A new text published by a Vatican organization appears to challenge official Roman Catholic teaching on contraception.
The Pontifical Academy for Life (PAL) has released a volume of work that suggests a “paradigm shift” is underway in Catholic moral theology that potentially conflicts with the Church’s standing on contraception related issues, according to the National Catholic Register.
The PAL was founded in 1994 by Pope St. John Paul II to research and affirm the Church’s teaching on biomedical and ethical issues, such as abortion and in vitro fertilization. The group also engages with new controversies and provides a faithful Catholic response to them, such as artificial intelligence and genetic modification.
The text is titled Theological Ethics of Life: Scripture, Tradition, and Practical Challenges, and is described by PAL as a 528 page collection of the proceedings from a 2021 PAL sponsored seminar. Though the text is currently only in Italian, the work’s introduction is in English, written by PAL’s president, Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia. The introduction describes the text as sparking a “radical change” that included seeking more “wide-ranging dialogue” with those not only other Christian groups, but those of other religions or of no faith at all.
The book is not an official statement from the Academy. One member of the PAL tweeted that the book was a collection of “personal statements” from the seminar and that many were “astonished” upon learning of the book. The PAL denies that the book challenges Church teaching. One tweet from the Academy urges people to read the book and clarifies that the text doesn’t “deviate” from Church teaching, but instead encourages “debate and dialogue” on the issue. Others are unconvinced: the NCR article notes that Italian media confirm that the book does indeed challenge Roman Catholic positions on contraception.
In one Twitter interaction, the PAL account responded to a user calling on the PAL to condemn dissent: “Be careful: what is dissent today, can change. It is not relativism, it is the dynamics of the understanding of phenomena and science: the Sun does not rotate around the Earth. Otherwise there would be no progress and everything would stand still. Even in theology. Think about it.”
The issue of contraception has been the center of Roman Catholic infighting for more than fifty years. The contraception debate was supposedly laid to rest in 1968 with the publishing of Humanae Vitae by Pope St. Paul VI that unequivocally condemned the use of contraceptives. This teaching has been further affirmed by encyclicals such as Evangelium Vitae by St. Pope John Paul II, and the current edition of the Catechism of the Roman Catholic Church overseen by Pope Francis also criticizes their use as “intrinsically evil”.
Still, the debate centers upon what status these teachings hold. Some have argued that because of the “lack of consensus” among the faithful with the promulgation of the document and because it wasn’t a “solemn definition”, there is room to dissent from and even change official teaching. But as Catholic apologist Tom Nash in his article points out, there will always be those who dissent from Church teaching. The lack of a solemn definition doesn’t change the fact that the Church has always considered certain acts immoral, such as fornication.
“Consequently, when a pope reaffirms the Church’s ‘“constant teaching,”’ as Paul VI did in issuing Humanae Vitae, the definitive character of such papal pronouncements is rooted in the constant tradition that comes to us from the apostles…” Nash writes.
The Pope was reaffirming teachings on morals that had been always held by the Church. Paul VI is not teaching anything new, but rather relying on Sacred Tradition to engage with a moral issue; to contradict this is to invalidate the traditions of the Roman Catholic Church.
Additionally, the argument of a “lack of consensus” is usually made through Western eyes only. Though there is certainly great resistance from Western Catholics, the Global South tells a different tale. A Univision poll found that Catholics in Asia, Africa, and Latin America to an extent are far more loyal to Church teaching on contraception than their Western counterparts. Respondents from Uganda and Congo, the two African nations surveyed, showed less than two-thirds support for the use of contraceptives. A Pew Research poll also found African nations to be some of the staunchest opponents of contraception. NCR notes that a review of the book from Jesuit Father Jorge José Ferrer called the PAL proceedings a “primarily European activity”.
If the shift of the Catholic Church’s center to the Global South continues, it could have major implications for the future face of the global Roman Catholic Church. Perhaps immigrants from these nations to western lands could bring missionaries that will instill a more faithful Roman Catholic presence among the more heterodox majorities. And if more conservative Catholics from the Global South emerge as leaders in the Church, it could bring about a much needed renewal of faith and zeal within the laity, and finally differentiate those who truly follow the spirit of the Gospel in the Church from those who don’t.
Comment by Tom on July 15, 2022 at 5:32 pm
Fascinating. I think there is one error: I don’t think the church has canonized Paul VI, at least not yet.
For the record, his papacy implementing Vatican II was the one that drove me out of the Catholic church. He (and the council) did more harm to the church than you can imagine.
Comment by Giovanni Del Piero on July 18, 2022 at 9:06 am
Thank for your comment! I double checked and he was canonized October 14, 2018.
Comment by Tom on July 18, 2022 at 5:32 pm
Thanks for updating me.
Though I can’t imagine why they would canonize Paul VI. I get the popularity and charisma of people like John XXIII and John Paul II. But Paul VI was a colorless bureaucratic cipher. He was, however, efficient in the promoting the 180 degree turns of Vatican II, and so I guess that counts for something.
Again, thanks for the update.