Cushing, Richard

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The Linacre QuarterlyVolume 30 | Number 2 Article 10May 1963The Time has Come ....Richard CushingFollow this and additional works at: http://epublications.marquette.edu/lnqRecommended CitationCushing, Richard (1963) "The Time has Come ....," The Linacre Quarterly: Vol. 30 : No. 2 , Article 10.Available at: http://epublications.marquette.edu/lnq/vol30/iss2/10• • • The N.C.W.C. News Service has released the following text article written by Richard Cardinal Cushing, Archbishop of E on a book entitled, The Time Has Come, by Dr. John Roe! article appeared in the April 20 issue of the Boston Pilot. Rea THE LINACRE QUARTERLY will recognize the subject fro terial published in previous issues of our own journal. fan ston, The rs of ma-Dr. John Rock of Brookline has published a new book entitled TheTime Has Come with a subtitle sug­gesting that this work is intended to present "a Catholic doctor's propos­als to end the battle over birth con­trol." Since Dr. Rock writes explicit­ly as a Catholic, and since I am his Bishop, I have been asked from sev­eral sources to make some observa­tions on his latest publication. The law of the Church requires that every Catholic who writes on a subject pertaining to faith or moral­ity submit his manuscript to Church authority for a so-called "imprima­tur." This is an official statement by the local bishop that the contents are free from doctrinal and/or moral error. Such a law should not be in­terpreted in any sense as an unjust infringement upon the rights of the Catholic in question, but rather a means which the Church is entitled to employ in order to keep an ac­curate image of her official teaching before the eyes of the non-Catholic world. I regret to observe that Dr. Rock has published his book without such an "imprimatur." Therefore, the opinions on the morality of artificial birth control as presented in the text lack any official approval as authen­tic Catholic teaching. In this book there is much that is good. The author has presented a 94 detailed and graphic accoun' history of the birth control versy in the United Stat, many times he rightly critic excesses to which some ( have gone in this matter. He has quoted accurately equivocally from officially ... Catholic authors in an att present a correct picture of t misunderstood Catholic po, birth control, and has clear!} strated that the Church is posed to birth control as sur the use of artificial means trol births. Jf the Jntro­and .:s the holies d un­iroved 1pt to much on on emon­ot op­but to o con-He presents many coge, argu­ments for the formation of public policy on birth control, and ome of his suggestions could conir bute to the establishment of dome,• c peace in our pluralistic society. \'. th rea­son, he calls to task those who are unwilling to face the irnpli< . tions of the much publicized popul, ion ex­plosion. He makes an eloquent, and much needed, plea for Federal i-,rants to perfect the so-called Rhythn1 System so that it might become a means of controlling births which is not onlY morally acceptable but also scien­tifically accurate. Not ·everything in the book, how­ever, can pass without criticism. It also contains several statements LINACRE QUARTERLY which are theologically incorrect and certainly misleading. When he speaks on the formation of the Catholic conscience he fails to take into consideration the true complexity of this problem and so commits_ in the field of theology the same mistake he urges against the theologians in the field of reproduc­tive physiology. The entire chapter ?n the teaching of the Natural Law m matters which pertain to the �orality of artificial contraception IS oversimplified. In his defense of the "natural" and, to his mind, "lawful," use of the progestational steroids as contracep­tive devices, Dr. Rock does not meet the_ !ncisive arguments against his po�ihon which have been continually voiced by Catholic moral theo­logians. . In the pages of this book Dr. Rock JS emphatic in his claim to be a good and devoted Catholic. It must be l.JNACRE QUARTERLY said, however, that some of the po­sitions which he defends therein are not in agreement with Catholic teaching. Surely Doctor Rock, and other physicians, have much to offer the Church and her teaching authority if medical men and theologians study together the complex prob­lems of human reproduction. Theo­logians must recognize the compe­tence of Dr. Rock in the field of reproductive physiology but he must recognize their competence in the field of Catholic moral teaching. Fair minded people will appreciate that such cooperation in no way cur­tails the_ doctor's scientific freedom. It would rather aid him in his dedi­cated pursuit of the ultimate truth in this matter, the defense and for­mulation of which in theological terms is not the task of an individual but that of the whole teaching Church. 95 

The Time has Come ....

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The Time has Come ....

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