Tar on my Heels. . . by Dole Francis
Dr. Joe Fletcher came to Chapel Hill and urged that college
officials get with it and start offering birth control services for
unmarried students. It figures.
The birth control promoters never did want what they
said they wanted—hands off the issue on the part of the govern
ment. What they always wanted and what they want now is
government promotion of their position.
Back in 1960 I was one of quite a few Catholic laymen
contacted by the top man in Planned Parenthood. He sent me
a telegram asking me if I would join other distinguished Catholic
laymen in a call for repeal of anti-birth control measures in
the state of Connecticut.
I answered that I would be glad to do so if he would at
the same time proclaim that the Planned Parenthood Associa
tion would not seek nor accept public assistance in promotion
of birth control.
It should have cut both ways. Actually Catholics weren’t
responsible for the anti-birth control laws. Protestants provided
the legislation. But Catholics probably were responsible for
keeping them there. It seemed to me always that in a diversified
society like our own it was not right to enforce a Catholic moral
solution involving private, personal actions, on the public as a
whole.
But if it was true we should not seek government power
to support our moral position, it seemed to me evident that
the Planned Parenthood people shouldn’t seek government sup
port for their position.
That was never the way the Planned Parenthood people
thought about it though, and when I replied to the appeal of
the Planned Parenthood people with promise of support of
efforts to repeal anti-brith control laws if they’d pledge not
to seek support from the government for their position, it was
the last I ever heard from them. My name was missing from
the list of distinguished Catholic lay people who did sign the
advertisement.
How has it happened the birth control proponents have
made such tremendous gains in the last few years? Well, it
has come because no one in the Catholic Church seems willing
to stand up and take a stand.
Archbishop O’Boyle took a stand against government spon
sored birth control programs and so did William Ball of NCWC
but aside from the editorial support I gave them in my column
in the OSV no one else in the Catholic press came to their
support. All the new more-liberal-than-thou publications didn’t
quite approve.
We might as well face it. We are in a time in the history
of the Catholic Church in the United States when the only
bold voices that are accepted are those that are criticizing the
Church. You can bang a Cardinal all over the place and no
one will lift a voice to protest but if you speak up to remind
that there can be such a thing as heresy and that the Catholic
moral position isn’t one of situational or contextual ethics, then
you are treated like some sort of a kook who escaped from the
Middle Ages.
Dr. Joe Fletcher is one of the fathers of this school of
situational ethics. What they say is that a thing is good or bad
depending on the situation. Now it used to be said that fornica
tion was wrong, but today we’ve got to be more enlightened
about it. You have to examine the situation, see the act in its
proper context. If one of the two involved is simply using the
other then it may be wrong, but if they are truly in love then the
situation changes the meaning of the act and everything is all
right. Of course, the Bible makes some fairly strong statements
about fornicators, but you must understand the Bible was wri
ten before enlightened theologians like Joe Fletcher appeared
on the scene.
That’s the sort of ethics that requires distribution of birth
control to unmarried college students, if the services aren’t
provided then that’s the sort of ethics that fills the Florence
Crittenden Homes or the abortionists’ waiting rooms.
I hope there will be strong voices raised in North Carolina
against the sort of an infringement upon rights Dr. Fletcher
has proposed. I hope there will be some strong voices raised
against the entire structure of situational ethics. And I hope
they will be lay voices as well as voices of the clergy.
But given our times and the timidity of our Catholics I have
only the hope, not the assurance, that such voices will be heard.
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NORTH CAROLINA CATHOLIC
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Volume XX, No. 80
May 1, 1966
S
nsffl
Chariot
Race to the Moon
Moan: “What an Ill-Bred Neighbor!”
The Week in Liturgy By Rev. Paschal Boland, O.S.B.
Work May Sanctify and Save
May 1
ST. JOSEPH THE WORKER. (Third Sun
day after Easter) Slavery flourished in the pa
gan Roman Empire at the time of Christ. The
life of a slave had the value of a trained animal.
As the Roman Empire became Christian, slaves
gradually came to be recognized as human be
ings, and work acquired a dignity it had lost in
pagan civilizations.
As a youth Christ was taught the trade of
a carpenter by His foster-father, St. Joseph.
Christ had been born into a family of the labor
ing class. He worked at His trade until he was
30 years old when He left Nazareth to preach
throughout His country.
Today we honor the man who taught Christ
His trade, St. Joseph the Worker. Inspired by
this humble, quiet man we should appreciate
the value of work as a means to sanctification
and salvation.
“O God, You are the maker of all things
and You impose on man the law of work . . .
Grant by the example and help of St. Joseph
Protestant Estimates
Unity Prospects
CINCINNATI — (NC) — Catholics and
Protestants may not sit together at the Lord’s
table yet, but “there’s no reason why we can
not sit together at the city planner’s table,”
Dr. Robert McAfee Brown, Presbyterian the
ologian, said here.
“We may disagree about the doctrine of the
Assumption, but we certainly agree on the doc
trine that all men are created equal,” he told a
Xavier University Forum audience.
Dr. Brown, professor of religion at Stanford
University and one of the first Protestant ob
servers at the Second Vatican Council, said the
documents of the council point to many pos
sibilities of common action for Protestants and
Catholics, particularly in the areas of social
justice.
He also emphasized the challenge of the
council to Protestants as well as Catholics to
make a “radical reassessment” of their rela
tions to themselves and to the world.
Protestants will have “failed to hear the
voice of the Holy Spirit through Vatican II”
unless they understand that “for almost every
item considered at the council, there is a Prot
estant counterpart to be examined,” he said.
Calling for a “fresh and radical look” at
the structural life of the churches, he said:
"Many things in our churches are carry-over
from an older day and need to be re-evaluated
and maybe reformed.”
He cited the obligation of churches to ex
periment in pastoral work “even when it
doesn’t pay off in statistics and finances,” and
to find new ways to reach the poor, hungry,
and oppressed.
Dr. Brown said Protestants will have to try
to understand not only the hopes of Catholics
who welcomed the council and the renewal it
brings, but also the fears of Catholics who have
been “unnerved” by it.
that we may do the work You give us” (Prayer
of the Assembly). ,
Monday, May 2
ST. ATHANASIUS. With the conversion of
the Roman Emperor Constantine, public perse
cutions ceased and Christians could live in
peace. Dissensions then arose within the
Church and Arius denied the divinity of Christ
in the fourth century. St. Athanasius, Bishop
of Alexandria, led the opposition in fighting this
heresy. He was banished from Alexandria five
times in 17 years before he was finally allowed
to stay. “If they persecute you in this town,
take refuge in another” (Gospel).
Tuesday, May 3
MASS OF THE THIRD SUNDAY AFTER
EASTER. St. Peter in his first epistle address
ed Christians as “strangers and pilgrims” in
this world (1st Lesson). The world is our tem
porary home; Heaven is our eternal home.
Strangers and pilgrims like refugees, face dif
ficulties and have to do all kinds of work to
live. So also the Christian, no matter in which
country he lives, but these can be ways of sanc
tification, merit, and salvation.
Wednesday, May 4
ST. MONICA. The only information availa
ble about this holy mother and wife is given
in the writings of her son, St. Augustine. She
was a saint while he was still a great sinner.
She died in 387 at 56 when he was 33. “O God,
You looked mercifully on the loving tears of
Blessed Monica by granting her the conversion
of her son” (Prayer of the Assembly).
Thursday, May 5
ST. PIUS V. As a boy he shepherded sheep
in Emilia, Italy, before becoming a Dominican.
After teaching for 16 years as a priest, the
novices were placed under his care. Then he
received a flock of his own when consecrated
a bishop. Finally, in 1566 he was elected pope
with the whole world as his sheepfold. Like St.
Peter he fulfilled Christ’s commission, “Feed
My lambs. Feed My sheep” (Entrance Song).
Friday, May 6
MASS OF THE THIRD SUNDAY AFTER
EASTER. Until recent times many Christians
in the United States gave little witness to their
Christian beliefs. Today, however, it seems to
be more difficult for the average Christian to
be unconcerned about racial inequalities, rights
of minorities, conditions in impoverished areas,
and so forth. “O God, grant to all who profess
themselves Christians that they may reject all
that is opposed to that name, and do all that
is in harmony with it” (Prayer of the Assem
bly).
Saturday, May 7
ST. STANISLAUS. The spirit of the 11th
century martyred archbishop of Cracow is par
alleled by the present cardinal-archbishop of
Warsaw. Both have had to resist the pressure
of the government to make them puppets and
to destroy the practices of Christianity. “The
righteous will stand with great constancy
against those who have oppressed them” (1st
Lesson).