Madam, - Forty years ago I was dismissed by the then bishop of Nottingham because I refused to support Humanae Vitae.
I was well aware of the intense debate that was taking place in the church. It was well known in clerical circles that Cardinal Heenan of Westminster believed there could be no objection to artificial contraception. It was also well known that this view was held by other English bishops. I consulted some of them and some English and Irish theologians. Just over a third of the priests of the Diocese of Nottingham attended a highly secret meeting to discuss the encyclical and expressed objections to the teaching.
But what was more important to me was my own experience of working with married couples in my parish. These were and are the ultimate authority to test the official authority of the church.
It is irrelevant to refer to the so-called "subjective conscience". After all, what "conscience" was the Pope following when he refused to allow the Vatican Council to discuss the matter and not to listen to his papal commission? Was it not a "conscience" informed by fear and by barren and irrelevant theological thinking?
Fear, as Sean Fagan correctly says, that any change in the traditional teaching would lead to schism in the church. Barren, because it was devoid of understanding and compassion for the people of the church. Irrelevant because so many couples saw it for what it was: untruthful. It was untruthful because it bore no relationship to the truth of their married relationships.
What happened? The bishops and so many theologians and priests betrayed the people by their silence, and, call it what you will, the "schism" happened - people left the church in droves. They voted with their informed consciences.
Their consciences were not informed by the cold, unfeeling, ignorant, uncompassionate unkindness, theological drivel and silence of their pastors. In my experience they were informed by the gifts of the Spirit: kindness, understanding, wisdom, compassion, gentleness, courage, strength, perseverance. St Paul could not have said it better when he wrote: "When you live according to the Spirit, you are not under the law."
Many years ago my mother, a daily communicant, was refused absolution by a Redemptorist mission priest because she owed money to a travelling salesman. I asked her how she reacted. "Poor man", she said. "What did he know? Sure, I knew myself I would pay the man when I had the money."
I said, "What did you do?" "I went to confession to the priest in the other confessional."
Who had the "informed conscience"? My mother, because she was informed by the gifts of the Spirit, namely, truthfulness, openness, gentleness and her capacity as a good woman to do her best in her difficult situation. The married couples I knew were like my mother. I followed her example and not that of the Pope.
This is one of the greatest tragedies of the Catholic Church in modern times - the deserted churches. - Yours, etc,
JOHN KEANE,
Hanover Square,
Dublin 8.