This “is a very difficult but also very promising moment for the Church: difficult, because the language of Catholic moral wisdom is alien to many young people, who often leave the Church without ever really encountering her,” observed Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia in an April 4th address at The Catholic University of America that marked the 50th anniversary of the 1968 papal encyclical.
He continued that it was “promising, because the most awake of those same young people want something better and more enduring than the emptiness and noise they now have.”
Archbishop Chaput introduced the image of the chemical corset (a strange metaphor, don't you think? Not as spiffy as Cardinal Bernardine's seamless garment!) as he headlined a major conference, “Humanae Vitae (1968-2018): Embracing God’s Vision for Marriage, Love and Life.”
The gathering brought together leading theologians and physicians, natural family planning specialists and legal scholars in a rousing celebration of the prophetic witness to the hidden dangers of artificial contraception and the healing power of Catholic teaching on marriage by Pope Paul VI, who is soon to be canonized.
While many active Catholics are familiar with Pope Paul VI’s foresight that artificial contraception would harm marriage and lessen the dignity of women, Archbishop Chaput observed that the adoption of the chemical corset has also tainted modern Christianity, shaking believers’ faith in God and in the gift of his creation.
In contrast, early Christians set themselves apart from the dominant pagan culture, rejecting all threats to nascent human life, including contraception, abortion and infanticide.
These distinctive practices persisted into the modern world but had not yet tainted Christianity.
Then, in 1930, the Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops determined that contraception could be permitted in certain cases “where there is such a clearly felt moral obligation to limit or avoid parenthood and where there is a morally sound reason for avoiding complete abstinence.”
(That's great -- let's blame the Anglicans!)
Over time, noted Archbishop Chaput, the entire teaching on contraception was reversed by many, and “reformers” employed similar arguments to modify or upend bans on abortion, premarital sex and homosexual relations.
As other Christian churches followed the Anglicans’ lead (see, it's all the Anglicans fault), the ensuing moral vacuum fostered the creation of “a new religion,” with its own distinctive social and sexual practices.
While the Early Christians set themselves apart in their reverence for the body and for the spousal one-flesh union as a sign of Christ’s unconditional love for his Church, those who embrace the chemical corset scorn, perhaps unthinkingly, the body’s limits and the sacrifices that come with marriage and family life.
“Much of the moral conflict, broken family life, social unraveling and gender confusion that seems so common today stems — directly or more subtly — from our disordered attitudes toward creation and our appetite to master, reshape and even deform nature to our wills,” said Archbishop Chaput who insists that the fractured, angry state of American culture surely vindicates Humanae Vitae and its dire predictions.
“Our mission now, as always,” said Archbishop Chaput, “is not to surrender to the world as it is, but to feed and ennoble the deepest yearnings of the world — and thereby to lead it to Jesus Christ and his true freedom and joy."
It is no secret that, as the Church prepares to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Humanae Vitae in 2018, Pope Francis has convened a commission to study the document.
The Encyclical caused a sensation when published: in the wake of the sexual revolution — when much of the world had accepted birth control — and after a five-year study by a Pontifical commission that appeared approve it, Paul VI’s reaffirmation (largely due to the fear-mongering of Cardinal Cicognani) that contraceptive use is “intrinsically wrong” made it one of the most controversial encyclicals in Church history.
Immediately, many Clerics and academics outright rejected the document.
The conflict and division over its teachings has not lessened in the half-century that has transpired since its promulgation.
For Archbishop Chaput and the vast majority of his neo-conservative reactionary audience, the widespread acceptance of artificial birth control, revolutionized by the contraceptive pill for women, is the singular cause and explanation for all the woes in the world today: contraception has fueled the sexualization of culture and promiscuity now prevalent in the West, precipitating legalized abortion, the collapse of marriage, and inflicting deep harm on society.
By contrast, the encyclical’s dissenters have pressured the Church for its teaching on artificial contraception to be loosened, arguing it is unrealistic, out of touch with people’s lives, and needs “updating.”
A 2014 poll of Catholics in five countries by left-leaning broadcaster Univision found that 78% supported artificial contraception.
While Pope Francis wishes to address these Catholics and perhaps consider the matter of contraception from their point of view, Archbishop Chaput wants to obliterate any attempt at a reconsideration of any of the Encyclical's articles.
The Papal memorandum calling this special commission into being states that its purpose is
to “promote a comprehensive and authoritative study” of the encyclical to coincide with its anniversary.
Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, President of the Pontifical Academy for Life, was the first to publicly comment on the commission’s work, stating the initiative is aimed at “studying and deepening” the encyclical. He denied it was a “commission” whose purpose was to “reread or reinterpret” the document.
But already Archbishop Chaput and his band of "loyalists" have rallied to insist that the Encyclical must be frozen in time without the slightest study or attempt at revision.
For Archbishop Chaput, the mere existence of such a commission is suspicious. So he publicly questions why the Church should make any effort to deepen and study something that cannot fundamentally change.
May I suggest that, if anyone is corset-ted, it is Archbishop Chaput who is bound up in suspicions and is comfortable with his fear tactics.
Pope Francis' patience with the likes of Archbishop Chaput, Cardinal Burke and others of their ilk is remarkable.
For a host of reasons, they (and the Church itself) are fortunate I am not the Pope.
Fortunate indeed!
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