Birth control battle

Title

Creator

Barrett, George

Language

English

Source

Panorama Volume XV (No.9) September 1963

Year

1963

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Abstract

This article has been extracted from a series which appeared in the New York Times

Fulltext

■ Population explosion stirs ferment among U.S. Catholics on family planning. BIRTH CONTROL BATTLE George Barrett The subject of birth • con trol, long regarded by mem bers of the Roman Catholic Church as a dangerously sensitive issue to discuss, is today stirring a profound ferment in the Catholic com munity in the United States. Until fairly recently, pa rish approbation customarily has been reserved — for the big Catholic family. Mo thers with plans to limit the number of their children have often faced parish censur^. But new trends in living, new discoveries in medicine and science, and increased exchanges with non-Catholic groups have raised funda mental challenges to the tra-' ditional Catholic attitudes and customs; consequently, throughout the Catholic world, increasing numbers of theologians, demographers, moral philosophers and so ciologists are pursuing a close, and frequently bold, re-examination of many as pects of birth control. One development in this expand ing Catholic inquiry is the establishment of a popula tion study centre at George town University, a Catholic institution in Washington. The birth-control issue has been stirred by many forces, but the population explosion, probably more than any other single development, has focused widening Catho lic attention on the subject. There are other factors that have plunged areas of the Catholic world into ferment over birth control. For ex ample, in the Catholic Press, and in public and private dialogues, Catholics speak with candour these days of the membership "leakage from Church.” Cardinal Suenens, Primate of Belgiumwho is a leader of the "pro gressive” group in Rome’s September 1963 75 Sacred College of Cardinals, has bluntly, asked "whether many people, baptised as in fants, do not fall away from the Church because of birth control.” Birth control has become a problem for many Catho lics who faithfully attend Mass. Parish priests report that many Catholics have had to be denied the sacra ments because they insist on using artificial contracep tives. Parishioners who can not afford to have more children, who are afraid to rely on the present rhythm system, are making choices that disturb them and dis turb their- pastors. They continue to. go to church — but they .go in guilt. When the questioner tries to find out why there has been an apparent upsurge in the spirit of inquiry into birth control matters, the answer is always the same, and even , the words are very close: "It’s John.” "Credit John.” Or, simply and affection ately: "John.” While the late Pope John XXIII has not been identi fied with any strong position on the birth control and po pulation problem, his histo ric role as the most “tradi tion-shattering figure ever to occupy the Chair of Peter” (the description is by "The Pilot,” the Catholic newspa per in Boston) has inspired those in the Church who are seeking reforms, including re forms in Church attitudes on birth control. Some say that Pope John cleared the way for the re-examination of the sensitive issue when he con voked the Ecumenical Coun cil. A woman physician in Bel gium, a Catholic mother of five, has reported that she wrote to the'Vatican about her confusions over the Church's official insistence that it is moral to practice birth prevention through rhythm but sinful to use artificial contraceptives. In her appeal for clarification from the forthcoming Coun cil, she wrote that "in each case the intention is precise ly the same.” and commented that "God will not be de ceived.” She has quoted a reply from the Palace of the Holy Office stating that "the 76 Panorama question is under consider ation and will certainly be dealt with at the Council.” Many bishops were "well in formed of the difficulties,” according to the Vatican re ply, "so much so that the de cision of the Council will cer tainly be sought as a result.” In Puerto Rico, too, the birth control question is pa ramount. Behind the pastel walls of the Government of fices in San Juan, overlook ing the sun-baked court and the palm trees see-sawing in slow motion, the Health De partment spokesman talked guardedly about "Catholic doctors” who, he said, were still bitterly fighting birth control in Puerto Rico. He noted that the Caribbean Commonwealth had set up one of the most extensive systems ot public'and private birth control clinics in the world, to help reduce a ferti lity rate that has made Puer to Rico one of the most densely-packed areas on this globe. At one village clinic the medical director discusses the whole range of artificial con traceptives — all of them banned by the C a t h o li c Church — and says that they have been a boon for some of the poverty-ridden parents who wish desperately to have no more children. But the devices are not good enough, he adds; they are "too sophis ticated” for the uneducated and therefore too unreliable. He speaks of sterilization, a birth control measure parti cularly condemned by the Catholic Church but widely practiced in Puerto Rico. "Only sterilization really works,” he says. "After six or seven children these peo ple come in here and they agree that sterilization is what they really want.” "But what about the Catholic doc tors?” the director is asked. "Isn’t it true that the Catho lic doctors in Government health clinics discourage all these birth control services?” The medical director looks up. There is a quick frown and then a quick grin: "What do you mean. Catholic doc tors ? You’re in Puerto Rico. We’re all Catholic doctorsi” The. Government’s net work of health centres has long been the target of the Catholic hierarchy. One pa rish priest draped the belfry of his church in black strips for mourning when the birth Si 1963 77 control programme reached his community. An agree ment, however, has just been reached between Church and Government under which Catholics may now go to the centres without incurring condemnation by the Church. No formal pronouncement has been made, nor will it be made out of fear that an ofcial public declaration may jeopardize the programme, but the agreement calls for the Department of Health to disseminate full inform ation on the Church-approv ed rhythm system of birth control. (Up to now, most of the personnel in the is land’s health centres have been reluctant to prescribe the rhythm method, which they consider complicated and unreliable.) In exchange for offering a full and fair presentation of all methods of birth control, and leaving it to each appli cant to make the specific choice, the Department of Health understands that the Catholic hierarchy will cease blanket attacks against the Goverment’s programme. A few weeks ago an emi nent pries t-theologian of the Catholic Church directed some words of his own to an other “heretic” — Dr. John Rock, a pioneer in the dev elopment of the oral contra ceptive pill and Catholic au thor of the new book "The Time Has Come.” The book, published by Alfred A. Knopf, has shocked many Catholics by advocacy of birth control methods chal lenged by the Church and by insistence that the Catholic Church has changed major doctrines in the past and can do so now on the issue of birth control. Dr. Rock has been attacked as a "mave rick Catholic,” a "mischief maker,” a “Catholic rene gade.” "Tell John,” said the priest theologian softly, “that there are things I can’t put into my writing but please remind him of Cardinal Newmen; tell him, ’please, that when things get rough to take courage, to remember the Newmans of the Catholic Church; tell him to remem ber that there have been others before him in our Church who have also had to live sub luce maligna — for a while.” Lay Catholics have tradi tionally avoided debate on the 78 Panorama birth control question, but letters to Dr. Rock, most of them from readers who are sympathetic and many of them from grateful Catholics, give evidence of a new spirit of inquiry and challenge: Frorii a surgeon in Beverly Hills, California — "Your stand is the most heartening thing that has come out of our Roman Catholic faith for years." A terse note from Chattanooga. Tenn. — "Be assured that the hopes and prayers of many Catholic parents are behind you." And from a Catholic mother of four (a fifth expected), in Worcester, Mass. — “God forgive me, but I would ter minate this pregnancy if I could. 1 hope and pray that you are able to go ahead with your work. I can’t eat or sleep, and I cry all the time. I pray God to help us both." — This article has been ex tracted from a series which appeared in the New York Time?. KNOWLEDGE AND FISH Knowledge does not keep any better than fish. You1 may be dealing with knowledge of the old spe cies; with some old truths; but somehow or other it must come to the students, as it were, just drawn out of the sea and with the freshness of its imme diate importance. — Alfred North Whitehead. September 1963 79

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