Cardinal Kasper Says Church Is Not Against Birth Control ‘At All”

Phil Lawler of Catholic Culture: In a May 5 interview broadcast by WYNC radio in New York—in which he was repeatedly identified by host Brian Lehrer as “the Pope’s theologian”—Cardinal Walter Kasper made the striking statement: “The Church is not against birth control at all.”

As is his wont, the judicious Cardinal Kasper stopped short of a clear dissent from Church teaching. He left himself a bit of wiggle room by saying that the question is “about the methods of birth control.” If you were inclined to give the cardinal the benefit of the doubt, you might think that he had Natural Family Planning in mind. But if you were more inclined to focus on reality, you would note that host Lehrer had referred explicitly to the use of condoms. Surely the vast majority of WYNC listeners interpreted the cardinal’s statement as a claim that the Church does not condemn contraception. And it strains credulity to suggest that Cardinal Kasper did not intend exactly that outcome. Read more here.