Lambeth, 90 Years Later, by Michael Pakaluk

By Michael Pakaluk, The Catholic Thing, Sept. 1, 2020

Michael Pakaluk, an Aristotle scholar and Ordinarius of the Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas, is a professor in the Busch School of Business at the Catholic University of America. …

The Lambeth Conference of 1930 subverted itself, everyone agrees, but how? That’s the question.

Some background: the Church of England, spread throughout the world by the British Empire, felt the need, beginning in the 1850s, to hold worldwide conferences of bishops for the sake of unity. These meetings were convened about every ten years at the London residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Lambeth Palace.

The Lambeth Conference of 1930 was infamous, even in its day, for its Resolution 15 on artificial contraception:

Where there is a clearly felt moral obligation to limit or avoid parenthood the method must be decided on Christian principles. The primary and obvious method is complete abstinence from intercourse (as far as may be necessary) in a life of discipline and self-control lived in the power of the Holy Spirit. Nevertheless …