This letter is in regard to Father Richard McBrien’s writings about the popes. He chastises Pope Pius XII for not trying (by his silence) to stop the Holocaust of 6 million Jews.
Besides praying, what was he supposed to do? Whack Benito, Franco and Adolph with his crosier? And didn’t Pope Pius save many, many Jewish children? There was no mention of that, or was that just a myth?
Fr. McBrien said Pope Paul VI ignored his own Papal Birth Control Commission and reaffirmed the Church’s official teaching that birth control by artificial means was always a mortal sin. Minority representatives had warned the pope that if he changed the teachings on contraception, the credibility of the papal magisterium would collapse.
Now many doctors go to Pope Paul VI Institute in Omaha, Neb., to learn Natural Family Planning. Pope Paul VI didn’t change Church teaching and the credibility of the papal magisterium didn’t collapse. But there is an NFP institute honoring Pope Paul VI.
I wonder, is Fr. McBrien Catholic?
Marjorie Hora
Riverside
