Roman Catholics: Conscience and the Encyclical

The battle between the Roman Catholic hierarchy and dissident priests over Pope Paul’s anti-contraception encyclical continues. Last week the major scene of conflict was Washington, D.C., where Patrick Cardinal O’Boyle suspended one of his priests and threatened 51 others with disciplinary action unless they abandon their opposition to the Pope’s teaching.

The victim of the Cardinal’s punishment was the Rev. T. Joseph O’Donoghue, 37, assistant pastor of St. Fran cis de Sales Church in northeast Washington. He is also a co-founder of the Association of Washington Priests, to which all the dissenters belong. Immediately after the encyclical was issued, Cardinal O’Boyle called upon his priests “to follow without equivocation, ambiguity or simulation the teaching of the church on this matter.” In answer, the 52 priests announced their endorsement of a statement originated by theologians from Catholic University of America holding that spouses may properly decide on the basis of their own consciences whether or not to practice contraception.

Confusing the Faithful. Father O’Donoghue was singled out for suspension because of his handling of a subsequent pastoral letter from the Cardinal urging the faithful to accept the Pope’s teaching in the encyclical. After reading the letter from the pulpit at Sunday Mass, O’Donoghue went on to quote from the Catholic University statement and from several European prelates who have emphasized the role of conscience in the birth control question. The Cardinal showed up at the St. Francis de Sales rectory, accused O’Donoghue of “insubordination” and “disturbing and confusing the faithful.” O’Boyle then suspended him from preaching, teaching and hearing confessions, ordered him to leave the rectory within five days. When O’Donoghue did so last week, more than 250 parishioners showed up at the rectory to protest his departure.

A jovial, kindhearted prelate who still speaks with a strong Irish brogue, O’Boyle had first tried persuasion with the recalcitrant priests. In a ten-page letter to each of them last month, he exuded a gentle, parental tone. “I hope you’ll read [this] through,” O’Boyle wrote. “Try to understand why I see things the way I do, and try to reconsider your own position.” When the priests replied, in a joint statement, that they were sticking to their position, the Cardinal warned a dozen of them that they might be suspended. He later summoned all 52 to his office and admonished them to accept the Pope’s teaching authority. He demanded individual written responses from all the priests by the end of this week.

Responsibility Violated? The Cardinal also acted to stamp out dissent at Catholic University, of which he is the chancellor. At his behest, trustees of the university met last week, voted to investigate whether the 18 C.U. theologians who signed the anti-encyclical statement “have violated their responsibilities to the university.” The dissenting faculty members may continue teaching, the trustees decreed, as long as they “agree to abstain for the period of the inquiry from any activities which are inconsistent with the pronouncements of the ordinary teaching authority established in the church—above all, that of the Holy Father.” Teachers “unprepared to accept these conditions” will, in effect, be placed on suspension during the inquiry.

What the debate comes down to is two views of papal authority. To Cardinal O’Boyle, the case is clear-cut. Although the encyclical is not an infallible pronouncement, he sees it as an authoritative teaching of the church that must be obeyed. To the dissenters, the fact that the document is not infallible means that it can be rightfully dissented from on grounds of conscience.

“The issue,” Father O’Donoghue told his parish supporters, “is the competence of your conscience and mine to arrive at truly Christian decisions after hearing all sides.”