed the "showdown" pastorally inopportune. They, instead, decided to lead Canadians to a gradual acceptance of Church teaching by permitting them to follow their own inclinations for now, until such time as they would understand the teaching better.

It also appeared some of them had trouble accepting the doctrine itself. Today, we live with the consequences of their incomplete treatment of the formation and use of conscience in regard to contraception.

Disintegration

Thirty years later, in 1998, Canadians know the bishops' compromise of September 1968 failed. Everyone with eyes to see recognizes the massive assault on family morality now drawing towards a climax in North America and Europe. The family barely survives and, as the family goes, so goes society.

As one recent headline put it "Adultery is no longer a sin." Television accepts this as a given. Many young people seem to know no different. Marriage standards are being abolished before our eyes. Thirty years of birth control and sex promotion in schools has confused youth more than ever. Voluntary sterilization is at its highest level and as another headline put it, speaking about vasectomies, "to have a snip is a snap." Two million men have been snipped. Sixty-five per cent of Quebec women of childbearing age have been sterilized.

The Catholic community, by and large, has conformed to the surrounding implosion of moral structures. For Canada and for Catholics it is now High Noon, except that it is not a movie but reality we face.

Calling Canada's bishops

Our bishops must now do what Paul VI did in 1968: face the nation and declare the truth. No time is more urgent than ours for Catholics to proclaim this basic moral teaching of the Church. Our Holy father, John Paul II, constantly teaches that the present age needs to hear "the revealed truth about God, man, and the human condition" - starting with stress on "the existence of objective, absolute truth."

Let us enter the millennium of the year 2000 with a pure heart, steadfast faith, and clear thinking. As always, the Cross of Christ is the tree of life.