Rorate Caeli

SSPX weighs in on the condom controversy

DICI has published a statement from the SSPX regarding the controversy over the Pope's remarks on condoms in "Light of the World":


The statement, unsurprisingly, concludes that the Pope's opinion departs from the teaching of his predecessors and "relativizes" the teaching of Humanae Vitae.

I leave it to the readers of the blog to analyze, and argue over, the statement. However, I think that all orthodox Catholics will agree and join their voices with the following passage in it:

Certainly, a book-length interview cannot be considered an act of the Magisterium [i.e. of the Church’s official teaching authority], a fortiori when it departs from what has been taught in a definitive, unchangeable way. Nonetheless the fact remains that the doctors and pharmacists who courageously refuse to prescribe and deliver condoms and contraceptives out of fidelity to their Catholic faith and morality, and in general all the many families devoted to Tradition, have an urgent and overriding need to hear that the perennial teaching of the Church could not change over time. They all await the firm reminder that the natural law, like human nature upon which it is engraved, is universal.