15 MAY 1964, Page 12

CATHOLICS AND BIRTH CONTROL

SIR,—Mr. Bruce Cooper's interesting article was presumably in print last week before Archbishop Heenan's statement. The headlines in the various papers all describe—truly enough as far as they go— Archbishop Heenan's statement as a condemnation of contraceptives, the birth control pill and the like. It was less widely noted that Archbishop Heenan

also said, of a possible pill 'to make the time of ovulation predictable,' that 'on a pill of this kind the. Council may well be called upon to give guidance.' There are in fact two distinct questions. Are contra- ceptives wrong? And what constitutes a contra- ceptive?