For some Catholics it must have felt like a flashback to 1968. Last week, 149 academics issued a statement publicly challenging Church teaching on contraception.
The statement, issued by an organisation called the Wijngaards Institute for Catholic Research, heralds a 20,000-word report rejecting the arguments of Blessed Pope Paul VI’s encyclical Humanae Vitae, which upheld the Church’s prohibition. It also asks the Vatican to form a new commission to reopen the discussion on contraception.
Almost immediately, about 600 other scholars fired back, issuing a counter-statement rejecting the Wijngaards Institute’s arguments and upholding Humanae Vitae.
