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Article: Confessions of a birth control commission Catholic. (lay member of Vatican II commission)
- Article from:
- National Catholic Reporter
- Article date:
- December 17, 1993
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1993 National Catholic Reporter. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Twenty-five years ago my husband, Pat, and I received a phone call in the middle of the night. A reporter asked what comment we wanted to make on the pope's new encyclical, Humanae Vitae. Four years, before that call, Nov. 24, 1964, Pat and I had received a letter from Pope Paul VI inviting us to be part of a special study group on population and birth control, a commission originally initiated by Pope John XXIII in 1963 and now being expanded by his successor.
We wondered if there were some doubt about the church's teaching on birth control. We had been married since 1937. At the beginning of our marriage, even the rhythm method of birth control was forbidden. ...