Credibility issue for Pope on condom ban

Asiaprod

Nice to see my favorite religious order shaking the Vatican carpet. Have to give the man credit for a great quote too:) .

Credibility issue for Pope on condom ban
THE Vatican's ban on the use of condoms which it imposed on married Catholic couples nearly four decades ago poses "a credibility problem" for the papacy, a leading Irish Jesuit has claimed. Fr Gerry O'Hanlon, a former head of the Society of Jesus in Ireland, has also warned of the danger that the 1968 condemnation of condoms has been ignored by most Catholics around the world. Unless it is rescinded, Pope Benedict XVI will not be widely heard when making important statements on other moral and social issues, not least in saving Europe from secularism, Fr O'Hanlon further warns.
Fr O'Hanlon's challenge to Rome's hard-line position is contained in an article which he has contributed to a newly published book by the Dublin-based Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice on "The Future of Europe".
The rejection worldwide of the papal teaching against birth control by ordinary Catholics, Fr O'Hanlon argues, has been reinforced by the authoritarian way in which it was decreed by Rome, and the continued refusal of the Vatican to accept its "non-reception" by the laity.
"There is an 'elephant in the room' of Catholic polity*," Fr O'Hanlon writes. "It is its teaching on certain aspects of sexuality and related areas, and its exercise of power in seeking to impose this teaching." (irish_independent)
*government

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

but if he rescinds it, won't that be admitting that whichever pope put it into place was wrong?

or does the infallability thing only apply to things he can't be proved wrong on?

robindch

Infallibility covers matters of core dogma only, and not policies. Infallibility, aka 'speaking ex cathedra', has been used fairly sparingly since it was instituted in the late 19th century. The most recent thing declared infallible -- and this was in the early 1960's -- was that Mary had flown bodily into heaven when she died. Apparently JP2 was thinking of declaring, ex cathedra, that women could never be priests, but was apparently advised not to do it. I'm sure that the church will drop its non-infallible prohibition on condoms sooner or later.

Schuhart

robindch wrote:

Infallibility, aka 'speaking ex cathedra', has been used fairly sparingly since it was instituted in the late 19th century.

I think its only formally been used twice. Once to declare the doctrine of infalliability itself in 1870, and once to confirm the doctrine of the Assumption in 1950. I think some other previous pronouncements were subsequently deemed to be infaillable as well.

Mrs. MacGyver

The whole issue of contraception in marraige can be tricky as you are denying the procreative dimension to the sacrament of marraige (will dig out my final year moral theology essay on this! to explain further)

Mick86

It's practically a definition of Catholicism that everything that the Pope says is to be ignored. Does Fr O'Hanlon think that everybody will start going to mass because the Pope gives the nod to condoms?

Shellie13

its a bit of a grey one tbh- i never thought many people listened to that part anyway...