Pope v. Poisoned Pastures

His Holiness the Pope last week swelled the ranks of the Knights of Malta by the appointment of 14 Americans, some of them famed. The knighted: President Clarence Hungerford Mackay of Commercial Cable Co.; President John Jeremiah Pelley of New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad Co.; President Lawrence Aloysius Downs of Illinois Central System; Lawyer Jack Johnson Spalding of Atlanta, Ga.; Vice Chairman of the Executive Committee Angus Daniel McDonald of Southern Pacific Co.; Banker Joseph Henry O'Neil of Boston; Banker Elisha Walker of Manhattan; Philanthropist Dennis Francis Kelly of Chicago; President Bernard Joseph Rothwell of Bay State Milling Co., Boston; Paul E. Fitzpatrick of Brown, Durrel Co., Boston; John Duff of New Bedford, Mass.; John F. Tensley of Worcester, Mass.; Vice President Michael Lester Madden of Hollingsworth & Whitney Co., Boston; Theodore F. McManus of Detroit.-- Soon after making these appointments, His Holiness issued a mighty interpretation of the will of God, a 16,000-word encyclical addressed to his flocks, to the Knightly and the benighted. Its opening words: Casti Connubii ("Of Chaste Wedlock"). Justly did the Catholic world regard it of utmost importance. It was the first encyclical on marriage since Leo XIII delivered himself 50 years ago. It expounded the Church's entire attitude on the connubial life. Its preparation involved a score of Vatican Scholars. Its Latin text, edited and approved by the Pope, was, for the first time in papal history, immediately issued in English, Italian, French, German, Spanish.**

His Holiness defined marriage as a union primarily for the propagation and education of children, a pact of mutual faith and honor, an inviolable, indissoluble sacrament between its partners. Fervently he assailed the moral laxities, the intellectual theories, which tend to demolish this ideal. Said he: ". . . As Christ's vicar upon earth and supreme shepherd and teacher we consider it our duty to raise our voice to keep the flock committed to our care from poisoned pastures. . . . For now, alas! not secretly or under cover, but openly, with all sense of shame put aside, now by word, again by writings, by theatrical productions of every kind, by romantic fiction, by amorous and frivolous novels, by cinematographs portraying in vivid scene, addresses broadcast by radio telephony, in short by all the inventions of modern science, the sanctity of marriage is trampled upon and derided; divorce, adultery, all the basest vices either are extolled or at least depicted in such colors as to appear to be free of all reproach and infamy."

Birth Control. Especially did His Holiness inveigh against birth control: "The Catholic Church, to whom God has entrusted the defense of the integrity and purity of morals, standing erect in the midst of the moral ruin which surrounds her, in order that she may preserve the chastity of the nuptial union from being denied by this foul stain, raises her voice in token of Divine ambassadorship and through our mouth proclaims anew:

"Any use whatsoever of matrimony exercised in such a way that the act is deliberately frustrated in its natural power to generate life is an offence against the law of God and of nature, and those who indulge in such are branded with the guilt of a grave sin. . . .

"Small wonder, therefore, if holy writ bears witness that the Divine Majesty regards with greatest detestation this horrible crime, and at times has punished it with death. As St. Augustine notes, intercourse even with one's legitimate wife is unlawful and wicked where the conception of the offspring is prevented. Onan, the son of Juda, did this, and the Lord killed him for it. ... [Genesis 38: 8-10]"

Abortion. Similarly did the encyclical pronounce against divorce, abortion, experimental unions, sterilization, other eugenic practices. Said His Holiness of abortion: ". . . However much we may pity the mother whose health and even life is gravely imperiled in the performance of the duty allotted to her by nature, nevertheless what could ever be a sufficient reason for excusing in any way the direct murder of the innocent? This is precisely what we are dealing with here. Whether inflicted upon the mother or upon the child it is against the precept of God and the law of nature: 'Thou shalt not kill'; the life of each is equally sacred, and no one has the power, not even the public authority, to destroy it."

Those trends which the Pope lamented, he attributed to a growing public conception that man made the marriage institution. ". . . Let it be repeated," said he, ". . . that matrimony was not instituted or restored by man, but by God; not by man were the laws made to strengthen and confirm and elevate it, but by God, the author of nature, and by Christ our Lord by whom nature was redeemed, and hence these laws cannot be subject to any human decrees or to any contrary pact even of the spouses themselves." Toward the end, Pius XI urged: ". . . That in the State such economic and social methods should be set up as will enable every head of a family to earn as much as according to his station in life is necessary for himself, his wife, and for the rearing of his children, for 'the laborer is worthy of his hire.' " !--

Comments on the encyclical were not long in forthcoming. Onetime Judge Benjamin Barr Lindsey, champion of companionate marriage: "The rule proposed by the Pope is respected only by domestic animals." Mrs. Margaret Sanger, birth control apostle: ". . . An insult to the intelligence of women." Rt. Rev. Benjamin Franklin Price Ivins, bishop coadjutor of Milwaukee (Episcopal): "Either birth control is generally practiced in America, or most women are incapable of motherhood." Humanist Charles Francis Potter: ". . . The new generation of Roman Catholics is quietly disregarding the teachings of that Church about birth control. There are fifty-four clinics in the United States giving contraceptive information, and in every one of them the Roman Catholic women come in equal numbers with the Protestants and the Jews. The Pope seems to lay most stress on the statement that contraception is contrary to nature. Then let us respectfully suggest that he be consistent and lay aside his spectacles and stop shaving." Pastor John Haynes Holmes of Manhattan's Community Church: "Here is a tenth-century mind at work on twentieth-century problems. We are never going to get anywhere with marriage or with anything else by going back to St. Augustine."

But one of the most compelling rebuttals was not a direct one. It came from Professor Julian Sorell Huxley. Brother of Novelist Aldous Leonard (Point Counterpoint) Huxley, and grandson of the late great Biologist Thomas Henry Huxley, Julian Huxley is himself a most distinguished biologist and eloquent member of the scientific vanguard. Speaking to the Philadelphia Forum, he said: "In the long run we must envisage the control of population in the same manner we now control contagious disease. Birth control is by no means perfect, but it is one of the major events in the world's history! . . . In one or two centuries ... we shall tell the man who can't provide for himself and his family that he cannot have State aid unless he agrees not to have any more children. If he refuses, State aid shall also be refused him or else he shall be locked up. ... In our society a man with a small family finds that he gets ahead quicker and that his smaller number of children can have greater advantages. All of this may seem very undemocratic, but heredity and biology are very undemocratic."

--Also named for knighthood, but in another order, that of the Holy Sepulchre, were 13 other U. S. citizens last week, constituting the first national council of the Order to be formed in the U. S. Among reputed founders is Godfrey de Bouillon, a leader in the first crusade which wrested (1099) Jerusalem from the "Infidels." The 13 candidates prepared to kneel in St. Patrick's Cathedral, Manhattan, be given spurs and sword, draw sword and be tapped on the shoulder with it, in true medieval fashion. Most socialite of the thirteen knights: Kenneth O'Brien, son-in-law of Knight of Malta Clarence Hungerford Mackay.

**By modern, cowl-less Jesuits (they wear simple black cassocks), always high scholars of the Church since their Society's founding in 1564 by St. Ignatius of Loyola. The staff at "The Mother House of the Society of Jesus" near Vatican City had labored a fortnight over the translations before they were authorized to be made public.

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