He claims it the duty of the Church to come forward with a clearly formulated statement in the matter of family planning while at the same time he is extremely allergic to any kind of authoritative guidance. And we might go on in the same vein. Nobody can judge it with complete impartiality or total objectivity because everybody is infected by this mentality in some degree one way or another. It is only a partial manifestation of a far wider pattern which affects the whole of our life. Modern man wants to see for himself, to be given proofs, to take his own decisions, to apply the rule of thumb of his own conscience and experience.
Criticism is in the air and nothing escapes from it.
For what may have sounded as blasphemy, say some thirty years ago, has become, at least in some wide-spread regions of the Church, almost daily currency, viz. In this field, too, the modern Catholic has become very conscious of his freedom, of his personal judgment, the younger generation of priests perhaps even more than the educated laymen and religious. This should not unduly alarm, even less frighten us. God's message is meant for all peoples of all times and if modern man happens to be what he is, mostly because of circumstances which are beyond his control, like the date of his birth, this message can and ought to reach him in his very concrete existence. But consciousness of freedom ought to go hand in hand with awareness of responsibility.