Negative Implications of Dissent from HV

Written by Daniel on July 30, 2008 – 8:21 pm -

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Humanae Vitae usually makes an easy target for liberals looking to score easy points attacking the Catholic Church. This is particularly true this year, particularly this week, as some celebrate and some lampoon the 40th anniversary of that encyclical. It’s not something I’m following terribly closely, and not something I have a particularly firm position on one way or the other.

However, I do want to note the Wisconsin State Journal column today from Bill Wineke attacking Madison Bishop Robert Morlino. Wineke criticizes Bp. Morlino for a comment made several weeks ago at a staff retreat and published last week in the Catholic Herald. In his remarks, Morlino said:

“[O]nce bishops, priests, and others decided that they could use conscience to excuse them from obedience to the truth, as taught by the Church - when bishops and priests started giving conscience the authority to determine moral truth, rather than to obey the truth as taught by the Church, it’s not surprising that [during those years] some priests and some bishops started to follow their own conscience in terms of sexual misconduct.”

This, Wineke finds utterly crazy. He dismisses it as “nonsense” and “bizarre.” I simply note that Morlino’s position has some currency among conservative Catholics. This month’s edition of FIRST THINGS, a journal of religion, culture, and public life that is widely respected on the right, carries an article entitled “The Vindication of Humanae Vitae,” which you can read here. It is authored by Mary Eberstadt, a research fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. In it, regarding the sex abuse scandal, she writes:

[T]the disgrace of contemporary American Catholicism—the many recent scandals involving priests and underage boys—is traceable to the collusion between a large Catholic laity that wanted a different birth-control doctrine, on the one hand, and a new generation of priests cutting themselves a different kind of slack, on the other. “I won’t tattle on my gay priest if you’ll give me absolution for contraception” seems to have been the unspoken deal in many parishes since Humanae Vitae.
A more obedient laity might have wondered aloud about the fact that a significant number of priests post-Vatican II seemed more or less openly gay. A more obedient clergy might have noticed that plenty of Catholics using artificial contraception were also taking Communion. It is hard to believe that either new development—the widespread open rebellion against church sexual teachings by the laity, or the concomitant quiet rebellion against church sexual teachings by a significant number of priests—could have existed without the other.

Again, I’m not taking a position on anything here, either HV generally or the dissent’s effect on the sex abuse scandal in particular. My point is simply that Bishop Morlino’s point is not “bizarre” or “nonsense,” that it is a legitimate position taken by some serious people, and it should be respected and engaged seriously rather than lampooned.

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3 Comments to “Negative Implications of Dissent from HV”

  1. Rob Says:
    July 31st, 2008 at 9:34 am

    You’ve got to be kidding me. Morlino’s comments, along with those of Ms. Eberstadt, are the definition of “nonsense” and “bizarre”. I’d add, “stupid”, “stunning”, and “nauseating” to the list as well.

    When will the apologists in the church and elsewhere finally take full responsibility for years of looking the other way and ignoring priests preying on children?

  2. germantown_kid Says:
    July 31st, 2008 at 6:11 pm

    Thanks for taking the time to look into humanae vitae before commenting on it.

    Of course Bishop Morlino’s statements, at face value, are easy to mis-interpret as the ignorant person above.

    This person criticizes the Catholic Church for priests “who prey on boys.” He should criticize the Church for recruiting homosexuals when the pool of men entering the priesthood was diminishing.

    Many others criticize the Church’s stand on homosexuality when homosexual priests have caused so much damage to the Church they professed to love and honor.

    The above person does not criticize homosexuality when the Catholic Church is a safe target.

  3. Christine Says:
    August 5th, 2008 at 9:01 pm

    Germantown kid-
    According to the Catholic Church, pedophilia and homosexuality are not the same thing. I’m also unaware of any effort by the Church to “recruit” gay men.

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