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Tacit Consent: The Church and Birth Control in Northern Italy
Author(s) -
DallaZuanna Gianpiero
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
population and development review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.836
H-Index - 96
eISSN - 1728-4457
pISSN - 0098-7921
DOI - 10.1111/j.1728-4457.2011.00414.x
Subject(s) - documentation , birth control , context (archaeology) , fertility , limiting , family planning , position (finance) , period (music) , canon law , law , control (management) , history , sociology , political science , gender studies , population , demography , research methodology , archaeology , art , business , computer science , engineering , finance , management , programming language , mechanical engineering , economics , aesthetics
This article employs novel documentation to examine ways in which the Church's moral rules on contraception were (or were not) communicated to parishioners in a predominantly Catholic context in a period of rapid fertility decline: the diocese of Padua, in the northeastern Italian region of Veneto, during the first half of the twentieth century. The account is based on documents that have until now been overlooked: the moral cases discussed during the periodic meetings among Padua priests in the years 1916–58, and the written answers provided by priests in response to a question asked of them concerning their efforts to combat the limiting of births. This documentation reveals the limited effect on the reproductive behavior of the position of the Catholic Church against birth control.