`Humane vitae': What has it done to us?:
Untener, Kenneth
'HUMANAE VITAE': WHAT KENNETH UN,eNEH HAS IT DONE TO US? AND WHAT IS TO BE DONE NOW? if wenty-five years ago-on July 25, 1968-Pope cipline (e.g.,...
...It was in that context that I spoke and "Those are my questions, and I pose them as questions...
...who dissent appear to be ineligible to be appointed as bishops...
...Then in the years that follow In the decades before Vatican II, there began to re-emerge we have official conferences and invite speakers who a pri- an approach to church teaching that seemed very healthy...
...We are without them on Humanae much sensitivity...
...prevailing attitudes toward sexuality and marriage...
...I have four questions...
...discussion, at least in acknowledging that after twenty-five years "After some discussion, I passed out slips of paper and asked Humanae vitae hasn't been accepted by the majority of them to write down `yes' or `no' on whether they agreed with Catholics...
...process by which it was developed, and the way in which it has "4...
...Like it or not, justified or unjustified, the fact is of a magisteri um which is predominantly pastoral in charmany people think that church leaders say one thing publicly acter...
...vitae, many people look upon the church in this way...
...Most people haven't The contours are real, not figments of their imagination, for they read Humane vitae, although they know that in one section it walked the terrain, climbed the hills, sailed the lakes and rivers...
...Our map is the issue...
...It has damaged our credibility...
...I note that the bishops advisory council also had problems with The only solution, it seems to me, is to have honest and open this section...
...Yesterday we passed a document on Family Ministry, been handled these twenty-five years seem to represent this lat- and we renewed our commitment `to listen perceptively, trustter approach...
...Thus, my question: Do we have adequate structures and we rush to pick procedures to listen to the sensus fidelium, particularly on this up something we issue...
...I am wonwere debating a document on guidelines for education in human dering what would happen if you did the same with your sexuality, and one section referred to the teaching on birth con- priests...
...might need for "3...
...ing-were not accepted, and they have watched how dissent has It was the same continent, but now we knew it differently...
...It is almost as though the (Origins, April 22, 1993), pointed out what others have fre- church keeps truths in hermetically sealed containers, and our quently observed, namely, that it is used as a loyalty test...
...Indeed, those who speak at such confer- conceptualize or put into words the mysteries of our faith falls ences may well be persons of the highest integrity who be- short...
...any y action which either before, at the moment of, or Humanae vitae is being made the scapegoat...
...I am wondering what would happen if we did it among trol in a way that seemed to imply that it was one of those "givens" ourselves right here...
...Those who teach and preach have felt less confident in while acknowledging the worthiness of sexual re- attempting to provide guidance in sexual matters...
...Their reactions are generally negative...
...The terrain no understanding of the great truths...
...The issue is loyalty to church au- photography, the opposite statement would seem to affirm that thority...
...of modern thought...
...They also Gradually the maps changed...
...not compelling to many priests...
...These latter may help us explain these truths more are "excluded from sensitive teaching positions and from ap- effectively, but our understanding of the truths themselves is pointments to episcopal committees...
...this 'section...
...Could they not say to us, `We will, begin to remember...
...Lay people lations in marriage during the woman's periods of infertility...
...Today the consequences of the pope's decision are widely Whatever the merits of that assertion, we are still left with acknowledged: most married Catholics have not accepted his the public perception of the way in which Humanae vitae came conclusion, and many bishops and priests have either disagreed to be, and how the church has dealt with the widespread disor voiced reservations...
...It teaches a hard after sexual intercourse, is specifically intended to prevent pro- message, but it is the long hard road that must be taken against creation-whether as an end or as a means...
...sion and reissue the same map...
...reaffirmed the teaching against artificial birth control...
...I am wondering what would hapops of the United States at our November 1990 meeting...
...In the eyes of many, the issue has shifted...
...The surge of freshness completion of studies by a special commission appointed by John and hope felt by so many during and just after Vatican II seems XXIII and expanded by Paul VI...
...In the same text we call for those who dissent to study a life we soon and pray over their position...
...When we profess our public support for Compare this to the approach represented by Pius X in his Humanae vitae, or when we engage in "a conspiracy of silence," 1907 "Syllabus Condemning the Errors of the Modernists...
...Among the sixty-five errors condemned was the following: "The This presents a very serious problem...
...of our authority as mapmakers...
...This model emphasized that every effort to that the map is true...
...HUMANAE VITAE': WHAT KENNETH UN,eNEH HAS IT DONE TO US...
...In the text we briefly restate the teaching on birth control and say, `We hope that the logic expressed here is compelling.' I wonder how we can claim credibility when we make a statement like that knowing in fact that the logic is not com- James Thielman pelling...
...miss us as dissemblers...
...I I shall close by quoting this hitherto unpublished statement: ask them up front and out loud, in the conviction that if we do not ask them, we are unintentionally causing great dambelieve that the proposed document on age to the credibility and the unity of this church that we love guidelines for education in human sex- When asked what he thought about the laity, Cardinal f f uality is well written, and that the sec- Newman said something like, "Well, the church would look tion on birth control is written with strange without them...
...THE EDITORS No analogy is perfect, but the following may help explain how many people see the church on the issue of birth control...
...great problems with this particular section on birth control...
...We also say, `It is our earnest belief that God's Spirit is light years from now...
...In the following essay, Bishop Kenneth sent that followed...
...have been asked to describe the effects of Humanae vitae on the church...
...Our teachings need continually to be rethought so that lieve the map is true...
...which, however, should be studied and expounded through If the reason were simply that people turn us off when we the methods of research and through the literary forms preach hard truths, then this is something we must endure...
...We pretend be- "re-emerge" because it was not new-Thomas Aquinas, among fore all the world that our best and brightest and holiest believe others, had used it...
...He went on to say: Credibility ...the Christian, Catholic, and apostolic spirit of the whole world expects a step forward toward a doctrinal It is hardly a subtle insight to suggest that since Humanae vitae, penetration and a formation of consciousness in faithchurch teaching authority has been less credible in the eyes of ful and perfect conformity to the authentic doctrine, very many people, including many Catholics...
...12: 18 June 1993 Commonweal In the formulation and subsequent handling of Humanae If this be true, something has gone awry...
...they feel we lack integrity...
...El has come to ask the questions out loud...
...taken into great consideration with patience if necessary, I believe, however, that there is a different reason for the loss everything being measured in the forms and proportions of credibility...
...We've got to do something about tion, I found myself asking questions, and I wonder if the time that...
...the face of all this, early mapmakers insisted on the correctness The encyclical is certainly not the sole cause, but it appears of their original map and refused to listen to the cumulative exto have contributed to an attitude among Catholics that au- perience of others who had walked the land, or refused to accept thoritative teachings can be brushed aside, and that church dis- the new information provided by technology, we would begin to suspect their motives...
...It has Paul VI issued the encyclical Humanae vitae, reaf- made it more difficult to defend our position on abortion, and firming the church's ban on the use of chemical exacerbated the negative attitude of many women toward the or physical contraceptives in marital intercourse, church...
...ready to arrive...
...It has to do with our approach to truth...
...It is quite another when people cynically dis- facts which the human mind has acquired by laborious effort...
...and another privately...
...gardless of whether one agrees or disagrees with the contents of the encyclical...
...and not compelling to many bishops...
...It set back the reemergence of an approach that Christian understanding of marriage, sexuality, and family is desperately needed as we move into the postmodern world...
...You must understand, these are not dissidents...
...The truths themselves endure, longer appears to be our issue...
...We pen if you did the same with your pastoral council...
...The maps did...
...In their eyes, we opted to cling to the contours of our earlier teachings on birth control without regard for the data we have sub- The approach to truth sequently received-from married people who have walked the terrain, from science, from theologians, from pastoral lead- There is another effect of Humanae vitae that is less obvious ers...
...He also noted that priests not at all shaped by developments in the world around us...
...if you will...
...But everyone knows that they are a select we can understand them more fully, not simply explain more minority, and the ultimate criterion for their selection is their effectively what we already know perfectly well...
...dealing primarily with people's perceptions...
...If in been handled...
...that everyone accepted...
...commission recommended modification of the church's teach- It could be argued that 1968 was about the time when most ing, the encyclical dismissed its findings...
...They found What to do...
...are increasingly suspicious of the willingness of the hierarchy The bishops of Vatican II had left this issue undecided pending to listen to them on important matters...
...Yet, as I read that sec- vitae, and we look strange...
...not com- Not Far pelling to the Catholic laity...
...This has had a wide effect which I believe to be ingly, and compassionately to what people are saying about their a negative one...
...revealed truths indeed have fallen from heaven, and there is litIn a recent address describing ways in which dissent from tle need for the laborious efforts and interpretations of the human Humanae vitae has had adverse effects, Avery Dulles, S. J. mind as we try to understand them...
...is moving on, "The sensus fidelium is, of course, more than an opinion poll...
...if wenty-five years ago-on July 25, 1968-Pope cipline (e.g., Sunday Mass attendance) is less binding...
...You In measuring the effects on the whole church, we are can recognize Florida, the Great Lakes, the outline of both coasts...
...But when people disagree with us, we cannot simply assume that it is mere opinion...
...Qualified understanding of them is unaffected by culture, science, human theologians who have expressed reservations about the encyclical experience...
...When we know Somewhere this, and don't say it, many would compare us to a dysfunc- stars that used to be tional family that is unable to talk openly about a problem that are sending their last everyone knows is there...
...We fear but we are able to penetrate them in new ways, and thus be that if we make even the slightest change, we will lose some more true to these truths...
...They are an interpretation of religious nomic issues...
...In the eyes of many people, the teaching Untener, ordinary of the diocese of Saginaw, Michigan, responds church has committed a teacher's cardinal sin: it has become to a request from the editors for his reflections on the pastoral more concerned about itself than about truth...
...I say ori are committed to the defense of the map...
...It is not compelling to people in general...
...The substance of the ancient doctrine Our task is to preach the gospel in season and out of season, of the deposit of faith is one thing, and the way in which and we must not become alarmed if people don't like what it is presented is another...
...And it is the latter that must be we say...
...Though a large majority of the to have taken a downturn since the encyclical...
...It is one thing when dogmas the church holds out as revealed are not truths which people angrily disagree with us, as in many social and eco- have fallen from heaven...
...ence, culture, philosophy, experience enable us to shape our Observers begin to suspect our motives...
...Standing there "The sensus fidelium is more than a head count, but the be- we see an earth liefs in the heads and hearts of our people must count for some- about to hold us and thing...
...It is also the earnest sunlight from the day belief of our church that the Spirit acts through the entire peowhen we were born ple of God in developing doctrine...
...know that the findings of the papal study commission on birth They changed because others also walked the land and sailed control-which recommended a change in the church's teach- the waters, and because new technology gave us additional data...
...The terrain didn't...
...That statement was condemned as false, and ultimately it is...
...He pointed out that our duty is not only people on the formulation and subsequent handling of the en- to guard the precious treasure of our doctrine, "as if we were cyclical...
...We simply put aside the findings of the study commis- but deserves attention...
...rays to touch earth "2...
...consequences of the encyclical...
...Picture early maps drawn by explorers of North America...
...It is no longer an honest evaluation of the moral implications But if we look upon its reverse, as one looks at a negative in of artificial birth control...
...Again, prescinding from whether you think that Humanae Commonweal 18 June 1993: 13 vitae is correct or incorrect in its position on birth control, the en our authority...
...One should be able to do this re- The map or the terrain...
...They would appear to be more concerned BISHOP KENNETH UNTENER heads the diocese of Saginaw...
...and let's do it together?' Would such a process weaken the authority of the bishops, or would it in fact strength14: 18 June 1993 Commonweal...
...about defending their map than the truth of the terrain...
...life.' I tried that last week with our Saginaw Pastoral Council...
...concerned only with antiquity, but to dedicate ourselves with an earnest will and without fear to that work which our era demands of us...
...Humanae vitae "ex- or all of these things would have begun happening anyway, and cluded...
...The count was I expressed some of these concerns to the assembled bish- one yes and twenty-two no...
...acting through the magisterium...in developing this doctrine.' Not that far from here This is true, but it is not the entire truth...
...These are a wide mixture of people, totally dedicated to the church...
...They were not to sign their names...
...Human sciloyalty to the map...
...Again, whatever your judgment In his address at the solemn opening of Vatican 11, John XXIII on the contents of Humanae vitae, this is the perception of many affirmed this approach...
Vol. 120 • June 1993 • No. 12
