The Pope and the Pill
THE VATICAN From OSBERT HASTINGS•
ROME
PR some days now the summer residence at Castelgandolfo has been ready for the Pope's arrival. He is not a man much given to pro-. longed relaxation : this year he will have less inclination than usual simply to enjoy his sur- roundings, as whispers begin to stir the summer calm that the Pontiff must now be ap- proaching decisions on which his whole pontificate will be judged. He must go off to the summer palace with his great dossier on birth control, as well as with an awareness of pressures that a real reform of the Curia should be undertaken shortly. Indeed, with the strange exactness and unanimity which seem to mark momentary states of mind at the Vatican, the whispers are explicit enough to give the dates within which time the most important decisions must be made: October is the month favoured by rumours for an announcement on birth control, and the end of this year for other matters which are regarded as essential to the success of this problematical reign.
The real problem is quite simple. The Pope is most at home in international affairs. Foreign policy is conducted at the Vatican under his guidance with knowledge and consistency. The Vatican is now a diplomatic force very much to be reckoned with, as a direct consequence of this papal passion for a field familiar to him from almost all of his earlier career. But much of what is expected of him is not in that field at all. It is to put into effect reforms called for at the Council, to bring the Roman Church up to date in its actual administrative machinery and personnel. And, above all just now, to. offer authoritative guidance about the Church's teach- ing on birth control in the modern world.
This is an issue which falls partly into the
international sphere. There are two aspects of it. The first is a pastoral question of exactly what priests should tell Catholic couples who intend using methods of birth control which may or may not fall under earlier papal con- demnations. In fact, the problem is vaster than that: so large a proportion of the Catholic world has gone ahead with the use of contra- ception without waiting for a word from the Vatican, that the teaching authority of the Church needs to be re-established one way or the other.
As things are at the moment, no one can say with justification that they are right or wrong. The Roman Church's rather tortuous dealings with the problem of birth control over the centuries have not until now taken into account the contraceptive pill. Pius XI's grand condemnation of contraception in his encyclical Casti connubi was pronounced long before the pill appeared. And in any case there are plenty who will now argue that even an encyclical is not a solemn enough document to be classed as an infallible utterance. Pius XII, moreover, made something of a breach in the old outlook when he permitted the use of the rhythm method of avoiding conception. This did not detract from his predecessor's condemnation of• arti- ficial methods of contraception, but it allowed that intercourse was thinkable for other reasons than procreation.. This is a long step from hedonism, but it is a point which could be used to bring the Church's view closer to the outlook of most people of normal tendencies.
The second aspect is that of the Church's position in the international community. The Pope himself, particularly after having personally addressed the United Nations, must be fully aware of the difficulties placed in the way of his efforts at influencing international affairs simply by the fact that his representatives can take no confident or pragmatic view on the question of birth control in its bearing on the troubles of underdeveloped countries. As it hap- pens, the Pope's international policy takes greatly into account the potential influence which the Roman Church could have on the emergent countries of Africa and Asia. He has taken special care to make clear his regard for these areas of the world: India was the first country to be visited by him after the Holy Land; he has given black Africa its saints with the canonisation of the Uganda martyrs; he publicly shows his respect for China. It is just these countries which would want any potential spiritual champion to show at least respect for the possible help which birth control could be to them in solving their problems. And in the traditionally Catholic countries of Latin America the tension between hunger, real or threatening, and a rapidly increasing population is as stark as anywhere.
With these two elements in mind, the Pope will be going over the 500 pages of the report of his special commission on birth control and family problems, which submitted its findings just as the heat was beginning to make his departure for Castelgandolfo more attractive. The report deals with the theological, moral, scientific and social aspects of the question. It was handed over after a committee of cardinals and bishops, presided over by the redoubtable old Cardinal Ottaviani, had looked at it and presumably added their own comments. The contents are known to record disagreements as well as points on which full accord was reached_ The pill seems to have obtained conditional acceptance in so far as it is regarded as a means ' for improving upon the reliability of the rhythm method rather than as a contraceptive in itself.
Temperamentally, the Pope is not inclined to face this issue with any enthusiasm. He has already said publicly how difficult he finds the business of making up his mind on the matter. He must by now be aware of the great urgency which many of his bishops attach to it. Without doubt he will measure the report word for word. He has already sought the opinions of several members of the episcopal commission in indi- vidual audiences. He has behind him the notion of 'responsible parenthood' endorsed by the Ecumenical Council, which would presumably be one of the basic ideas in the rethinking of the Roman Church's existing teaching on marriage and sex. He also has the thought that, whatever the commission has put to him, the decision is entirely his own.
Once he has made the decision, however, there are plenty of others still facing him. The post- ponement in applying some of the Council's
decrees does not detract from the absorbing nature of this great task. The Pope has, more- over, to do something more, much more, about his promised reform of the Curia.
Oddly enough, the outward form of papal splendour, with its oriental tortuousness of approach—the atmosphere in which the Curia thrives—depends historically on the innovations which the Emperor Diocletian brought to Rome from the Near East in an attempt to put fresh life into the failing empire: his residence was at Castelgandolfo, overlooking the same blue lake of unmeasured depth which lies below what is now the Pope's summer home. There is no great moral to be drawn, except perhaps that a ruler with absolute powers can change the struc- ture of his government radically, as did Diocletian, and be wrong, or do nothing and still be wrong, as the Pope's critics will be saying if Christmas comes and he has refused to be radical in changing men, measures • and machinery at the Vatican.
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