And now,
beloved sons, you who are priests, you who in virtue of your sacred office act
as counselors and spiritual leaders both of individual men and women and of
families—We turn to you filled with great confidence. For it is your principal
duty—We are speaking especially to you who teach moral theology—to spell out
clearly and completely the Church's teaching on marriage. In the performance of
your ministry you must be the first to give an example of that sincere
obedience, inward as well as outward, which is due to the magisterium of the
Church.
For, as
you know, the pastors of the Church enjoy a special light of the Holy Spirit in
teaching the truth. And this, rather than the arguments they put forward, is
why you are bound to such obedience. Nor will it escape you that if men's peace
of soul and the unity of the Christian people are to be preserved, then it is
of the utmost importance that in moral as well as in dogmatic theology all
should obey the magisterium of the Church and should speak as with one voice.
Therefore We make Our own the anxious words of the great Apostle Paul and with
all Our heart We renew Our appeal to you: "I appeal to you, brethren, by
the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree and that there be no
dissensions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same
judgment."
Pope
Paul VI, Humanae Vitae 28
Reflection – Well, this is painful. I have been
staring at paragraph 28 for some time now, trying to figure out what to write
about it that is a) true; b) charitable; c) really, really, really charitable.
This is, in my
view, the ground zero of HV, the precise place where, if this encyclical had
been received by those to whom it was addressed, and lived out in this precise
paragraph, I honestly believe things would have unfolded quite differently in
the Church over the last forty-five years.
It is a
tragedy the scope of which I don’t think we can readily grasp that the clergy
of the Catholic Church greeted this encyclical, for the most part, not with
‘sincere obedience’ but without outright rebellion, disdainful scorn, and
embarrassed silence. With very few exceptions, when the doctrine has not been
openly controverted, it has been tacitly ignored by the clergy of the Church,
at least on this continent.
It is a
failure of pastoral care and love that HV and the Church’s teaching on
contraception has not been preached, taught, promoted, studied, from every
parish, every diocese, every Catholic school and college and hospital. The harm
done to souls has been incalculable.
I say this
without judgment of my elder brothers in the priesthood. I was two years old in
1968 – I do realize that it is the easiest thing in the world to look back at
the mistakes and blindness of a past era with easy condemnation and judgment. I
do realize that there was a whole social and cultural ferment in the late 1960s
and 1970s that was very hard to withstand, that compelled a certain conformity
in rebellion and revolution, and that HV was an unexpected and (I guess?)
bizarrely counter-cultural document in its day.
Well, we
should have tried harder. We should have had greater spiritual maturity,
greater intellectual capacity, greater docility and humility and courage. I
find it deeply saddening that the average Catholic today has heard virtually no
homilies about the subject, to the point where this
satirical article is painfully on point. There has been, in most parishes
and dioceses, not one word of teaching and guidance from the shepherds of the
Church to counteract the ‘shepherding’ we are given by the secular world, which
counsels us to simply do whatever we want, however we want, with whoever we
want, so long as everyone is consenting.
It is not my
way to be critical or harsh or judgmental of people, generally. But… and I
address this to my brother priests reading this... surely we can do better than
that, can’t we? Even if, in the immediate ferment of the 1960s, the reception
of HV was poor, surely 45 years later we can pull ourselves together, guys,
can’t we? Who’s with me? Anyone? (Fr.) Bueller?
It’s not like
time has proven the Pope to be wrong and the secular world to be right. As I blogged
quite a while ago, all the prophetic bits of the encyclical have been borne
out with almost scary accuracy.
Besides the
negative (and at times, quite deranged) feedback I’ve gotten for this series,
I’ve also gotten positive feedback calling me ‘courageous’. This disheartens me
more than the hate mail and nasty comments. It should not be a matter of
courage for a Catholic priest to teach Catholic doctrine on a Catholic website.
I don’t feel especially courageous doing this series. It should not be a matter
of ‘courage’ because all Catholic
priests should be teaching the doctrine, but they aren’t. May God have mercy on
us.
What would it
look like if we had, and if we did, starting now? Would the whole world
suddenly break out into mass chastity and sexual sanity? Would every Catholic
in the whole wide world be convinced and converted and start obeying God’s laws
on this matter? Of course not. But some would. Maybe quite a few. And those who
didn’t would have to grapple with the question as they do not have to right
now, because no one ever challenges them on it.
Anyhow, that’s
enough for one day. Pray for your priests, and those reading who are priests,
let’s pray for one another, so that wisdom, charity, and pastoral boldness and
love may reign in our hearts. Amen.
