Vatican Newspaper on Why 1968 Was Not the Church's Best Year

This is very compelling reading and sort of caps a week of reflection of 40th anniversary of Humane Vitae. The reaction to that as is shown in this lengthy essay from L'Osservatore Romano, written by Francis Cardinal Stafford, about the chaos that resulted from Humanae Vitae. was More than just about birth control. He sort of gives a inside view.

Tip of the Hat to Crunchy Con who writes correctly of a observation by his friend regarding this piece ""encapsulates the history of Catholic life in America in my lifetime." It is an extraordinary, and extraordinarily personal, reflection by an American cardinal who was a young priest in 1968"

The Cardinal says in part:
The summer of 1968 is a record of God’s hottest hour. The memories are not forgotten; they are painful. They remain vivid like a tornado in the plains of Colorado. They inhabit the whirlwind where God’s wrath dwells. In 1968, something terrible happened in the Church. Within the ministerial priesthood, ruptures developed everywhere among friends which never healed. And the wounds continue to affect the whole Church. The dissent, together with the leaders’ manipulation of the anger they fomented, became a supreme test. It changed fundamental relationships within the Church. It was a Peirasmòs for many.

Indeed . Great read.