Magyar Egyház, 1960 (39. évfolyam, 1-9. szám)
1960-01-01 / 1. szám
MAGYAR EGYHÁZ 9 THE BIRTH CONTROL ISSSUE News and Comments 'EPS.)—The question of promotion of artificial birth control information in overpopulated countries continues to be a major news issue in the United States. Dr. R. Norris Wilson, director of Church World Service, cooperative overseas relief agency of US Protestant and Orthodox Churches, has recently reported that the agency has been distributing birth-control information “for years” and that he would “feel disgraced” if a request for such information were rejected. The CWS executive, in an interview reported in The New York Times, said that he saw nothing “immoral” in limiting the size of families by artificial birth prevention. “It is inconceivable,” he observed, “that God likes to see children dying on the streets.” He added that the US Government is not involved in any such programme, and that it was a “gross misfortune” that the issue has become involved in politics. “It is a moral, not a political problem,” he commented. * Dr. Wilson made his remarks at about the same time as President Eisenhower was telling his weekly press conference that the United States would refuse to advise other nations on birth control as long as he was chief executive. The president said that the question “has nothing to do with governmental contact with other governments” and “we do not intend to interfere with . . . the internal affairs of any government”. * Two prominent Protestant leaders took issue with the statement of the Roman Catholic hierarchy opposing use for foreign aid funds for distribution of birth control data in overpopulated countries. They were Protestant Episcopal Bishop James A. Pike, of San Francisco, head of the new Clergymen’s Advisory Committee for the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, and Dr. John C. Bennett, dean of Union Theological Seminary, New York. Bishop Pike said the Catholic bishops’ position would “condemn rapidly increasing millions of people in less fortunate parts of the world to starvation bondage, misery and despair”. “The great majority of the people in these countries are not Roman Catholic and should not be compelled to observe Catholic scruples against contraception”, he said. Dr. Bennett said it was “tragic” that Roman Catholic leaders are pressing “a point of view on birth control which has no sound moral or religious basis, and which has been rejected by most other Christian groups”. He noted that most non-Catholics are convinced there is no valid moral distinction between “artificial” and “natural” contraceptive methods and urged that Roman Catholic leaders “focus their energies on making the rhythm method more reliable” instead of “minimizing the gravity of the population problem”. * Meanwhile, a leading Jesuit moralist, said that it would “clearly be wrong” for a Roman Catholic president to approve a bill sponsoring promotion of birth control information. The Rev. John R. Connery, professor of moral theology at West Baden College, Indiana, asserted it would be morally mandatory in all circumstances for a Catholic president to veto such a bill. He suggested that if a case arose in which a Roman Catholic president felt it was necessary to cooperate to some extent with such a programme “as a lesser of two evils”, he could dissociate himself from the bill without vetoing it. Any bill not returned by the president to Congress within ten days of the time it is presented to him for his signature automatically becomes law. Father Connery made his statement in America, a national Catholic weekly. A leading aspirant to the US presidency in the 1960 elections is a Roman Catholic senator John F. Kennedy, Democratic, of Massachusetts. Senator Kennedy has said that he feels it woul be a mistake for the United States to advocate birth control in other countries, but that if such a bill came before him as president he would use his “personal judgement ... as to what would be in the interest of the United States”. * A special Christian study group on the population explosion and Christian responsibility was called by officers of the International Missionary Council and the World Council of Churches at Mansfield College, Oxford, England, in April 1959. The report of this group which gave strong support for family planning as part of the answer to the world-wide “population explosion” was published in the ECUMENICAL REVIEW and made public October 7, 1959. The report received wide public attention. The grorup accepted the thesis that the limitation or spacing of children is morally valid and held that there appears to be no moral distinction between the various means of birth control now known or practiced. Noting that the current population explosion which means an annual increase of 50 million persons causes grave “social, political, economic and even religious repercussions,” the study group states that “its shock waves buffet countless human families.” Protestant, Anglican, and Orthodox churchmen were participants in the study group on “Responsible Parenthood and the Papulation Program.” The group held that advances made in medical knowledge give husband and wife the responsibility in Christian conscience to use this knowledge “in relation to the procreation and nurture of children.” After a review of available church statements on responsible parenthood, the group noted an emerging consensus among Protestant churches. “At that day ye shall ask in my name: and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you”, John 16:26. “In that day you shall ask in my name.” Besides, when Christ is said to intercede with the Father for us, let us not indulge in carnal imaginations about him, as if he were on his knees The Intercession of Christ before the Father, offering humble supplication in our name. But the value of his sacrifice, by which he once pacified God toward us, is always powerful and efficacious; the blood by which he atoned for our sins, the obedience which he rendered, is a continual intercession for us. This is a remarkable passage, by which we are taught that we have the heart of the heavenly Father, as soon as we have placed before him the name of his Son. (Quoted from John Calvin’s Commentaries by John H. Kromminga in his recently published book “Thine Is My Heart.” We shall review the book in our next issue.)
