Encyclical Attacked

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31774, 3 September 1968, Page 15

Encyclical Attacked

(N.Z.P A.-Reuter—Copyright)

LONDON, September 2.

It is impossible to regard the Pope’s encyclical on birth control as the authentic teaching of the Church, says the influential Roman Catholic monthly, “Herder Correspondence.”

In an outspoken analysis of the authority of the Pope, the journal says: “What in fact we have to deal with would seem to be nothing other than the private theological opinion of the Bishop of Rome.

“Were it not for the authority of the office held by the person who has pronounced it, it could easily be labelled rash, temerarious, offensive to pious ears, scandalous, erroneous and conducive to schism. “The fundamental disaster in the genesis of the encyclical lies in the Pope’s original decision to reserve judgment to himself.

“This suggests that the Papacy is some kind of infallible oracle, some kind of heavenly computer wired up to a hot line to the HolyGhost, which will provide the right answers to our questions without much effort (if any) being required on our part.” From Washington it is reported that Cardinal Patrick O’Boyle has suspended a Roman Catholic priest the Rev. Joseph O’Donoghue, sympathetic towards opponents of the encyclical.

Sailor Released. North Vietnam has released an Indonesian sailor after detaining him for two years and a half. Hjong Hassan was captured by coastguards in March, 1966, when they sank his ship, the S.S, Valente, owned by a Singapore company.—Djakarta, September 2.