Contraception and the Pope [3]

Sir: I resign with a few mild apologies from the game of table tennis that is being played with the Pill for a ball and some deconsecrated altar as a table. A touch of loyalty to my own Church drew me unwisely into it, with page 658 a consequent loss of humour. I had feared that some of my fellow New Zealanders, Catholic and non-Catholic, might find the most recent encyclical old-fashioned. Plainly they do not, since many who are not bound by the Church’s authority still find the issue a live one. Therefore I am content. There is something absurd in arguing about licit or illicit contraception while Biafrans still die of hunger in droves and the bone-crushing machine of the Vietnam War still grinds on. Perhaps C.K. Stead had this incongruity in mind. I accept his gentle reminder.

1968 (548)