This is for the wonks. I heard this recently and it desperately needs to be written up academically, which is NOT my vocation. But I can call it out, I reckon.
The deal is this: Paul VI originally capitulated to the Pontifical Commission on Birth Control and wrote Humanae Vitae as *PRO* contraception. When the draft came to CDF, Ottaviani “intervened” again, and re-wrote the key parts. They are easy for scholars to pick out of the text because they are Thomistic, and Montini was, of course, NOT A THOMIST, to put it mildly.
This, of course, explains completely why everyone was “shocked” that Paul VI maintained the consistent teaching of the Church – because he was known to be on the side of the infiltrators, and had probably told them privately that he intended to ratify birth control.
And it explains completely why Paul VI Montini not only failed to enforce his own Encyclical, but beyond that why he actually cracked down on efforts by faithful bishops and cardinals who attempted to defend MONTINI’S OWN DOCUMENT against open dissent by clergy in the months and years after.
It wasn’t really “his”. The admirable passages in Humanae Vitae, including the condemnation of contraception that we have for so long cited as the “one good aspect” of the Montini pontificate, weren’t Montini’s, and he didn’t believe any of it himself.
It was, once again, Cardinal Ottaviani. The same Cardinal Ottaviani who shredded the Novus Ordo Mass in the now-famous Ottaviani Intervention.
Pray for us.
This. Explains. Much.
Academics, and you know who you are, PLEASE get this written up and into the academic record before Francis “canonizes” That Man (TM). It won’t stop the farce, but at least the objection and protest will have been lodged.
Soft target opening. You have to see it and respond FAST. But I can’t. I’m just an old cleaning woman.