"Humanae Vitae"--The Pill, pedophile priests, and the real story

An interesting premise, "the widespread rejection of the pope's comprehensive ban on artificial contraception is that it is one of the causes of pedophilia in the priesthood and the sexual abuse scandal"

If we take that logic of that premise one step farther and remember that the pope rejected the the bishops objections against humanae vitae and issued it anyway, then we have to conclude that it was the pope's failure to heed the wisdom of his bishops, in other words, it was irresponsible action of the pope that became the principal cause of pedophilia in the priesthood and the subsequent scandal. If on the other hand, the pope had acted responsibly and heeded the advise of the bishops, then the we can conclude that the pedophila and subsequent scandal would not have occurred.

Of course, in order to reach either of these conclusions, or the conclusions presented in the article, we have to ignore the fact that pedophilia has been a problem in the priesthood long before humanae vitae was even conceived, but hey, lets not let insignificant things, such as evidence and facts get in the way.

All of this would be laughable if it were not tragic. The sexual abuse scandal was obviously caused by the failure of the church's leadership to act properly against priests who were pedophiles. I wonder if that is what the Pope told the victims of sexual abuse when he met with them, "You know, all of this could have been prevented if you people had only followed HV." Somehow, I don't think he did.

In terms of what John Allen said, "The central point of 'Humanae Vitae' was that each and every act of sexual intercourse had to be free of any deliberate effort to prevent conception." Since natural family planning, the approved method of contraception, is a birth control methodology acts of intercourse using it are not free of any deliberate effort to prevent conception. They are planned to prevent conception. So if that was the central point of HV, then approving "natural" family planning defeated its central point.

Two major issues in the Church that have undermined its teachings are HV and the sexual scandal. Both can rightly be blamed on leadership in the church. The Bishop was correct when he said, "It's a pretty grim picture and it's going to be a long time before we recover from it." What he doesn't understand is that he is part of the cause.

What a pious bunch of self-righteous blather this thread is.

Illogical, "re-heated garbage" that blames child-raping priests and their protectors on the birth control pill. Utter (and utterly unbelievable) nonsense.

HV basically turned the whole Catholic Church into a Protestant one. Most married Catholics use birth control and don't even confess it. They do not see it as a sin but as a matter for individuals to decide for themselves. This opened the door for more and more Catholics to pick and choose what they wanted to accept as Catholic doctrine for them. The pedophilia scandal furthered this kind of independent thinking as
Catholics would say to themselves, "If my priest is molesting little boys, why shouldn't I do the lesser sin of masturbating?" The horse is out of the barn and the barn is on fire. The church cannot bring back "the good old days" Any salvation lies in returning to the Gospel emphasis on love and forgiveness rather than doctrine and law.