Contraception? Not Yet

Chances of a major change in the Roman Catholic stand against contra ception are growing remote, at least so long as Paul VI is Pope. Addressing a recent congress of Italian gynecolo gists and obstetricians, the Pope said that he needed more time to study the issue and that until he makes a decision, the present ban remains in force. The Vatican daily L'Osservatore Ro mano then reinforced the point in a front-page editorial: "Assent to the un natural regulation of births would be assent to moral irresponsibility."

Question of Conscience? Paul thus rejected, for the present at least, the recommendations submitted last June by his pontifical commission on birth control. A majority of the commission, headed by seven cardinals, proposed that the church take a new tack in its theology of marriage that would sidestep the natural-law approach of Pius XI and Pius XII. Under their norms, any means of birth control apart from the rhythm method and sexual abstinence was said to violate God's inflexible rules for human behavior by frustrating the principal purpose of the sex act, procreation.

The commission majority recommended that couples be allowed to use any method of contraception, provided that they had a good reason in conscience to practice birth control and were not evading the demands of responsible parenthood. By this standard, which is close to present-day Protestant moral teaching, the reason for practicing birth control, rather than the means, would become the key point: a couple who used rhythm to avoid having a child for selfish reasons might be judged guilty of sin.

The Pope seemingly found the recommendations both too radical and too simple; in his speech he referred again and again to the "complexity" of the problem. One complex aspect was provided by Paul's trusted advisers, Arch-conservative Alfredo Cardinal Ottaviani, 76, head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and Bishop Carlo Colombo, 57, the Pope's personal theologian. They insisted that so radical a change in moral teaching would be a clear repudiation of Paul's predecessors.

Practical Dilemma. The Pope's admission of uncertainty on the issue, combined with his insistence that the old prohibitions stay in effect, leaves Catholic married couples in something of a dilemma. Acting on a respected principle of moral theology that a doubtful law does not oblige obedience, millions of married Catholics have in the past three years made the decision in good conscience to practice contraception.

Is the church's old teaching against birth control a doubtful law? Although many theologians cannot see how the matter could be interpreted otherwise, Rome insists that the answer is no. Monsignor Fausto Vallainc, the Vatican's official press officer, said that the present teaching is still to be considered "certain," and that if the church changes, it will be "from one state of certainty to another state of certainty."

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