When the Massachusetts legislature voted in 1966 to end the last all-out ban on contraceptives in the United States, it was with the approval and assistance of the Boston Archdiocese
On February 15, 1963, Boston’s Cardinal Richard James Cushing (1895–1970) was the guest on “Conversation Piece,” an afternoon talk show on local radio station WEEI….Cushing addressed public concerns about the role of the Catholic Church in politics.
As President Kennedy himself had done, Cushing offered the assurance that Catholics did not believe religious viewpoints should control political decision making in the democratic arena.
The leader of 1.8 million Catholics in the Boston Archdiocese, Cushing told the radio audience that he had no desire to impose the Church’s moral judgments, by using his considerable influence over Massachusetts legislation, on people of other faiths.
— This memory refresher comes from Seth Meehan a Ph.D. student in history at Boston College. His article titled “From Patriotism to Pluralism: How Catholics Initiated the Repeal of Birth Control Restrictions in Massachusetts,” apeared in the Catholic Historical Review in July 2010. His article earned Meehan the Peter Guilday Prize from the American Catholic Historical Association
John, this is good. Cushing was a good person with real world relationships. I heard this story a number of times before and admired him because of it, but reading your version in the light of all that is going on these days makes me wonder if the current leadership (I hate to use such a dignified word in current circumstances) have any real heartfelt relationships that would help them interpret their principles in the setting of flesh and blood folks, the folks many of us deal with every day.
Kudos to Cardinal Cushing. I hope some of today’s bishops follow his example!