Answer on the Way

For many Roman Catholics, the possibility that their church might modify its stand against birth control is the most pressing current question of moral guidance. Last week Pope Paul VI said that an answer is on the way.

Speaking to 26 cardinals of the Roman Curia, the Pope announced that in light of new medical developments, birth control "is being subjected to study, as wide and profound as possible, as grave and honest as it must be on a subject of such importance." Without mentioning the birth-control pill by name, the Pope indicated that there might possibly be a need to reinterpret natural law "in the light of scientific, social and psychological truths, which in these times have undergone new and very ample study and documentation."

Until the study of the pill by Vatican theologians is completed--and Paul gave no indication whether it would be resolved by the time the Vatican Council reconvenes in September--Catholics were still bound to obey Pope Pius XII, who declared that the pill was a form of sterilization, and therefore an illicit means of birth control.

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