In 1960, "a group of Catholic laymen organized the Christian Action Party (CAP)....The appeal of the new party was based almost exclusively on its support of religious instruction for public school pupils and its objection to existing legislation on birth control and sterilization....
"Bishops James P. Davis of San Juan and James E. McManus of Ponce issued a pastoral letter describing the CAP as `the answer to the intolerable attitude' of the island's established political parties....
"political controversy was heightened when Francis Cardinal Spellman of New York visited Puerto Rico....Spellman was asked to comment on the bishops' involvement with the CAP. Spellman's diplomatic reply was, `I keep out of politics. It is outside my competence and will,' thereby implying that Davis and McManus should do the same.
"Scarcely a week later, ...[Bishops Davis and McManus] issued a pastoral letter prohibiting Catholics of Puerto Rico from voting for [Governor] Muniz Marin and the PDP....The focus for episcopal concern was a paragraph suggesting that majority opinion was the determining principle in defining public morality....[The bishops decried] this doctrine of moral relativism....
"John F. Kennedy, who aspired to be his country's first Catholic president, quickly reacted to the pastoral letter, calling the bishops' action `wholly improper'....Munoz sent a trusted representative to meet with Robert F. Kennedy. Munoz sought to counteract the bishops' accusations, while the Kennedys attempted to quarantine the Puerto Rican dispute. Subsequent declarations of several distinguished Catholic prelates accomplished both aims" (pp. 150 - 153).
https://www.amazon.com/Colonialism-Catholicism-Contraception-Enduring-Editions/dp/0807897574
"Bishops James P. Davis of San Juan and James E. McManus of Ponce issued a pastoral letter describing the CAP as `the answer to the intolerable attitude' of the island's established political parties....
"political controversy was heightened when Francis Cardinal Spellman of New York visited Puerto Rico....Spellman was asked to comment on the bishops' involvement with the CAP. Spellman's diplomatic reply was, `I keep out of politics. It is outside my competence and will,' thereby implying that Davis and McManus should do the same.
"Scarcely a week later, ...[Bishops Davis and McManus] issued a pastoral letter prohibiting Catholics of Puerto Rico from voting for [Governor] Muniz Marin and the PDP....The focus for episcopal concern was a paragraph suggesting that majority opinion was the determining principle in defining public morality....[The bishops decried] this doctrine of moral relativism....
"John F. Kennedy, who aspired to be his country's first Catholic president, quickly reacted to the pastoral letter, calling the bishops' action `wholly improper'....Munoz sent a trusted representative to meet with Robert F. Kennedy. Munoz sought to counteract the bishops' accusations, while the Kennedys attempted to quarantine the Puerto Rican dispute. Subsequent declarations of several distinguished Catholic prelates accomplished both aims" (pp. 150 - 153).
https://www.amazon.com/Colonialism-Catholicism-Contraception-Enduring-Editions/dp/0807897574
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