To the Editors of the Crimson:
I wish to defend the position of Catholics on the birth control amendment. Your editorial of yesterday concludes that "Fairness to the less financially privileged and freedom of conscience are the core of this people's referendum." We are being neither unfair to the poor, nor imposing on freedom of conscience.
The basis of these accusations is that we have "unfortunately twisted this purely social-medical issue into a religious one." This statement shows a lack of understanding of the Church. To us God's law is not a set of arbitrarily imposed commandments. It is both moral law and natural law at the same time. Violation of moral law brings damnation; violation of natural law sets loose natural forces which cause retribution in this world. We are therefore as Catholics, and as thinkers, convinced that compliance with the natural law is equivalent to the best general welfare.
Consequently an amendment legalizing the distribution of birth control information is to Catholics what authorization of centers of Nazi propaganda in our midst would be to both of us. As for both of us in the latter case so for Catholics in the former, the conviction as to what constitutes the common good causes us to vote as we do. If the decision of the majority is against us we accept as citizens, but continue as Catholics.
To the argument that we are discriminating against the poor because the rich get doctors' advice anyway, we answer that such illegal medical practice is a matter for the civil authorities. The rallying cry of Equality means little to us when it signifies Equality in Folly.
It has not been my purpose to refute or overbalance the statistical arguments in your editorial or to explain why we believe birth control contrary to natural law. It would be too lengthy a discussion. Arthur J. Egan '44.
Read more in News
Refugee Safe at Radcliffe After Ordeal with JapaneseRecommended Articles
-
The Gadfly -
LETTERIn 2010, one would have thought that the old prejudices against Catholics would have disappeared at Harvard; it is unfortunate and sad to know that they still persist at The Crimson.
-
Subsidiarity: A Principle for the 25 PercentLast Thursday’s vice-presidential debate, tense and punctuated by unsportsmanlike interjections and guffaws, was more than a critical contest in this (now) close election. For the 25 percent of Americans who identify as Catholic, it was a historic showdown between two men with radically different conceptions of how to live out their Catholic faith in the public sphere.
-
In GOP We TrustThat Catholics are now primarily divided between the two main political parties demonstrates an end to the Democrats’ monopoly on one of America’s largest religious denominations.
-
A Fleeting Moment in HistoryBy continuing on this same trajectory, then, Pope Benedict XVI’s succession and the upcoming election offer little in terms of historical merit, especially considering the general tendency of modern-day Catholics to disregard papal doctrine.
-
Hatred at HarvardEven if the members of the Satanic Temple do not employ a consecrated host, there are a number of problems with the desecration of Catholics’ most important sacrament.
