Tag: Catholic Church in Canada

A Suppressed Letter. By Monsignor Vincent Foy

In the week before the fateful meeting of Canadian bishops at Winnipeg in 1968, I accidentally met Father Edward Sheridan, S.J.. I knew that he was to be a “peritus” or advisory expert at the Winnipeg gathering.  I knew also that he was of the opinion that we could rightly dissent from “Humanae Vitae”.  He told me that he had just received in German an article by Fr. Karl Rahner, S.J. upholding the right to dissent from the encyclical and that he hoped to take a translation of it to Winnipeg.  This I found disturbing.  The day before I had seen the article in English in the U.S. Catholic paper, the National Catholic Register.

That evening I phoned Bishop Ryan of Hamilton and told him of my meeting with Father Sheridan.  He asked me to prepare a short note on the Rahner article with my opinion of its orthodoxy.  He suggested that I send a copy for each bishop by priority post to Father George S.J., the secretary to the English speaking bishops.  This I did.

After the Winnipeg meeting Bishop Ryan phoned me to say that he thought I had “let him down.”  I assured him that the letter had been sent.  Bishop Allen, Auxiliary Bishop of Toronto, told me he had not seen the letter and that it had not been circulated… Apparently Father George had shown it to Archbishop Pocock of Toronto who ordered it suppressed.  Archbishop Pocock wrote me from Winnipeg and said that he had seen my letter and that I need have no fear “for the orthodoxy of the Canadian Bishops”.

 

“A Petition to the Canadian Bishops” [for the withdrawal of the Winnipeg Statement], December 2003. By Monsignor Vincent Foy

Preface

I sent  this letter to a number of bishops in Canada in December of 2003.  It was never published.

A Petition to the Canadian Bishops

“Contraception is to be judged objectively so profoundly unlawful, as never to be, for any reason, justified. To think or to say the contrary is equal to maintaining that in human life, situations may arise in which it is lawful not to recognize God as God”. (Pope John Paul II, quoted in L’Osservatore Romano, Oct.10, 1983),

Your Eminences, Your Graces, and Your Excellencies,

As you know, the contraceptive mentality pervades the Catholic Church in Canada. Most Catholic couples of child-bearing age are preventing children through sterilization or contraception. The birthrate is suicidal. The death of the Church is certain where contraception prevails. It has been truly said that “Our greatest moral responsibility is to convert the contraceptive mentality”.

Contraception is the root of which many spiritual evils are the fruit: abortion, infidelity, divorce, pre-marital sex, acceptance of homosexual activity, the clamor for same-sex “marriage” and the corruption of politics and the media. These inevitably follow when, on a large scale, sexual activity is deliberately diverted from its life-giving purpose to sterile lustful indulgence.

It must be acknowledged that in Canada the contraceptive mentality was fostered by the Winnipeg Statement of the Canadian bishops published on Sept. 28,1968. In that Statement Catholics were told that in some circumstances spouses “may be safely assured that, whoever chooses that course which seems right to him does so in good conscience”. This is against charity, justice and the truth. It is in contradiction to the constant teaching of the Church that contraception is an intrinsic evil permitting of no exceptions  (“Humanae Vitae”, n.14). Countless Catholics have referred to the Winnipeg Statement in justification of their contraceptive practice.

To restore in Canada the truth about life and love we ask that the Winnipeg Statement be revoked by you, our spiritual shepherds. We ask that all marriage  preparation courses, all catechetical texts and teaching, preaching, and confessional advice be in accordance with “Humanae Vitae”, given to us with the authority of Christ (H.V.,n.3).

Such action on the part of a national hierarchy would not be unprecedented. In 1990, the bishops of the Philippines issued a pastoral letter in which they apologized for their failure to promote the Church’s teaching on contraception. They said: “We abandoned you to your confused and lonely consciences with a lame excuse:  “follow what your conscience tells you”. How little did we realize that it was our consciences that  needed to be formed first”.

In the United States, the U.S. Conference of Bishops, in their November 2003 meeting, voted in favor of issuing a strong document explaining why contraception is wrong. It will be widely distributed in parish pamphlet racks and taught in high schools and colleges. Bishop Gregory, President of the American Bishops’ Conference said: “In many respects we haven’t spoken clearly enough, effectively enough, frequently enough. If anything, the actions we are taking today are very much needed and, many would say, even late”.

While the undersigned earnestly petition for the withdrawal of the Winnipeg Statement, we assure you, our bishops, of our constant prayers. May God bless you, the Holy Spirit guide you and Mary intercede for you in your apostolic mission.