Today is the 40th anniversary of the Vatican's controversial encyclical, Humanae Vitae, which defined the Church's opposition to contraceptive use. It is well known to be a terrifically unpopular decision among the laity (when polled 6 years after the encyclical 83% of Catholics disagreed with Humanae Vitae.) What's lesser known is how unpopular it was even among the clergy. Cardinal Leo Joseph Suenens, a moderator of the ecumenical council at the time, summarized the perspective shared by many of the ordained and cautioned the Church against prohibiting contraception, stating, "I beg you my brothers let us avoid another Galileo affair, one is enough for the Church."

The history leading up to the decision is pretty fascinating. Catholics for a Free Choice recently released its report, Truth and Consequence, which examines the process the Pope took when considering the issue and the impact the encyclical has had since it's release in 1968.

The report details how the encyclical harmed the church immeasurably, establishing a doctrine that the faithful have since diligently ignored thereby creating two opposing value systems within the Church: the one congregants were lectured to about on Sunday morning and the one they practiced. Quoting Father Charles Curran, who battled the Vatican for years about its stance on birth control before being forced from his teaching position at Catholic University, the report explains,

"According to Curran, 'Humanae Vitae hit like a storm that
dashed the hopes of millions of Catholics. All the hope
and enthusiasm, all the sense that things had changed
and that the birth control teaching could change, were
crushed by the document,' he recalls today. Beyond the
sense of betrayal felt by many who had invested their
energy and hopes in transforming the church, Humanae
Vitae also altered the relationship between Catholics and
the hierarchy, says Curran. 'In a sense, there was one pos-
itive outcome from the encyclical in that Catholics real-
ized that they could disagree with the pope on
nonfallible issues and still remain a good Catholic. How-
ever, the negative outcome was that it created a lot of
tension regarding the credibility of the church,' he says.
Statistics on papal authority bear Curran out. In 1963, 70
percent of Catholics believed that the pope derived his
teaching authority from Christ through St. Peter; by 1974,
only 42 percent believed the same thing. By 1999,
nearly 80 percent of Catholics believed that a person
could be a good Catholic without obeying the church hi-
erarchy’s teaching on birth control."

When John Paul II became Pope, he launched a campaign targeting clergy who spoke out against the encyclical, defrocking the most vocal and rewarding only those who did not question the correctness of the anti-family planning doctrine. Today, dissenters are still not permitted within the the highest orders of the Church. It is here that the Church has done itself the greatest disservice--promoting sycophants instead of moral leaders. It's no wonder the Church would spend the next few decades in the throws a sex abuse scandal of catastrophic proportions. The Church was being led by the pusillanimous, chosen precisely for their compliance and willingness not to speak out in the face of obvious moral corruption.