The New Morality of Pope Francis

I could have used Pope Francisâ??s latest apostolic exhortation, â??Amoris Laetitiaâ? (â??The Joy of Loveâ?), when I served as a Catholic priest, almost half a century ago. I was ordained in early 1969, a few months after the promulgation of â??Humanae Vitae,â? the Vaticanâ??s resounding condemnation of â??artificial birth control,â? which would define my future. I was a chaplain at a university where, true to the era, the norms of sexual morality had been upended. I certainly saw the need, in those wild days, for a humane and ethical analysis of the state of sexual intimacy, personal commitment, erotic longing, and gender rights. But, believe me, the triumphalist salvo from Rome made the moral condition worse, not better. Like many priests of my generation, I declined to affirm the birth-control teaching. On the contrary, I encouraged the young people who sought my advice to be sexually responsible, especially since the mature use of contraceptives could avoid a later choice about abortion.