A Brief History of Our Troubles – and Some Hope
- pastorcorner
- Oct 19, 2024
- 5 min read
A Brief History of Our Troubles – and Some Hope
Saturday, October 19, 2024
An honest assessment of the Church’s history over the past century reveals a good bit of moral sordidness but also surprisingly hopeful prospects. Future historians may consider this era the Age of Contraception and Homosexuality. And maybe also of Hope.
Since ancient times, the Church has condemned the use of contraception. In 1930, Pope Pius XI reaffirmed Church teaching:
"Any use whatsoever of matrimony exercised in such a way that the act is deliberately frustrated in its natural power to generate life is an offense against the law of God and nature, and those who indulge in such are branded with the guilt of a grave sin."
In modern times, the practice of contraception has transitioned from shame to mainstream acceptance. The Anglican Lambeth Conference initially condemned “birth control” but tentatively allowed it for agitated consciences in 1931.
In the 1950s, Dr. John Rock – a Catholic – concocted the contraceptive Pill. “The Pill” prevented pregnancy and would become easily accessible. By the early 1960s, the Pill became mainstream. Belatedly, Pope Paul VI issued Humanae vitae in 1968. His teaching reaffirmed the constant teaching of the Church on human sexuality and contraception.
A firestorm of dissent ensued. Moral theologian Charles Curran of Catholic University orchestrated the rebellion. Cardinal O’Boyle of Washington, DC, disciplined 52 priests who publicly challenged the pope’s teaching. Dissent from Church teaching metastasized.
Concurrently, the cultural firestorm of the sexual revolution of the 1960s gained momentum, fueled by the Pill. The restaurant chain TGIF (Thank God It’s Friday) capitalized on the Pill and suggested one-night stands were now safe after a pleasant dining experience in one of their restaurants. In the early 1970s, country music icon Loretta Lynn – an unlikely social revolutionary – composed a tune, “The Pill.”
The Pill presumably liberated women to engage in sexual relations without fear of pregnancy. But as many men knew, the Pill liberated them from responsibility. When contraception failed – as it inevitably did – women and their unborn babies would bear the consequences. Indeed, the Pill fueled the abortion industry as abortion achieved legal recognition in every state with the 1973 Supreme Court ruling, Roe v. Wade.
A parallel “gay” movement gained traction with the infamous 1969 Stonewall riots in Greenwich Village. The Vietnam War was raging. And some Church historians suggest seminaries became havens for homosexual men seeking a draft deferment.
The Catholic Theological Society (CTSA) published Human Sexuality by Anthony Kosnik in 1977. In 1979, the Vatican’s Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith condemned the book.
It disapproved of some forms of sexual conduct, but only because of the supposed absence, generally expressed in the form of a doubt, of “human integration” (as in swinging, mate-swapping, bestiality), and not because these actions are opposed to the nature of human sexuality.
The CTSA advocacy of “Human Sexuality” suggests that in 1979 there was already widespread acceptance of contraception and homosexuality among members of the Catholic hierarchy. The 1970s was a time of consolidation of the sexual revolution and extreme forms of sexual license. It’s not surprising that the decade also saw a spike in clerical sexual abuse of young people.
Upon his election in 1978, Pope John Paul II began a restoration of the Catholic hierarchy and seminaries. He appointed bishops known to support Catholic teaching. Nevertheless, some “gay-friendly” prelates – e.g., Cardinal Bernardin of Chicago, Cardinal McCarrick of Washington, and several European prelates – also rose to prominence.
The counter-revolutionary pontificate of John Paul II saw a flurry of persuasive and orthodox documents. Familiaris Consortio affirmed Church teaching on human sexuality and the family. The Vatican released the Catechism of the Catholic Church in 1992. In 1993, the pope issued an encyclical on moral theology (Veritatis Splendor) that identified the errors that spawned books like the CTSA’s “Human Sexuality.”
Meanwhile, the priest child molestation (fundamentally “gay”) crisis bubbled beneath the surface of public consciousness until the explosive Boston Globe revelations in 2002. Despite evidence that the vast majority of “child abuse” by priests was homosexual exploitation of adolescent males, the “gay problem” continued to fester in the Church.
In 2005, nervous cardinals narrowly elected Pope John Paul’s long-time doctrinal expert, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger to the papacy. Although Pope Benedict XVI continued his finely-written theological treatises as Church documents (and his exemplary Jesus of Nazareth trilogy), he failed to gain control of the massive bureaucracy of the Church. This frustration led to his resignation in 2013.
The pontificate of Pope Francis has seen the proliferation (almost institutionalization) of the doctrinal ambiguities of the earlier post-conciliar years, including a pervasive openly “gay-friendly” senior clergy. The effects of dissent have decimated broad swaths of the hierarchy. Today, the German bishops, in large part, are in an undeclared schism.
For nearly 100 years, contraception and its homosexual complement have attained demon status – with abortion as its sordid crown jewel – worshipped by most cultures, nations, and even prominent members of the Church’s hierarchy. But God always destroys every form of false worship and protects His Church from the gates of hell. With steadfast confidence in God’s final victory, we need not fear airing the Church’s dirty laundry.
Significant pockets of the clergy and laity, however, have remained faithful to the Church. The intellectual and spiritual legacies of Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI influenced a new generation of young priests in America. A highly educated, doctrinally orthodox laity has also emerged. Catechetical materials, Catholic publishing, and Catholic websites testify to widespread orthodoxy among the lay intelligentsia and thoughtful Catholics.
There are historical parallels. In the Fourth Century, Arius denied the divinity of Jesus. The heresy became so pervasive that Saint Jerome wrote in 359, “The whole world groaned, and was astonished to find itself Arian.” We may say today, “The whole world groaned, and was astonished to find itself gay.”
But Arianism was defeated, as may current heresies and moral deviations today.
“Stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught by us.” (2 Thessalonians 2:15)
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**A Brief History of Our Troubles – and Some Hope
In the Fourth Century, Arius denied the divinity of Jesus. The heresy became so pervasive that Saint Jerome wrote in 359, “The whole world groaned, and was astonished to find itself Arian.” We may say today, “The whole world groaned, and was astonished to find itself gay.”
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