The questions at Cairo - Catholic dissent over population growth and contraception - On The Right

National Review, Oct 10, 1994 by William F. Buckley, Jr.

The business in Cairo is becoming a first-class philosophical brawl, featuring the Catholic Church, by no means united. Although the Pope is the supreme authority in the Church and, as a matter of dogma, cannot err on doctrinal matters, he is substantially protected by the question, What is a dogmatic matter? Nobody can go further than to say: That which the Pope declares ex cathedra - to be a doctrinal point, is a doctrinal point. But the Pope has done that only twice, first in affirming his infallibility (1870), second in affirming the Assumption of Mary, the Mother of Christ (1950).

So what is the community at large to make of the strenuous advertising campaign sponsored by Catholics Speak Out"? It is an open letter to Pope John Paul II on the question of contraception, and is endorsed by a dozen organizations (e.g., Conference for Catholic Lesbians) unfamiliar except to theological zoo-watchers, which however isn't to say that the Open Letter is without interest.

The language of the Open Letter reminds the reader that many Catholics are equipped to serve as Philadelphia lawyers. Respect for human dignity demands that we recognize the beauty and goodness of sexual intimacy in committed relationships whether or not they are open to offspring., That assertion is primarily interesting for what it does not say. It is a Judaeo-Christian teaching that sexual intimacy, is beautiful and good between husband and wife. The Open Letter demands approval, indeed a celebration, of sexual congress between homosexuals or for that matter adulterers, just so long as the relationship is "committed." Some of my best friends are committed fornicators.

But the authors, for all their artful conceits, are serious-minded dissenters who touch down on a kind of theological plebiscitarianism that challenges the whole idea of doctrine, in whatever church. The Methodists were recently divided on the question of homosexuality, the Episcopalians on the matter of the ordination of women, and the tendency is to resolve these conflicts by counting the votes on either side of the issue. The legitimacy of teaching requires that it be embraced by the faithful,, declares the Open Letter. That is different from the Catholic contention that the consensual belief of the faithful has a venerating function that tends to give special life to an article of faith. It is by no means a question permanently closed whether contraception violates the depositum fidei, the distillate of Christianity. Some modifications would have the effect of rescinding the faith. If the Vatican were to declare that in fact Christ did not rise on the third day, this would do to Christianity what the Berlin Wall did to Marxism. But whatever the popularity of a particular teaching, it is distinctively Catholic to acknowledge what goes by the name of the "magisterium," and here the Pope's authority is supreme. It does not follow that the flock are docile. But massive refusal by Catholics to abide by marriage laws, to reject abortion as a means of birth control, or for that matter to keep holy the Sabbath, tells us more about the infidelity of the flock than about the magisterium's incompetence.

Surveys in many countries consistently show that most Catholics believe that decisions of conscience about contraception rightfully belong with those who must bear and rear children., But that sweeping philosophical assertion is an invitation to the particularization of morals that defies not only Christian but also extra-Christian definitions of universal laws. Advocates of restrictions on smoking cigarettes do not need, in order to qualify to register their opinions, to establish that they themselves smoke. Laws against polygamy are understandably encouraged even by those who do not have polygamy in mind.

The Open Letter concludes by informing the Pope that he is just plain wrong on contraception (which I believe is the case). But at stake in Cairo is more merely than Yes or No on condoms. The population and ecological folk meet intending to deduce moral laws from natural problems, and this isn't what Catholicism is all about. Curbing population excesses has to do with curbing human appetites, not with gratifying them and calling them good and beautiful.