Lex Dubia Non Obligat

The many Roman Catholic voices, lay and clerical alike, clamoring for change in the church's stand against contraception are deeply eroding the force of Rome's ban on birth control.

Three years ago, Pope John XXIII quietly appointed a small pontifical commission to study birth control. After John's death, Paul VI enlarged it, but the experts found themselves hopelessly divided about how to update the church's position. Pope Paul recently revamped the commission again by naming 16 top prelates as members--and let them know that he would like to have some sort of consensus by June. The very reconsideration of the traditional stand on birth control is one major factor in weakening the ban.

Priests know that millions of married Catholics are now ignoring the rules altogether. As it happens, some competent theologians maintain that they are exactly right. Writing for the Toronto Globe & Mail, Augustinian Theologian Gregory Baum of the University of Toronto argues that since church leaders are themselves divided about contraception, lay Catholics are free to follow their own conscience on the matter, on the principle of Lex dubia non obligat (a doubtful law does not oblige). Father Baum, a peritus (adviser) at the Second Vatican Council, believes that condemnation of contraception is a matter of discipline that involves neither the church's infallibility nor divine revelation, and thus is subject to change. Although Pope Paul urged Catholics to abide by the old rules until a new decision was reached, Baum insists that the papal words were more in the nature of a request than an order.

Baum is not alone. With the implicit consent of Julius Cardinal DOepfner, a committee of moral theologians in the archdiocese of Munich drew up a message of guidance for marriage lecturers on the birth-control problem. Their recommendation was that couples who practice contraception "not lightly and habitually but rather as a regrettable emergency solution" could receive Holy Communion.

DOepfner is a vice president of the enlarged pontifical commission that meets for the first time in Rome this week--and faces up to its dilemma: How can the church now open the way toward birth control without contradicting the dogmatic-sounding condemnation of past Popes? But how can the church reaffirm the old prohibition and not face the formal disobedience of millions who feel that they have no other choice?

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