Touché!

Chris sees my “In the late 60s, dissident theologian Charles Curran lead a revolt against Humane Vitae, and was largely successful in the US: how many birth control homilies have you heard?”

…and raises me, “I’ve heard Fr. Andrew (as in your co-blogger) blasting birth control from the pulpit a few times now at Prince of Peace. Fr. Chris, who was our previous associate pastor, also brought such words to our ears.“

Touché.

Strangely enough, this means that I’ve had my earlier point disproven twice today. At lunchtime Mass, the priest at Catholic Information Center (I believe his name is Fr. Gregory Coyne, but could be mistaken) gave a great, quick homily on the evils of birth control. His point was that even if it was just a contraceptive, it would be immoral, but that the pill actually is an abortificant. In other words, pro-lifers should never use chemical birth control. Obviously, there’s more to say on the subject — as in, why it’s wrong even if it’s just a contraceptive — but I thought it was a great short homily.

Actually, these two examples really better prove my original point – that there’s a real renewal going on in American Catholicism – far better than my original attempt. The fact that there are great priests like Fr. Coyne or Fr. Andrew (as in my alleged co-blogger) delivering this message now suggests that increasingly, priests are unafraid of seeming out of step with the zeitgeist.

And by the way, Catholics in the KC area, you might drop in to hear Fr. Andrew at Prince of Peace out in Olathe. And remember, priests need to eat, and I’ve heard a rumor he’ll readily take up a free lunch offer.

On a semi-related note, for a good argument on birth control and Tradition, I was impressed with this post:

“Contraception has always been considered immoral, even by Protestants until the
20th century.”
“I don’t care. I think people were wrong. I don’t see it in the Bible.”
This means that it’s possible that all Christians from the beginning were wrong on an issue of central importance (such as theology of marriage) until Christians were enlightened to the truth in the 20th century and finally discovered the true meaning of Scripture.

It’s a great point. If everyone in Christian history could have been wrong on a given issue until a certain point – whether it’s everyone having the wrong canon until Calvin, or everyone having the wrong view of birth control until Sanger – this leaves open the possibility that Christianity remains incomplete, and as the same blogger notes later, “turns Christianity into a discovered religion rather than a revealed religion.”