From an article by Phil Lawyer on How the Boston archdiocese helped bring contraception to Massachusetts
… In 1965, as the state legislature discussed the repeal of the contraceptive ban, Cardinal Cushing said that he personally opposed the use of contraceptives. But he added, significantly: “I am also convinced that I should not impose my position—moral beliefs or religious beliefs—on those of other faiths.” To legislators weighing the merits of the bill, he said: “If your constituents want this legislation, vote for it.”
Thus did the leader of Boston’s Church signal an end to any active Catholic opposition to legalized sale of contraceptives. But the Boston College Magazine article reveals that the archdiocese had begun quietly planning for a change in the law even before Dukakis introduced his formal bid for repeal.
In 1963, the article reports, Cardinal Cushing was a guest on a radio call-in show. One caller asked the cardinal about his stance on the contraceptive ban, and he replied: “I have no right to impose my thinking, which is rooted in religious thought, on those who do not think as I do.”
At the time of that broadcast, listeners in the Boston area did not know the identity of the woman who called in with the question that drew that response. But now, thanks to Boston College Magazine, we know that it was Hazel Sagoff, the executive director of Planned Parenthood. There is reason to believe that both Sagoff’s call and the cardinal’s response had been arranged in advance. Prior to the show, Sagoff had been conferring with Msgr. Francis Lally, the editor of the archdiocesan newspaper, The Pilot, and a trusted adviser to Cardinal Cushing. Sagoff had said that a bid to repeal the contraceptive ban was doomed to fail, unless legislators were confident that the cardinal would not fight the measure. Msgr. Lally had indicated that he favored an end to the ban—although he hoped that the courts would settle the issue, making legislative action unnecessary.
Thus in the early 1960s, Planned Parenthood was coordinating plans with the Boston archdiocese to ease the way toward legal acceptance of contraception. When Dukakis introduced the repeal bid in 1965, the Catholic journalists at the Pilot received a memo instructing them not to comment on the legislation, “lest we stir up trouble with the Planned Parenthood people who have also pledged their ‘cooperation by silence.’”
“I have no right to impose my thinking, which is rooted in religious thought, on those who do not think as I do.”
Now I am just a armchair pundit and also just another Catholic convert who most of my life ignored theology and philosophy totally. But a statement like that sends me screaming in its vapidness. Now I can easily imagine this on the lips of many people, but on a Cardinal’s? What the heck happened to the Natural Law, did it get thrown under the bus here? Contraception is not rooted in religious thought, but the Natural Law. While certainly we do have revelation that supports contraception as in intrinsic evil and many statements from the Church the wrongness of contraception can be found by people of good will. Besides the Church does not impose her thinking, but proposes the truth.
Whether the Cardinal actually orchestrated a campaign to show that he would not fight the legalization of contraception in any way is beyond my ken. But his statement surely aided that happening and I just hope he was just a real lousy theologian.
Though there wasn’t much fight by American bishops in regards to the legalization of contraception, or for that matter abortion and the liberalization of divorce laws. This is one reason I am very proud of the way the Filipino bishops have been acting and fighting against attempts to legalize contraception in the Philippines along with the fight against allowing divorce. The American bishops might not have been able to stop or slow down the cultural destruction that occurred from the acceptance of contraception, abortion, and divorce, but as Blessed Mother Teresa said “We are not called to be successful, but faithful.”
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What he really meant is “I support this legislation” whether he was thinking it or not.
What Pope Benedict XVI is building back brick-by-brick, a few dozen bishops and cardinals (wolves in sheep’s clothing) like this destroyed in the matter of a few years with some well-placed TNT and wrecking balls.
I am from the Philippines and I am mighty proud of our bishops too. There are a few prominent priests here though, who think along the lines of Cardinal Cushing.
While the Filipino bishops current activities impress me, their apology in 1990 impresses me even more: It is said that when seeking ways of regulating births, only five percent of you consult God. In the face of this unfortunate fact we, your pastors, have been remiss. How few there are among you whom we have reached. There have been some couples eager to share their expertise and values on birth regulation with others. They are saying that they did not receive adequate support from their priests. We did not give them due attention believing then that this ministry consisted merely of imparting a technique best left to married couples. Only recently have we discovered how deep your yearning is for God to be present in your married life. But we did not know then how to help you discover God’s presence and activity in your mission of Christian parenting. Conflicted with doubt about alternatives to contraceptive technology, we abandoned you to your confused and lonely consciences with only an excuse, follow what your conscience tells you. How little we realized that it was our consciences that needed to be formed first. A greater concern would have led us to discover that religious hunger in you.
Wow. I should have that kind of humility when confronted with my own failures.
I wonder if they would say ‘I don’t own slaves myself, and I believe slave owning is wrong, but I wouldn’t impose my beliefs on someone else…”
“… In 1965, as the state legislature discussed the repeal of the contraceptive ban, Cardinal Cushing said that he personally opposed the use of contraceptives.”
A long, long, time ago, back in the 1970s, I recall reading a biographical article on Cardinal Cushing, in which the author, in a positive tone, claimed that Cardinal Cushing privately endorsed contraception. On hearing about a family that was facing difficulties due to its large number of children, it was reported that Cardinal Cushing responded, “why don’t they use birth control?” I don’t have an exact bibliographical citation, but I seem to remember reading this article in Reader’s Digest, sometime in the 1970s.
Cardinal Cushing would not have been alone in such sentiments: similar opinions were attributed to an Archbishop of Chicago during the same period, and of course, a number of clerics, including bishops and theologians, held similar views. And many were not shy about airing them.
From what I have read about Cardinal Cushing, I get the strong impression that his strength was as an administrator, and not as a theologian. Until Humanae Vitae, there was a campaign by some within the Church to have the Holy See or the Vatican Council modify the Church’s teaching on contraception.
God bless the bishops of the Philippines in their struggle to maintain the truth that God gave us.
Converts at times make the best Catholics.
Actually, tht statement is not unheard of in 1965. Remember Pope Paul VI Humanae Vitae didn’t come out until 1968.
Until Humanae Vitae, there were some priests who were actually saying to their faithful, to use contraception, if they couldn’t afford more children.
One of the reasons that Humanae Vitae was procduced is because Priests and Bishops asked for a definitive statement on the subject.
Until then, your concious was your guide.
I am not defending his statement. As Bishop, he should speak from his personal thinking and explain the religious thinking behind his personal opinion. His reasoning could have convinced others to agree with him. He didn’t want to state his own personal opinion, because he mightnot have known what the official word from Rome would have been.
Natural contraception has been ridiculed, rightly so for decades, until now that few know is almost error free.
Living in a Catholic country, where enemies NEVER FORGET to bash us with the centuries past Inquisition abuse, we should be careful on what to impose democratically on others. Outlawing the slaughtering of babies is obvious. Contraception not so, being a matter for the proper taching inside a Church with already a dismal index of practicing people.
Natural methods of regulating birth have been as effective as contraceptives for pretty much every decade except the 60’s.
Has anyone ever said “I have no right to impose my thinking, which is rooted in religious thought, on those who do not think as I do.” when they oppose capital punishment, bottled water, toilet flushing, global warming, carbon emissions, nuclear war, war in Iraq, Kadafi, Mubarak, Saddam Hussein, Osama Bin Laden, population explosion, acid rain, slavery, Adolf Hitler, the Vietnam War, the Korean War, trans-fats, home-schooling, tax increases, public health care, private health care, the International Monetary Fund, tax cuts, Sarah Palin, Barack Obama, Nike shoes, coffee production, seal hunts, or large families?