In God's Name by David Yallop Read Free Book Online

grow. In doing so he calmly and with extraordinary courage signed his own death warrant. When he died on June 3rd, 1963, the Roman Catholic Church, through the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, was finally attempting to come to terms with the world as it was rather than how it would like it to be.
    With John dead, replaced by Pope Paul VI, the Church inched its way nearer to one specific reality, to one particular decision, the most important the Roman Catholic Church has taken this century. In the 1960s the question was being asked with increasing urgency; what was the Church’s position on artificial birth control?
    In 1962 Pope John had set up a Pontifical Commission on the family. Birth control was one of the major issues it was directed to study. Pope Paul enlarged the Commission until its membership reached sixty-eight. He then created a considerable number of ‘consultants’ to advise and monitor the Commission. While hundreds of millions of Roman Catholics around the world waited and wondered, speculation that a change in the Church’s position wasimminent grew ever larger. Many began using the Pill or other forms of artificial contraception. While the ‘experts’ in Rome debated the significance of Genesis 38:7–10 and a man called Onan, everyday life had to go on.
    It is ironic that the confusion which prevailed in the Catholic world on this issue was exactly mirrored by the Pope’s thinking on the problem. He did not know what to do.
    During the first week of October 1965, Pope Paul granted a unique interview to Italian journalist Alberto Cavallari. They discussed many problems facing the Church. Cavallari later observed that he did not raise the issue of artificial birth control because he was aware of the potential embarrassment. His fears were unfounded. Paul raised the subject himself. It should be remembered that this was an era when the Papacy still clung to Royal illusions; personal pronouns were not Paul’s style.
     
Take birth control for example. The world asks what we think and we find ourselves trying to give an answer. But what answer. We can’t keep silent. And yet to speak is a real problem. The Church hasn’t had to deal with such things for centuries. And it is a somewhat foreign and even humanly embarrassing subject for men of the Church. So, the commissions meet, the reports pile up, the studies are published. Oh, they study a lot, you know. But then we still have to make the final decisions. And in deciding, we are all alone. Deciding is not as easy as studying. We have to say something. But what? God will simply have to enlighten us.
     
    While the Pope waited for God’s enlightenment on sexual intercourse his Commission toiled on. While the 68 laboured, their efforts were closely watched by the smaller commission of approximately twenty cardinals and bishops. For any liberalizing recommendation from the group of 68 to reach the Pope it had to pass through this smaller group, which was headed by a man who was the epitome of the reactionary element within the Church, Cardinal Ottaviani. Many considered him the leader of that element.
    A crucial moment in the Commission’s history came on April 23rd, 1966. By that date the Commission had conducted an exhaustive and exhausting examination of the birth control issue. Those who had maintained their opposition to a change in the Church’s position were by now reduced to four priests who stated that they were irretrievably committed to maintaining a position forbidding any form of artificialbirth control. Pushed by the other members of the Commission, the four admitted that they could not prove the correctness of their position on the grounds of natural law. Neither could they cite the scriptures or divine revelation to justify their view. They argued that various Papal utterances over the years had all condemned artificial contraception. Their reasoning would appear to be ‘once in error, always in error’.
    In October 1951, Pius XII