In the debate, many bishops said they wanted the document to go further and call directly for an end to the birth-control ban. Patriarch Maximos of the Melkite Church was, as always, direct—outrageously so for many in the Curia. He urged the pope to realize that millions of Catholic women around the world already used artificial contraception in defiance of the church because they had no other choice if they wanted to feed the children they already had. He raised a question other bishops were too diplomatic to ask: Why should married couples allow their sex lives to be regulated by a group of aging celibate men in Rome? The ban, he said, had always reflected a “bachelor psychosis.”
Suenens followed, and his speech created another uproar. He called for an end to secrecy in the deliberations of the birth-control commission. He left no doubt he believed artificial contraception was no sin. He warned that if the council failed to address the issue, it would invite the sort of scandal and mockery that the church had not known since the Holy Office condemned Galileo in the seventeenth century.
“I beg of you, my brothers,” Suenens said, his voice rising. “Let us avoid another Galileo affair! One is enough for the church!”
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