FATHER G, BIRTH CONTROL, AND RELIGION CLASS (A TRUE
STORY)
Reader’s Note: For
reasons that should be evident to anyone who knows “the Father G story”, I
cannot identify him. I just ask you, if
you are one of his past religion students, and if you know “the Father G
story”, why, why in the world, would you trust Father G, knowing what you now
know about him? Or did you just like
what he had to say, as long as he was telling you what you wanted to hear? Where was your moral indignation then? Ask yourself --- and see if you truly believe
your own answer. YOUR SOUL DEPENDS ON
IT.
I have
promised myself for years now (how’s that for procrastination?) that if I don’t
do one other thing in the time Almighty God gives me to try and serve Him in this
apostolate, I am going to tell those who read these pages about “Father G” and
what he did to endanger the salvation of 32 young souls. So here goes.
The time:
late 1970s, my senior year of high school.
The place: a diocesan high school in a small town on the periphery of
the American Midwest. This scenario may
have played out, mutatis mutandis, in Catholic schools throughout
To those
reading this little story, if you were one of the 31 other people in the class
besides me, yes, I am who you think I am.
Kook, Jesus freak, very conscientious (if a little on the clumsy side)
altar server, a bit of a rebel, no other place for me than the seminary, you
either said to my face or behind my back.
Well, I never made it to the seminary, because in all honesty, I never
wanted to go. God had other plans and so
did I. Everything worked out just
fine. But I digress. If you want to quit reading right now,
because a “kook” like me couldn’t possibly have anything to say worth listening
to (much less taking to heart and reforming one’s life accordingly!), that’s
your choice. But I do hope you’ll at
least let me have my say, and ask yourself “how does this apply to me?”. That’s all I ask.
Father G
taught our senior year religion class.
First things first: Father G did not accept all of the moral teachings of
the Catholic Church. I do, and so should
you. What’s more, Father G taught us
that the “conscience” is supreme. The
Church’s teachings, oh, they’re “there”, it’s a good thing if you read them and
think them over, but when push comes to shove, your “conscience” trumps
everything. Everything. (I asked Father G one time, “even on
abortion?”. “Yes, even on abortion.”) But again, I’m getting a bit away from what
you need to hear from me today.
The
senior religion class, or at least a large portion of it, was devoted to sexual
morality. Our textbook was Brother Hugo
Hurst’s “A Search for Meaning in Love, Sex, and Marriage”. Please, friends: forget everything you ever
read in this book. This book was
trash. This book was a manual for going
straight to Hell. If you still have it
(which I doubt), go get it and throw it away.
Visit the TAN Books site (www.tanbooks.com),
find a good book on marriage and sexuality (there are several), and read it
cover to cover. Another good book is
“Dear Newlyweds”, a compliation of the teachings of Pope Pius XII on married
life (http://www.angeluspress.org/family_life.htm).
Then came
the big kahuna. Birth control. To give him his due, Father G did have each
of us to read Pope Paul VI’s encyclical “Humanae vitae” (http://www.ewtn.com/library/ENCYC/P6HUMANA.HTM)
in its entirety, and had us to submit individual written reports on it to prove
that we’d read it. So far so good. I should point out right now that if you did
read it, you have ABSOLUTELY NO EXCUSE for saying that you never heard the
teaching of the Church on this matter.
As I
said, it was senior year. I was a male
virgin (I feel the need to qualify this because for some reason, the word
“virgin” all by itself, well, it just sounds female!) and, though I can’t speak
with absolute certainty for each and every one of my classmates, I can pretty
well tell you, out of that class of 32, who were virgins (of both genders) and
who were not. I mean this not as a
condemnation, just stating the fact. I
was a male virgin and, in a few years (not too many years!), I wanted to meet
and marry a Catholic woman who would also be a virgin, and start a happy
Catholic family. What to do about birth
control? How
could I
accept the Church’s teaching and ever find a wife who accepted it too?
I think
down the road. I’m not much of a “que
sera sera” person (my wife --- yes, I’m married, happily, thank you --- IS a
“que sera sera” person, and what can I say, it’s a philosophical difference, a
yin-yang, Mars-Venus type thing). I
saw, shall we say, clouds on the horizon.
For my part, I was getting kind of frightened. I knew the Church’s teaching (and so did
you), and I was resolved to be faithful to the Church, because when “modern
times” (all times are modern to the people living in them; think about it) say
one thing and the Church says another, I’ll go with the Church every time. If you take your guidance from the world
rather than the Church (when there’s a conflict between them; sometimes there
is, sometimes there isn’t), then you really need to ask yourself how you view
God, and truth, and right and wrong, and a whole lot of other things besides
birth control. You might want to go see
Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ” if you haven’t already. If it makes you cry, or makes you nervous, or
even (as it did for me) makes you angry, then, friend, you have a standard of
truth that is not of the world, but of God.
What, then, of the Church and birth control? You have some issues that need addressing,
and if this is the first time
you’re
making that connection, consider that this is a very important moment in your
life.
Okay,
back to the late 1970s. Spin back just a
little. Spin back to where Father G had
us reading “Humanae vitae”. Two things
then happened in that classroom that I will remember until my dying day. I honestly don’t recall which came first; I
think they were both in the same hour’s class.
Father G asked “how many of you believe in the Church’s teaching on
birth control”. Out of 32 hands, one
went up. It wasn’t mine. To the young woman who raised her hand (if
you’re reading this, T., you
know who
you are), all I can say is, you had guts and I’ll always admire you for that
(as well as for being an all-around good person).
As I
said, it wasn’t mine. No, I was sitting
there, afraid to say yes, afraid to say no.
I knew if I, too, had raised my hand, I’d forever mark myself as even
more of a kook, and moreover, someone who wouldn’t be a desirable marriage
prospect to anyone who didn’t accept this teaching as well. And beyond this little classroom? College?
Secular life in general? A
secular life where Catholics were a fairly small minority? Would it help if I moved to a heavily
Catholic area? OR AM I GOING TO HAVE TO REMAIN SINGLE AND
CELIBATE FOR MANY, MANY YEARS, POSSIBLY THE REST OF MY LIFE??? I had plans beyond our little school and our
little town. That wasn’t the real
issue. So, then, why didn’t I raise my
hand? Simple. Human respect. Not having to take an unpopular stand. Think of Peter and the cock crowing three
times. He denied Christ and, in not
raising my hand, so did I. And so did
you.
But it
wasn’t over. Father G had a remedy. Now these words, I most certainly WILL carry
to my grave. Here’s what he said: “Now
let me tell you how you can get around this”.
I’ll repeat. Father G, a priest
of God, a priest who is supposed to be helping souls get to Heaven, said about
Humanae vitae… “Now let me tell you how you can get around
this”.
Father G
then launched into a convoluted (and bogus!) explanation of how “conscience” is
the final arbiter of any moral decision, and how there was all sorts of dissent
in the Church over this matter, and how the existence of a “Magisterium”
implied the existence of alternate “magisteria” (hmmm… by that logic, the
existence of an “Eiffel Tower” implies the existence of other “Eiffel Towers”,
the existence of a “Hoover Dam” implies the existence of other “Hoover Dams”,
and so on… friends, that’s bogus, you know it, I know it, and Father G knew it
then and knows it now!!!), and how these other “magisteria”… and so on and so
on. Bottom line, if your “conscience”
doesn’t tell you that birth control is a sin, then presto, it’s not, and you
can quit worrying about it, go in peace.
This is
absolute, unadulterated bulls***.
Now
listen to me, because I am going to tell you something very, very important. POPE PAUL WAS RIGHT AND FATHER G WAS
WRONG. Birth control is a sin, a sin of
the flesh, and all deliberate sins of the flesh are mortal sins that, even if
committed once, will send you straight to Hell if you do not repent of them
before you die. (It would be very hard
to
commit an
accidental sin of birth control. Think
about it.) Let me repeat. POPE PAUL WAS RIGHT, FATHER G WAS WRONG, AND FATHER G WAS
WRONG TO TELL ALL OF
mortal
sin here. The murder of souls. This was spiritual terrorism, my
friends! Will your soul survive it?
It took
me the better part of a year, after I’d gone on to college, to quit being a coward
and accept the Church’s teaching on birth control, even if it would mean
staying single for life, which thankfully it didn’t, though I did have to wait
until I was 32 years old to marry! Yes,
my fears were realized, at least in part, as I had to wait 15 years. Not much fun at times. But I did manage to accomplish a lot in life,
did a lot of study and traveling, and laid the groundwork for a modest career,
much of which probably wouldn’t have happened if I’d married younger (but who
can say for sure?).
I later
confronted Father G about these issues, after I’d grown a spine (that was a
more gradual process than I care to admit).
He didn’t budge one inch.
Conscience trumps everything, he maintained. And this isn’t a personalities thing. I always liked Father G very much as a
person. Heck, I loved the guy all to
pieces, as the saying goes. Still
do. (Though we haven’t had contact in
many years.) You’ll never meet a nicer
guy than Father G. But, alas, being a
nice guy, being a good person (whatever that means…), isn’t the bottom
line. Being a nice guy won’t get you
into Heaven. I’m sure Hell is full of
nice guys.
If you do
not accept the Church’s teaching on birth control, you should. Your salvation
depends on it. Do a reality check and
make whatever changes in your mind and in your life that you have to make. This is not optional.
I pray
for all of you, my misled classmates, and please join me in praying for Father
G. I think he could use those prayers
right now.