Opinion

Bless this pope for blessing the blessing of same-sex couples

American Catholics, by and large, stopped listening to the pope around 1968. That was the year of “Humanae Vitae,” the encyclical in which Pope Paul VI proved once and for all that popes are as fallible as anyone else.

The pope tried to convince couples of the post-pill Western world that birth control is a terrible sin — and by the millions, they ignored his words. Many left the church, but many others stayed to exercise a quiet veto of papal authority, leading to the widespread epithet “cafeteria Catholics,” meaning those who pick and choose the doctrines they will honor.