Religion: Birth Control: Pronouncement Withdrawn

The text had been written and edited, and official translations from the Latin approved. In fact, Pope Paul's long-awaited motu proprio* on birth control was already rolling off the presses in a secret section of the Vatican's printing office. Last week, just before the statement was to be made public, it was suddenly scrapped.

The reason was that many leading European prelates considered Paul's message patently unacceptable. Vienna's Franziskus Cardinal Konig, who had been informed of its contents in advance, flew to Rome two weeks ago to implore the Pope not to release it....

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