by James Armstrong

The Second Vatican Council opened on 2nd October 1962 and ended on 8th December 1965. Members of the Glasgow Newman Association hoped for many reforms in the Catholic Church. A few came, but not nearly enough. Then in July 1968, Pope Paul VI published the Encyclical Humanae Vitae, condemning artificial birth control. Pope Paul refused to accept the decision of his Commission which he had set up to decide the matter. It had agreed that artificial birth control was not an evil.