Humanae vitae - 30 years: some Canadian reactions in 1993.

CATHOLIC INSIGHT STAFF

As explained in the editorial on page three, the 30th anniversary of the encyclical On human life (Humane vitae) provides an opportunity to Canadian Catholics to once more focus on the reasons for the spiritual crisis which envelopes our country and the whole Western world. We bring five articles. The first focusses on 1993; the second discusses the preparatory Commission which sat from 1963 to 1968; the third relates some effects of the 1968 Canadian reaction called the Winnipeg statement. The fourth, and most important, is the invitation by Bishop Roman Danylak to the Conference of Catholic Bishops to newly endorse the 1968 encyclical while burying the Winnipeg Statement. Finally, a short article explains the difference between contraception and natural family planning.

In the first article below, our approach is to step back briefly to 1993 and see how some Canadian Catholics reacted to the 25th anniversary of Humanae vitae (Hv). This helps us to see continued weaknesses and points of resistance which must be overcome.

Editor

After practically 25 years of inactivity and silence, when the year 1993 was over, Canada had had four conferences in honour of the encyclical. Two of these were organized by Ottawa's Human Life International (Antigonish in May; Edmonton in October); one by the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars (Toronto, in October); one by the Archdiocese of Vancouver (in November). That's more than in the previous 25 years counted together.

As for the print media, the BC Catholic, British Columbia's Catholic weekly, celebrated the anniversary by reprinting the full text. No other Catholic weekly followed this route.

The editor and publisher of the quarterly Nazareth Journal, Michael O'Brien, meditated in his fall issue on what would have happened if all Catholics had fully responded to this magnificent document and had begun to see married love as a great adventure and not, as it is so often represented, a dreary burden.

Our own Catholic Insight carried four splendid articles on the encyclical by Sean Murphy, illustrating its direct connections to key statements of the Second Vatican Council and other Church documents.

Opposition

On the other hand, Saskatchewan's Catholic weekly, the Prairie Messenger (PM) berated the Church over the encyclical in no fewer than three editorials. On March 22, its editor, Fr. Andrew Britz, following the opinion of the American theologian Avery Dulles, (which he has now repudiated), belittled it because "the laity simply have not received this papal teaching."

On June 21 Britz, this time following the lead of Bishop Ken Untener of Saginaw, Michigan, called for a new "honest and open" discussion. This implied, therefore, that the previous discussions had not been honest and that the whole encyclical should be revised.

On August 2, Britz printed an article by Sydney Callahan in which she argued that in her experience there is no distinction between natural family planning and artificial contraception. This led the editor to repeat his opposition to Humanae vitae as the sole legitimate position on the subject.

Fr. Ron Rolheiser, columnist for the Western Catholic Reporter and for the Catholic Register, went one step further than Fr. Britz. In an August 1993 column in the Reporter he reduced the encyclical to nothing more than "a beautiful ideal" of no particular great significance, and certainly not something "which draws a bottom line to sinful behaviour." Just how wrong Fr. Rolheiser is becomes clear when comparing this view with the Holy Father's statement in Veritatis splendor:

"It would be a very serious error to conclude that the Church's teaching is essentially only an `ideal' which must then be adapted, proportioned, graduated to the so-called concrete possibilities" (Chapter 2)

Other

The Catholic Register, took its lead from the Bishops' Conference in Ottawa. The bishops had decided to celebrate Humanae vitae principally as a document meant to promote Natural Family Planning. This approach only emphasizes a part of the encyclical and diminishes its prophetic character.

What about today?

Have five additional years made any difference, we may ask. Well, yes and no. Our first instance is a theologian who revised his thinking.

In a talk he gave to bishops in February 1993, Fr. Avery Dulles, S.J., an influential theologian, said that large numbers of the faithful did not accept the teaching of the encyclical and therefore it could not be used as a litmus test of their orthodoxy. He did not think it should be preached, because the more the hierarchy insists on adherence to it, the more alienated do the majority of the faithful feel. He even recommended the appointment of bishops and seminary professors who disagreed with the encyclical!

Fortunately, by 1998 Fr. Dulles had abandoned this position. In his autobiography, A testimonial to grace, he expressed his full assent to Humanae vitae saying, he now sees "the prophetic significance of Hv, in which the consequences of the new sexual revolution were accurately predicted."

Commenting on Fr. Dulles's earlier position, Fr. Leonard Kennedy, one of our regular contributors, pointed out at the time that the idea that people opposed to the encyclical should be put in positions of influence was strange and unacceptable: opposition to the Magisterium is a serious matter. Fr. Kennedy also observed that it could hardly be said that the clergy have been preaching Humanae vitae while the laity have been rejecting it. The truth is that it has not been preached at all! That's why so few people are observing it.

Another point to remember is that today the so-called contraceptive pill is really an abortifacient: it does not normally prevent a pregnancy, but terminates a pregnancy already underway.

Another recent event on the Canadian scene is the work of Msgr. Vincent Foy of Toronto. He has conducted a thorough examination of the September 1968 Winnipeg Statement - the response of the Canadian hierarchy to the encyclical (Did Pope Paul VI approve the Winnipeg Statement?). This booklet also includes extracts from ten statements on the evils of contraception by Pope John Paul II.

None of the above, of course, signifies the reversal in attitudes among the people at large which the Holy Father would like to see and which is so essential to the spiritual health of the Catholic community in our country.