Catholics and Contraception: Boston, 1965

The New York Times ^ | 3/15/12 | Seth Meehan

[marshmallow]

Michael Dukakis does not mince words. He admits to being “flabbergasted” by the debate between the Catholic hierarchy and the Obama administration over the mandate that requires employers to provide contraception coverage. “I thought birth control wasn’t an issue anymore,” he told me.

I reached out to Dukakis for historical perspective on the escalating birth control controversy — which, he laments, now involves Greek Orthodox as well as Catholic leaders. Nearly 50 years ago, as a state representative from Brookline, Mass., Dukakis was part of a compromise between opponents and proponents of contraception, a compromise that involved coordination between Planned Parenthood and the church that would be unthinkable now. Dukakis remains convinced that contraception became legal in Massachusetts only with the assistance of the local Catholic leadership.

Cardinals today do not enjoy the same secular power Boston’s Cardinal Richard Cushing did in the 1960s. But following Wednesday’s decision by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops to continue its “vigorous opposition to this unjust and illegal mandate,” the Catholic hierarchy will wield its influence nonetheless. And while the current debate unfolds, the Catholic voice that will matter the most will be that of Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York — the country’s newest cardinal and the president of the U.S.C.C.B.

In the 1960s, it was Cushing who took center stage in a prominent public debate over access to contraception. He faced a different political and legal reality from that of Dolan and his fellow bishops. Yet, according to Dukakis, Cushing’s conduct at the time was a “great act of statesmanship.”

The issue in the spring of 1965 was whether — not how — one could gain access to birth control. But Cushing’s actions still offer a precedent for cooperation and compromise.

[marshmallow]

"Chickens coming home to roost" bump!

Richard Cardinal Cushing, Kennedy confidante and enabler, political wheeler-dealer and Catholic sell-out, kindly take a bow!!

[Vince Ferrer]

When a bill that would allow physicians to prescribe birth control to “any married person” was introduced in the next legislative session — a bill otherwise similar to the one House members had rejected 119–97 the year before — Cushing endorsed it publicly by praising its “safeguards” while reaffirming his position that Catholics did “not seek to impose by law their moral view on other members of society.”

So at the the time the Church did not want to impose its will on the public at large, but notice this does not change its internal ban on contraception. Now today, it is the government which imposes its will on a pluralistic society.

Michael Dukakis does not mince words. He admits to being “flabbergasted” by the debate between the Catholic hierarchy and the Obama administration over the mandate that requires employers to provide contraception coverage. “I thought birth control wasn’t an issue anymore,” he told me.

Oh shut up, dumbass.

[Mach9]

You betcha. The emminently cushy cardinal, personally against contraception and abortion, wouldn’t dream of holding other mortals to his standards.

[SumProVita]

The numbers of those in the pews who pray for the holiness of their priests and bishops... is growing. Also, Catholics, Evangelicals and Jews in Tennessee are responding to the assault on our First Amendment. Bishop Choby of Nashville will take part in a rally for freedom of religion and the free exercise thereof on Thursday at Legislative Plaza in downtown Nashville. It is difficult for him to do such things because of severe arthritis of the knees....but he is going anyway.

Continue praying for our nation.

[PGR88]

2 thoughts:

- Even the article points out (if briefly) - the debate now and then is quite different. In 1965, it was “can contraceptives be sold.” Now it is very different: “can the Gov’t force religious institutions to pay for contraception of their employees.” Very different issues.

- Even if there was confusion about what appropriate Catholic response to this issue would be (and very likely because of it), Pope John XXIII created a council to examine the issue, and 5 years later, Pope Paul VI made the Magisterium’s position crystal clear. The NY Times should therefore not pretend to be surprised by the USCCB’s position now.

[Gumdrop]

Idiots. All of them.

There is a vast difference beteween allowing a product to be available for persons to purchase, and forcing a group to pay for the item with their tax money.

Dukakis is showing his ignorance. It is a good thing he was not elected POTUS.

By-the-way, Cardinal Cushing was a good friend of the Kennedy family, and he reveled in this relationship as it was a source of influence. Church leaders make a grave mistake when they become too friendly with powerful politicians, as there should be a natural antagonism (suspicion?) between both groups as their powers stem from civic politics and the spiritual realm.

[JCBreckenridge]

Well said. The NYT is ‘surprised’ because they are trying to change the perception in folks that don’t know better that things are trying to be changed back, not that they were always this way.

Dukakis - still stuck on stupid.

[Salvation]

I can just see Willard’s wheels in motion here too, although he needs no Catholic Cardinal.

Say a rosary for our nation.

[Salvation]

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[Little Bill]

I remember when Tricky Dick was boss. My Catholic friends were complaining that all of the Lunatics came out of the wood work when V2 was implemented, he supported it.

[terycarl]

I’m amazed that everyone seems to forget that all major protestant denominations were against contraception until the early 1900’s....nice to be able to change the rules as you go along.

[Mears]

Cardinal Cushing was a Kennedy sycophant,and an ass to boot.

I knew him.

[Mrs. Don-o]

But do people learn from a little historic perspective? Go back even further. In 1912, Margaret Sanger believed Birth Control would:

1)...prevent out-of-wedlock childbearing. We just this year hit the tipping point where over 50% of childbirths in U.S. women under age thirty were out of wedlock.

2)...improve sexual health. But hormonal contraception and STI's/STD's rocket upwards in parallel lines.

3) ...eliminate abortion. In fact they go up in tandem.

4)...reduce complications in childbirth. But the same combined factors (increases in contraception + STD's + abortions) increase birth complications

5) ... reduce divorce by increasing sexual satisfaction for husbands and wives. But the marriage rate --- now at the lowest point in U.S. history --- is collapsing even further as contraceptive availability increases.

6) Sanger truly believed Birth Control will lead to an age of social utopia. But...

That was 1912. Now it's 2012. Looks like Birth Control was just another beautiful liberal theory murdered by a gang of brutal facts.

Who said all therse things would happen? Pope Paul VI, 1968. Pope Pius XI, 1930. Even Aldous Huxley (in extreme form), 1932.

So you don't have to be Catholic to see the truth. But it helps.

[Mrs. Don-o]

I want to amend what I said above. Apparently Huxley was in favor of birth control, and also in favor of the depersonalized, drugged, junk-sex automaton-heaven he foresaw in Brave New World. He apparently only described it as "satirical" and "dystopian" decades after it was written. He actually believed it as a positive future at the time.

:o/