Tacit Consent. Why the Church Was Unable to Stop the Spread of Contraception in the Catholic Veneto (North East Italy) during the First Half of the Twentieth Century

Gianpiero Dalla Zuanna, University of Padua

This article describes the Church's struggle against birth control during the first half of the twentieth century in the diocese of Padua (North East Italy), from pastoral mercy – inspired by the doctrine of St. Alfonso de’ Liguori – to strict discipline following the publication of Pio XI's encyclical, Casti Connubii, in 1930. We examine documents that have until now been overlooked: the moral cases discussed during the periodic meetings among Padua priests from 1916-58, and the written answers provided by priests in response to a question concerning their efforts to combat the limiting of births, asked in occasion of Bishop Agostini's visit to the parishes in 1938-43. This documentation reveals why – despite the Church's overarching cultural and institutional position – the ethical directives concerning the limiting of births expressed by the Paduan Church were progressively and systematically ignored by the large majority of worshipers, even the most faithful.