A Brief History of Our Troubles - and Some Hope

The Catholic Thing

By Rev. Jerry J. Pokorsky
An honest assessment of the Church's history over the past century reveals a good bit of moral sordidness but also surprisingly hopeful prospects. Future historians may consider this era the Age of Contraception and Homosexuality. And maybe also of Hope.
Since ancient times, the Church has condemned the use of contraception. In 1930, Pope Pius XI reaffirmed Church teaching:
Any use whatsoever of matrimony exercised in such a way that the act is deliberately frustrated in its natural power to generate life is an offense against the law of God and nature, and those who indulge in such are branded with the guilt of a grave sin.
In modern times, the practice of contraception has transitioned from shame to mainstream acceptance. The Anglican Lambeth Conference initially condemned "birth control" but tentatively allowed it for agitated consciences in 1931.
In the 1950s, Dr. John Rock - a Catholic - concocted the contraceptive Pill. "The Pill" prevented pregnancy and would become easily accessible. By the early 1960s, the Pill became mainstream. Belatedly, Pope Paul VI issued Humanae vitae in 1968. His teaching reaffirmed the constant teaching of the Church on human sexuality and contraception.
A firestorm of dissent ensued. Moral theologian Charles Curran of Catholic University orchestrated the rebellion. Cardinal O'Boyle of Washington, DC, disciplined 52 priests who publicly challenged the pope's teaching. Dissent from Church teaching metastasized.
Concurrently, the cultural firestorm of the sexual revolution of the 1960s gained momentum, fueled by the Pill. The restaurant chain TGIF (Thank God It's Friday) capitalized on the Pill and suggested one-night stands were now safe after a pleasant dining experience in one of their restaurants. In the early 1970s, country music icon Loretta Lynn - an unlikely social revolutionary - composed a tune, "The Pill."
The Pill presumably liberated women to engage in sexual relations without fear of pregnancy. But as many men knew, the Pill liberated them from responsibility. When contraception failed - as it inevitably did - women and their unborn babies would bear the consequences. Indeed, the Pill fueled the abortion industry as abortion achieved legal recognition in every state with the 1973 Supreme Court ruling, Roe v. Wade.
A parallel "gay" movement gained traction with the infamous 1969 Stonewall riots in Greenwich Village. The Vietnam War was raging. And some Church historians suggest seminaries became havens for homosexual men seeking a draft deferment.
The Catholic Theological Society (CTSA) published Human Sexuality by Anthony Kosnik in 1977. In 1979, the Vatican's Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith condemned the book.
It disapproved of some forms of sexual conduct, but only because of the supposed absence, generally expressed in the form of a doubt, of "human integration" (as in swinging, mate-swapping, bestiality), and not because these actions are opposed to the nature of human sexuality.
The CTSA advocacy of "Human Sexuality" suggests that in 1979 there was already widespread acceptance of contraception and homosexuality among members of the Catholic hierarchy. The 1970s was a time of consolidation of the sexual revolution and extreme forms of sexual license. It's not surprising that the decade also saw a spike in clerical sexual abuse of young people.
Upon his election in 1978, Pope John Paul II began a restoration of the Catholic hierarchy and seminaries. He appointed bishops known to support Catholic teaching. Nevertheless, some "gay-friendly" prelates - e.g., Cardinal Bernardin of Chicago, Cardinal McCarrick of Washington, and several European prelates - also rose to prominence.
The counter-revolutionary pontificate of John Paul II saw a flurry of persuasive and orthodox documents. Familiaris Consortio affirmed Church teaching on human sexuality and the family. The Vatican released the Catechism of the Catholic Church in 1992. In 1993,...