Fifty Reasons Why the Winnipeg Statement Should Be Recalled. By Monsignor Vincent Foy

Originally published in Catholic Insight, October, 2003.  Also published in “Birth Control: Is Canada Out of Step with Rome?”, Life Ethics Center, 2005.

Fifty Reasons Why the Winnipeg Statement Should be Recalled

By  Monsignor Vincent Foy


“But you, O Lord, are close; Your commands are truth,
Long have I known that your will is established forever.”  

–Psalm 119

This year is the 35th anniversary of the great charter of life and love called “Humanae Vitae.” It was signed by Pope Paul VI on July 25th, 1968. This year is also the 35th anniversary of a commentary on that encyclical given by the Canadian bishops. It was published on Friday September 27th, 1968 , at the Fort Garry Hotel in Winnipeg and was entitled “Canadian Bishops’ Statement on the Encyclical Humanae Vitae.”

The encyclical Humanae Vitae and the Winnipeg Statement do not say the same thing. The encyclical declares, invoking the authority of Christ, that contraception is to be “absolutely excluded as a licit means of regulating birth”( n. 14 ). The Winnipeg Statement, not on the authority of Christ, but on the authority of the Canadian bishops, says:  (more...)

Fifty Reasons Why the Winnipeg Statement Should Be Recalled. By Monsignor Vincent Foy

Brought to you by:

Bishop Alexander Carter, 1909 – 2002