Hans W #391
Humanae Vitae ……was highly controversial back in 1968. It probably got less controversial over time because the majority of Catholics in First World countries simply ignore it.
Here is a link to an article concerning contraception I posted on another thread:
americamagazine.org/issue/100…25-years-later
Such an article fits with the confusion expressed already by him.
The author, Richard A. McCormick, S.J., is noted for his dissent, and theologians like Charles Curran and Richard McCormick also embrace “pluralism” on the issues of premarital sex and homosexual acts.
The attempt by many intellectuals and theologians since Vatican II to declare independence from the Magisterium, “with the logical result that professor poses as pope, represents the crux of the confusion in the minds of believers about the meaning of their religion in the modern world.” Fr James V Schall, S.J., concludes: “The result of no real orthodoxy is a skepticism and usually a counter-orthodoxy.”
Distinctiveness of Christianity, Ignatius Press, p 176].
The need for clear, decisive papal
ex cathedra definitions of immutable doctrine such as in
Casti Connubii occur when, new grave situations challenge the OUM teaching as no one or group has the authority from Christ as that of the Supreme Pontiff who has to confirm the teaching of Ecumenical Councils. Such a challenge arose with the first breakdown of the consensus against contraception among Protestants by the Anglicans at Lambeth in 1930.
The challenge of “the Pill” required the next
ex cathedra decisive reiteration which exposed the laxity, and/or infidelity, of the majority of the papal commission, and brought down the wrath of a multitude of dissenting theologians – those fancying an “alternative magisterium”.
Despite his orthodox and brilliant defence of the Church and conscience prior to Vatican II, the depth of Rahner’s dissent became an engulfing tide when he chose to publicly dissent against the infallible doctrine against contraception in Pope Paul VI’s
Humanae Vitae, in 1968, from which he never recovered.
This was most obvious in the betrayal by Karl Rahner, Charles Curran, Richard McCormick, Richard McBrien, Edward Schillebeeckx, Raymond Brown, Francis Sullivan, Donald B Cozzens, Richard Rohr and so many others, following
Humanae Vitae. That *Casti Connubii *in 1930 (Pope Pius XI) had infallibly condemned contraception was apparently unknown or ignored.
When the ordinary Magisterium is also universal, that is, collectively intended for all the faithful, it is also infallible.
The Catholic Church can teach infallibly only through the Pope and an Ecumenical Council approved by the Pope.
Which is why the People of God have to be guided by the sacred teaching authority (Magisterium), and obey it – to possess the
sensus fidei. As Msgr George A Kelly, explains: “The
sensus fidei of the Catholic Church calls for Catholics to be trained ‘to think with the mind of the Church’…” *Battle for the American Church (Revisited), *Ignatius, 1995, p 33].
That’s just what the dissenters abhor.
