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  • Title: [Contraception and the right of the state in the Catholic Church].
    Journal: GIRE; 1997 Sep; (14):2-3. PubMed ID: 12349539.
    Abstract:
    The Catholic Church hierarchy is condemning contraception and abortion as never before. The current pope obsessively opposes the condom, even as a means of preventing HIV/AIDS, and opposes abortion even if it is the only possible means of saving the mother¿s life. The commission created by Pope John XXIII in the 1960s during the Second Vatican Council demonstrated that specialists, lay people, and some high prelates of the Church were inclined to revise Church policy on contraception. The commission was the only group created to examine contraception at a time when the population explosion of the poorest nations and the marketing of oral contraceptives were attracting the attention of demographers, and also Catholics, throughout the world. After the death of Pope John, the commission swelled to 109 persons including 50 cardinals and bishops designated the ¿official commission¿ to distinguish them from the experts. The two groups each prepared reports, which the pope studied for two years before releasing the encyclical Humanae Vitae, in July 1968. Against the expectations of the majority on the commission, the pope reiterated condemnation of contraception and designated rhythm as the only permissible family planning method. The majority on the Commission were explicit that social changes in marriage and the family and in the role of women, declining infant mortality, new scientific knowledge, and a different appreciation of the value and significance of human sexuality should be taken into account. The pope was persuaded by an argument completely unrelated to contraception itself: that if the Church changed its stand, the authority of the bishops on moral questions would be diminished.
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