She had a story to tell, but few
listened
By TOM ROBERTS
NCR Staff
When Patty Crowley and her husband, Pat, arrived in Rome in 1965
as members of the Papal Birth Control Commission, they were told they would
have to live in separate quarters, he at the seminary where commission meetings
were being held, she at a convent a mile down the road.
Pat made a much-repeated quip, I guess thats one way
to solve the problem.
All joking aside, the incident encapsulated an insight the
Crowleys took away from their close encounter with the workings of Rome: The
church might write inspiring words about marriage, but it could at times appear
hopelessly disconnected from the realities of married life.
Thirty years after Humanae Vitae was issued, Patty Crowley
maintains that the encyclical was a mistake. She spoke to NCR by phone
just days before 200 family members and friends gathered in Chicago to
celebrate her 85th birthday on July 24.
It would be only partially correct to say that Humanae
Vitae resulted from the work of the commission to which the Crowleys were
summoned. The majority report of that commission recommended that the church
abandon the absolute prohibition against artificial birth control.
What finally prevailed was the minority view that was as much the
work of powerful Vatican interests who had the ear of the pope and knowledge of
the Vatican machinery as it was a matter of theological persuasion.
Indeed, the Crowleys and others left the Rome deliberations
assuming, on the basis of the majority report and votes taken during the
session, that a change in the teaching was imminent. They would learn two years
later, in a 4 a.m. phone call from a reporter in New York, that nothing had
changed.
But while they were involved, the Crowleys certainly lent a
distinctively new element to Vatican proceedings, according to Robert
McClorys Turning Point, a detailed look at the working of the
commission (Crossroad, 1995). The sessions were driven largely by theological
questions, but the couple from Chicago, founders of the Catholic Family
Movement, were able to inject the voices of real Catholic couples struggling
with the churchs teaching that permitted birth control only by methods
demanding abstinence during a womans fertile periods.
So the hierarchy and theologians assembled heard from folks like
the couple who wrote: As busy parents raising children, we know few
moments of complete harmony and personal communion. Sex, which provides
such a moment, should not be subjected to scientific and metaphysical
scrutiny. We do not believe that every time a man and wife feel a need to
express their love to each other that it is a call from God to
raise more kids.
And Patty, herself, was able to inject what McClory called
an intrusion of common sense into a somewhat arcane discussion.
A bishop on the commission, considering the prospect of dropping
the ban on artificial birth control, asked, Wouldnt this mean the
gates of hell had in some way prevailed against the church?
According to Turning Point, Spanish Jesuit Marcelino Zalba,
another member, could not agree more ... What then, he asked,
with the millions we have sent to hell if these norms were not
valid?
Patty Crowley could not restrain herself, McClory
writes. Father Zalba, she interjected, do you really
believe God has carried out all your orders?
There were some chuckles around the room, and then Crowley
continued: On behalf of women in general, I plead that the male church
carefully consider the plight of at least one half of its members, who are the
real bearers of these burdens. Couples are generous. Christian couples want to
have children. It is the very fruit of their love for each other. What is
needed is to rid ourselves of this negative outlook on psychological and
spiritual values. Couples can be trusted.
It was one of the last times she was heard publicly on the matter,
at least for the next 25 years. For all those years following her work on the
commission, she was never asked about her experience, let alone asked to speak
about it, by any of her many clergy friends, she said. Until McClorys
book came out, no one in any official capacity in the U.S. Catholic church had
ever made even the slightest inquiry about the experience of an eye witness to
one of the most significant slices of modern church history.
Today, this birth mother of four, who adopted a fifth child and
was foster mother to numerous others and who remains active in prison ministry
and ministry to poor women, hasnt much time for Vatican intrigue. I
just say the only important thing is Jesus message, and the rest of the
rules are for the birds. So give food to the hungry, drink to the thirsty, help
the sick, visit those in prisons. Thats what I do.
National Catholic Reporter, July 31,
1998
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