My summary of the story is that the Pope felt the need to make a statement on the pill following the Anglican Church’s tentative acceptance of it in the 30s which had originally sparked a knee jerk “no no no” reaction from the Catholic Church. The Pope arranged an uncharacteristically democratic panel which included (gasp) women to advise him. The group had reached a consensus that the rhythm method of contraception may as well just be called parenthood and that matters of contraception should be left to the individuals conscience but in a bizarre back-flip, the Pope under pressure from conservative forces within the church published his encyclical without even letting the reference group know what was in it.

The result was devastating for a church that was already losing touch with society and came as a heartbreaking blow for those who had received so much hope from the outcomes of Vatican II only a few years earlier.

The outcome for the Pope was that the office lost its credibility as a moral guide. You could argue that the church had been losing relevance since the reformation / enlightenment but it wasn’t until the sixties that lack of faith was replaced with open hostility to the church and its presumed moral authority.

It’s interesting to see the forces of conservatism and liberalism at work in this institution. During the reformation, there was a counter reformation which expressed itself in the council of Trent, with Vatican II perhaps we will see a kind of counter Vatican II as well and maybe it started as early as 1968.

Religion Report Transcript