Infallibility and birth control

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curiousone

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I was perusing an atheist website where they were talking about the pope and birth control. The piece below is from a very long article at this link:

population-security.org/STLouis99.html

The piece below is alleging that Pope John Paul II, when he was a cardinal was wanting to change the position of the church regarding below. Does anyone know about this or any refutations.

THE PAPACY IS THREATENED BY LEGALIZED BIRTH CONTROL AND ABORTION

In 1964, Pope Paul VI created the Papal Commission on Population and Birth Control. It was a two-part commission, and met from 1964 to 1966. One consisted of 64 lay persons, the other, of 15 clerics, including Pope John Paul II, then a Polish cardinal. Pope Paul gave the Commission only one mission—-to determine how the Church could change its position on birth control without undermining papal authority. After two years of study, the Commission concluded that it was not possible to make this change without undermining papal authority but that the Church should make the change anyway because it was the right thing to do! The lay members voted 60 to 4 for change, and the clerics, 9 to 6 for change. (2) We know this because one or more members released the details without permission to an Italian and a French newspaper. Pope Paul did not act immediately. A minority report was prepared, co-authored by the man who is now Pope John Paul II. In this report he stated:

If it should be declared that contraception is not evil in itself, then we should have to concede frankly that the Holy Spirit had been on the side of the Protestant churches in 1930 (when the encyclical Casti Connubii was promulgated), in 1951 (Pius XII’s address to the midwives), and in 1958 (the address delivered before the Society of Hematologists in the year the pope died). It should likewise have to be admitted that for a half century the Spirit failed to protect Pius XI, Pius XII, and a large part of the Catholic hierarchy from a very serious error.

This would mean that the leaders of the Church, acting with extreme imprudence, had condemned thousands of innocent human acts, forbidding, under pain of eternal damnation, a practice which would now be sanctioned. The fact can neither be denied nor ignored that these same acts would now be declared licit on the grounds of principles cited by the Protestants, which popes and bishops have either condemned or at least not approved.
 
Don’t know anything about it, but who cares? Cardinals do not hold individual infallibility, so there’s nothing to refute.
 
curiousone said:
THE PAPACY IS THREATENED BY LEGALIZED BIRTH CONTROL AND ABORTION

In 1964, Pope Paul VI created the Papal Commission on Population and Birth Control. It was a two-part commission, and met from 1964 to 1966. One consisted of 64 lay persons, the other, of 15 clerics, including Pope John Paul II, then a Polish cardinal. Pope Paul gave the Commission only one mission—-to determine how the Church could change its position on birth control without undermining papal authority. After two years of study, the Commission concluded that it was not possible to make this change without undermining papal authority but that the Church should make the change anyway because it was the right thing to do! The lay members voted 60 to 4 for change, and the clerics, 9 to 6 for change. (2) We know this because one or more members released the details without permission to an Italian and a French newspaper. Pope Paul did not act immediately. A*** minority report was prepared, co-authored by the man who is now Pope John Paul II. In this report he stated:***

If it should be declared that contraception is not evil in itself, then we should have to concede frankly that the Holy Spirit had been on the side of the Protestant churches in 1930 (when the encyclical Casti Connubii was promulgated), in 1951 (Pius XII’s address to the midwives), and in 1958 (the address delivered before the Society of Hematologists in the year the pope died). It should likewise have to be admitted that for a half century the Spirit failed to protect Pius XI, Pius XII, and a large part of the Catholic hierarchy from a very serious error.

This would mean that the leaders of the Church, acting with extreme imprudence, had condemned thousands of innocent human acts, forbidding, under pain of eternal damnation, a practice which would now be sanctioned. The fact can neither be denied nor ignored that these same acts would now be declared licit on the grounds of principles cited by the Protestants, which popes and bishops have either condemned or at least not approved.
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First off, being the minority report, the report would be in favor of maintaining the then (and still) current teaching that articial birth control, ie, contarceptives, is a moral evil.

That being the case, we can see that JP2 is only being truthful about what the situation would be IF the Church declared that the current teaching were false. He does not say that it is, only what the consequences of actually declaring it to be so would be.

Nothing here of contradictory nature in any manner.

peace
steve
 
Humanae Vitae. No question where JPII stood on the issue. Regardless of whether or not an attempt was made to change the teaching, and regardless of the reasoning behind not changing it, the fact remains that the teaching has not changed, and furthermore, the reason why it should not be (regardless of infallibility…) is clearly taught in the encyclical Humanae Vitae. I agree that the infallibility issue was not the BEST reason to not change the teaching, but regardless of their efforts and reasoning behind it, today we have good reason to dismiss any consideration of changing the teaching. As Scott Hahn puts it, the use of contraception is akin to receiving the Eucharistic host and then spitting it out. As the marital embrace is the consummation of a marriage, so the reception of the Eucharist in Communion is the ratification of the New Covenant. We are the Bride, He is the Bridegroom… Been a long time since I studied that - don’t know exactly where I learned it, but I believe it is a combination of Humanae Vitae and the teachings of Scott Hahn. Maybe someone else here can provide a link (?) But my point is that there is good reason not to change the teaching, and the fact that it has not been changed in all this time is good evidence for the protection of the Holy Spirit - even when men are making a conscious effort not to undermine papal infallibility - had they the God-given insight that JPII had they would have avoided making a change too. Ignorance of the truth didn’t even cause the church to err in this case. 👍
 
thenobes said:
First off, being the minority report, the report would be in favor of maintaining the then (and still) current teaching that articial birth control, ie, contarceptives, is a moral evil.

That being the case, we can see that JP2 is only being truthful about what the situation would be IF the Church declared that the current teaching were false. He does not say that it is, only what the consequences of actually declaring it to be so would be.

Nothing here of contradictory nature in any manner.

peace
steve
Click to expand...
What he said 👍
 
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