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THE DAMAGE DONE BY DISSENTING THEOLOGIANS

Fr. Matthew Habiger OSB PhD

April 3, 2018

Outline:

The 50th anniversary of Humanae Vitae is a good time to review what opposition to Church teaching has done.

I was ordained one month before HV was promulgated.  This encyclical has played a very important role in my priesthood.  I have spent much of it defending and promoting that encyclical. 

In 1980 I began my doctoral studies in moral theology at Catholic University of America.  Fr. Charles Curran was still enjoying great popularity, as what the media styled him - an “eminent and distinguished” theologian.  In the theology department among the graduate students he was definitely the preferred personality.

My first residence was at the Redemptorist house of studies where Fr. F. X. Murphy was the rector.  This is the same one as Xavier Rynne, the pseudo-name he used to sign all the reports coming back from the Second Vatican Council and to publish in the New Yorker Magazine.  These reports used the old stereotype of good progressive and bad traditionalist to explain the Council, which shaped the majority opinion that still prevails today. 

Through these two very charming and likeable Irishmen, I met many others in the camp of those who dissented from Humanae Vitae.  It was an education I was not expecting at the premiere Catholic university in the nation.  I had a front row seat in the world of theological dissent.  And it was not always a nice picture.

 

God has a definite plan for the human race.

When He created our first parents, Adam and Eve, He gave them a human nature that has definite characteristics and traits.   God gave us our intelligence, our free will and our freedom.  He made us male and female, fertile and sexual.  Then He stepped back and set us free.  Our task is to learn how to use our freedom well.

One outstanding part of our human nature is our sexuality, our sex drive.  At puberty, our sexuality awakens, and then we have the task of giving good direction to these very strong impulses.  Either we give direction to them, or they will give direction to us.  God’s plan for sex is “Save sex for marriage.”  This calls for total abstinence before marriage, and total fidelity in marriage.  It also calls for a deep respect for our fertility, since God wants us to be co-creators with Him in passing life on to another person, a person who will exist forever. 

But there is the problem.  How are we to regulate conception?  How are we to space the pregnancies?  Before marriage, chastity means no sex.  After marriage, chastity means never turning against the goodness of our fertility by such things as contraception and sterilization.  Forms of contraception have been around for centuries.  Modern science has simply perfected these barriers to conception. (Which is another example that all that science gives us is not good or beneficial.)  When the anovulant Pill was first developed in 1960, the question arose: since this is not a physical barrier to conception, can it be considered to be morally acceptable?  This ignited a huge discussion among Catholics, and others. 

Moral questions find their way very quickly into the secular press.  Those who promoted the moral goodness of the Pill were given large space in the secular media.  While those who upheld the Church’s consistent teaching about the immorality of contraception were sidelined and shunned. 

On July 25, 1968, Humanae Vitae was released to the world.  Those who were promoting a change in Church teaching were aghast, and incensed.  The teaching Church was not listening to them.  What the dissenting theologians, clerical and lay, had been promising the people, did not happen.  And then dissent came out into the open with great sound and fury.  Those who rejected the encyclical were given much attention in the press and in the airwaves.  Those who tried to defend it were not very persuasive in their arguments, and were largely ridiculed.   Eventually, people were encouraged to make up their own minds, and to act accordingly.  Thus began the invasion of the sexual revolution of the 1960s into the Catholic Church.

What is the motivation of dissenting theologians?  The theological task is to help explain Church teaching on faith and morals to the people of their times and culture.  Their task is not to create the articles of faith or the norms of morality.  These are determined by God alone.  The teaching Church, what we call the Magisterium, was established by Jesus to faithfully teach and preserve from error God’s plan for the human race.  The theologians are to examine these teachings, show their inter-relatedness, demonstrate their reasonableness, and help relate them to the present times and culture.

Humanae Vitae is magisterial teaching, at the highest level, on the morality of all forms of contraception.  To reject contraception as immoral, was to reject many practices of sexual behavior that were widespread in the broader society: pre-marital sex, co-habitation, adultery, the Pill and sterilization.  Humanae Vitae touched the lives of many, where they could feel it.

Some dissenting theologians thought that the Magisterium should be more open to the lived experience of the people.  This means that moral theory should follow the practice of the majority.  But God does not establish his moral order according to democratic procedures.  He doesn’t take opinion polls.

Some theologians thought that the Pill would make life so much easier for married couples.  They claimed that many couples were frustrated by the nagging fear of a new and unplanned pregnancy.   These tensions strained the marriage relationship and damaged their family life.  As long as the couple had one or two children, these theologians asserted, then they were sufficiently open to their responsibility to “lovingly receive children,” and could proceed to use contraception.

In retrospect, we see that contraception has created problems that the theologians either ignored or denied.  Think of the link between contraception and abortion. Abortion is foolproof contraception.  Think of the link between contraception and divorce. If you can’t make the total gift of self in your spousal act, then where will you make this total gift?  Holding back your fertility in the spousal act soon spreads over into holding back in many other dimensions of the couple’s relationship.

Think of the link between contraception and very small families. If a new baby is regarded as an uninvited intrusion, then don’t expect many large families.  Think of the link between contraception and widespread recreational sex.  Now there seems to be little reason to save sex for marriage, since a pregnancy can be prevented, at least for the most part.

Still another consequence of contraception is the dwindling number of vocations to priesthood and religious life.  These vocations always come from families where there is great generosity and openness to God’s plan for us.  Pope Paul VI made his own prophetic predictions about the consequences of contraception.  The more aggressive dissenters asserted that the Pope was simply wrong, and that Catholics could feel in good conscience that they were authentic Catholics if they decided to reject Humanae Vitae.  These dissenters attempted to point to other times when the Church changed her previous teaching on morality, using such examples as slavery, usury, and religious freedom.  But all of these are instances of authentic development of doctrine, and not a contradiction of previous teaching.

In effect, these theologians were claiming that Catholics should listen to them, instead of to the Successor of Peter, that the dissenting theologians were a parallel Magisterium, and even better informed, and more trustworthy, than the Popes and Bishops.  Their arguments were widely discussed in seminaries, religious houses, Catholic colleges and universities, and in many catechetical programs.  For the most part, these arguments prevailed.

I think that for moral theologians there is always the great temptation to define what the moral principles are that are to guide our lives.  That gives one a great sense of power and importance.  Especially if one has a large following that gives their approval.  But that is to usurp an authority that belongs only to God.  And if people go shopping for the theological opinion, and their supporting argumentation, that best pleases them, then they have replaced God with a false god of their own choosing.  That is idolatry.

Theological dissent is in direct conflict with the Magisterium.  As Jesus designed His Church, He authorized only Peter, and the 12, and their successors, to be the authentic teachers and interpreters of Divine Revelation as it applies to real life and new problems.  He did not authorize any theologians to do this.  Divine Revelation needs authorized and authentic interpreters throughout the centuries, or it becomes distorted and evacuated.

The results of theological dissent are very evident in the Church and society today.  It has endorsed contraception, which has led to the unraveling of marriage and family.  Consider these statistics:

 

Remedies:

Here we are 50 years after Humanae Vitae, and we see clearly the results of theological dissent and the acceptance of contraception and sterilization.  More statistics could be added to the list that I just provided you.  Someone needs to take credit for the mess that we are in.  When you see the clear connection between contraception and all these horrific deviations from God’s plan for marriage, spousal love and family, then you can point to the cause, as well as the effect.  Contraception has been called the taproot of the entire culture of death.

The dissenters from Humanae Vitae promised us that everything in marriage, family life, and society, would get better if the Church would just loosen up on her teachings about sex and the sexual ethic.  They promised us a better, happier, future.  It reminds us of what the architects of a great new society promised their people in Hitler’s Germany, Mao Tse-tung’s China, and Lenin and Stalin’s Russia.  None of these self-styled messiahs brought about a utopia, but rather they ushered in great human misery and tragedy for millions of people.  Somebody should take credit for the mess we are in today with regard to marriage and family.

Moving forward, if the dissenters’ formula did not work, then we should take another look at God’s plan for the human race He created, God’s plan for such foundational realities as marriage, spousal love and family.  Is God’s plan for marriage, as a commitment for life, total fidelity, and fruitful, workable and within the grasp of modern people?  It is.  It is always difficult, and requires working at on a daily basis, but a couple who cooperates with God’s grace can work out any of the problems that come with a lifelong marriage.  With God, all things are possible.  Love always finds a way.

Can couples successfully and responsibly plan their family while never turning against the goodness of their fertility?  That is the role of NFP, which is a highly sophisticated method of helping a couple know their cycles of fertility and infertility.  The greatest problems most couples find with NFP is that it calls for periodic abstinence during their fertile periods, and some self-sacrifice on the part of both spouses.  But talk to couples who use NFP, and discover the many unforeseen blessings that it has brought into their relationship and their marriage.  The medical and biological aspects of NFP have been so well developed that an NFP trained Ob/Gyn can handle almost every complication that can arise in a woman’s reproductive system.  NFP couples have learned generosity.  You can see it in their relationship, and you can see it in their children. 

Is God’s plan for the family workable today?  God knows how many children He wishes to send to a given couple.  But the world challenges couples to have small families and to “save the planet.”  Besides, raising children is a huge investment of self to them.  In our culture, it takes 18 years to bring a child to self-sufficiency.  And if they go to college, it takes four more years!  The happiest, most fulfilled, families I know are all large families.  Here the brothers and sisters are in the school of deeper humanity, where they learn how to inter relate with a variety of characters, and what generosity means.  Incidentally, most vocations to priesthood and religious life come from large families.  That is not surprising.  That is one reason why I delight in being with large families.

Another remedy for healing the damage done by dissenting theologians is to be able to show the flaw in their reasoning and arguments.  God’s plan for us as bodied, fertile and sexual persons is a very good plan.  Living it well is within the grasp of everyone, regardless of their background, sexual orientation, or vocation in life.  God’s grace provides for all of these, and with His grace, we can overcome any obstacle.  God has no peers.  His strength is awesome.  Saint John Paul’s Theology of the Body, and his Love and Responsibility are great helps here.

Other remedies are prayer, sacrifice and the power of good example.  Our society has drifted a long way from God’s plan for marriage and family.  There will be much resistance to overcome.  But the world is not very happy with its present condition.  Just read the newspapers or view the nightly news. The spread of evil is not unstoppable.  It has been confronted and stopped many times in the past, and we can do this again.

The greatest remedy would be to reactivate the pulpits.  People need to hear from the pulpit God’s plan for marriage, spousal love and family.  They need to hear this so that they can shape a vision of these in their minds, and then ask for God’s grace so as to pursue that vision.  Abortion will not be stopped until contraception is stopped.  Contraception has brought huge damage to our marriages, our families, and to our Church.  Bishops need to take the initiative and set an example for their priests in preaching on these matters.  Clergy conferences on how to preach on these topics should be given.  NFP Outreach and God’s Plan for Life have given many such conferences. 

Everyone wants a strong marriage, and a healthy, happy family.  But they don’t know how to get them.  They need to see good examples, good role models.  And that is where the Christian community comes in again.  The Church must continue to build up families.  The parish is simply the extended family, where individual families assist each other.  There are many apostolates designed for marriage and the family.  Think of Teams of Our Lady, or Marriage Encounter.  Couples encourage and counsel couples.  When we face our problems, and work with them, then real progress can happen.

May the Source of all love, and the Author or all life, be at the center of our marriages and our families, so that they may become what God always designed them to be.

Some useful bibliography:

On the rebellion at Catholic University of America in 1968 see:  THE COUP: the 1968 Revolution in American Catholic Education, by Peter Mitchell.

On the struggle within the Commission set up by Pope John XXIII and Paul VI on Population, the Family and Birth Regulation, see:  THE BATTLE FOR THE AMERICAN CHURCH by Msgr. George A. Kelly, Doubleday, Garden City, NY: 1979.  Chpt. VI: the Birth-Control Battle pp. 127-197, and Chpt. VII: the Battle for the Catholic Family, or the Siege of Chicago, pp. 199-233.

On the proper relationship between the Magisterium and theologians see: INSTRUCTION ON THE ECCLESIAL VOCATION OF THE THEOLOGIAN, by Cardinal Ratzinger, 1990.

For a “Critical Examination of Radical Theological Dissent,” see THE WAY OF THE LORD JESUS: CHRISTIAN MORAL PRINCIPLES, by Germain Grisez, vol. 1, chpt. 36, pp. 871-907

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