Turning Point: The Inside Story of the Papal Birth Control Commission, and How Humane Vitae Changed the Life of Patty Crowley and the Future of the Church

Rating:
Summary: What If?
Review: A fascinating study, written in an easy to follow and understand journalistic study, of the little know Papal Commission on Birth Control which in 1966 recommended to Paul VI by a lopsided majority that the Church reform its position banning all forms of artificial birth control. Not only did the Commission make this recommendation by it was endorsed by a solid majority of a special committee composed of bishops and cardinals selected by the Pope to review the Commission's recommendation. McClory than explains why and how this recommendation was subverted by a the minority holdouts resulting in the "reconversion" of Paul VI, who initially was favorably disposed to a change, and the issuance of Paul's encyclical which banned birth control, but which failed to stifle dissent or be honored by the faithful.

McClory's book, however, is more than a history of the Commission and the politics which subverted its recommendations. It is an equally clear explanation of the arguments on both sides of the debate, as well as how and why so many members (clergy and laity) of the Commission who started out with the assumption that Church's historic position could not be altered, changed their minds during the course of the examination.