Sir, - In his item on Fr James Good entitled "The lone voice in the desert declined to recant" (The Irish Times, July 25th), Patsy McGarry refers to the great pastoral work done by Fr Good both in Ireland and in the Turkana desert in Kenya. He also mentions the strong stance taken by him against the encyclical Humanae Vitae published by Paul VI 30 years ago this week, saying that he described it at the time as "a major tragedy for the church" and that he declined to recant this. This encyclical, among other things, re-stated in unambiguous terms the Church's traditional teaching on contraception as intrinsically immoral.
One cannot but admire the heroic pastoral work done by Fr Good. However, his dismissal of Humanae Vitae is another matter. This document has been fully approved by the present Pope - he refers it as "a truly prophetic declaration" - and developments over the past 30 years have shown this. Pope Paul VI was a true "voice in the desert". Like all prophets, he was not courting popularity by his teaching.
Having admired the courage of Paul VI, the present Pope continues: "The media have conditioned society to listen to what it wants to hear (cf. 2 Tm 4:3). An even worse situation occurs when theologians and especially moralists ally themselves with the media, which obviously pay a great deal of attention to what they have to say when it opposes `sound doctrine'. Indeed, when the true doctrine is unpopular, it is not right to seek easy popularity." (Crossing the Threshold of Hope, p. 172-173). - Yours, etc., Rev Michael Manning,
The Presbytery,
Millstreet, Co Cork.