When people think about the decline of Catholicism in America, they often think about the rebellious spirit of the 1960s and the hotly debated aftermath of the Second Vatican Council is where it started.

But that's not when American Catholicism began to decline.

That happened in the 1940s.

In today's episode, we'll see why it happened and the lessons that we need to learn from it.

Although,

you might be skeptical about the 1940s starting the church's decline in America. Weren't

the 40s a time of Chattanooga-Choochooch-socking old Hitler in the jaw and a celebration of all

things good and traditional? Partly. But when you dig deeper, you see cracks forming in the larger

social structure.

For example, the sexual revolution of the 1960s didn't instantly come into existence with the introduction of the birth control pill, though that did throw gasoline on the fornicating fire.

Instead, we need to go back to the 1920s, where Americans, sick of a pandemic in a world war, were ready to cut loose and flap their flappers.

During this period, the latex condom became available,

which was cheaper, thinner, more effective,

and lasted years longer than previous rubber and animal skin condoms.

Well, not animal skin, they're made from sheep intestines. Man, Catholic teaching on marriage looks better and better every day.

In fact, the widespread proliferation of these products, with the help of eugenicists like Margaret Sanger,

motivated Pope Pius I.E.11th to reaffirm the church's teaching on the evils of contraception,

in his 1930 encyclical, Casti Canobey. In the same year, the Anglicans

became the first Protestant body to grant an exception for contraceptives for married couples.

And it's not like that would become a slippery slope for them.

Seven years later, the FDA tested and approved barrier contraceptives, and the American Medical

Association formally recommended their use. While in many

...