Mexborough & Swinton Times – Friday 24 June 1932
Denaby Priest’s Views
The suggested establishment of a birth control clinic in Conisborough and birth control itself were strongly condemned by Father Holohan in the course of a sermon at St. Alban’s Church, Denaby Main, on Sunday morning.
“There is no demand for the establishment of a so-called birth control clinic in Conisborough and Denaby,” he said. “Such a retrograde step would outrage the religious sense of the community. The local Council, I feel confident, will take no such action. They do not desire to stir up controversy, and they know they have no mandate to devote public money to a purpose so abhorrent to so many of the ratepayers.
“They are aware that medical opinion is opposed, on medical grounds, to artificial means of limitations of families, as incurious to the health of the husband and wife, especially the latter. They did not wish to hamper the work of the Baby Clinic, knowing that many mothers, with their babies, would feel compelled to remain away from the clinics, where directly or indirectly, advice would be given and practices recommended repugnant to conscience.”
The matter, said Father Holohan, was no mere medical one. It involved an important moral issue. Was birth control in accord with God’s law and the sanctity of married life? Catholics had a clear and definite answer to that question in the declaration of the Holy Father, the Pope, in his letter on “Christian Marriage.” Any whatsoever of matrimony exercised in such a way that the act is deliberately frustrated in its natural power to generate life is an offence against the law of God and of nature, and those who indulge in such are branded with the guilt of grave sin.
Catholics were therefore unalterably opposed to the practice of artificial birth control as • violation of God’s law, and intrinsically wrong. Any proposition to set up a clinic to teach such unlawful practices would deeply offend their religious susceptibilities, and would meet with strenuous opposition from Catholics.
In the matter. Catholics did not stand alone. Many of their fellow citizens were in full accord with them in their Christian teaching in regard to marriage, and stood for the sanctity of married life. In seeking to fulfil the divine purpose in the institution of matrimony they undertook the duties and obligations of married life, and cheerfully and self-sacrificingly carried them out.
The Vicar of Conisborough told a “Times” representative that he did not think the Council would be allowed to proceed with such a scheme. When he was at Rotherham a voluntary committee was formed for the promotion of similar objects and the idea was taken up by the Borough Council. Their scheme for opening a birth control clinic was prevented by the intervention of the Minister of Health.