In 1963 Pope John XXIII established a commission of six European non-theologians to study questions of birth control and population.
[1][page range too broad][2][page needed] Neither John XXIII nor Paul VI wanted the almost three thousand bishops and other clerics then in Rome for the Second Vatican Council to address the birth control issue even though many of these bishops expressed their desire to bring this pressing pastoral issue before the council.
[5][9] The rationale for issuing the minority report was spelled out: If it should be declared that contraception is not evil in itself, then we should have to concede frankly that the Holy Spirit had been on the side of the Protestant churches in 1930 [when Casti connubii was promulgated] and in 1951.
The fact can neither be denied nor ignored that these same acts would now be declared licit on the grounds of principles cited by the Protestants, which Popes and Bishops have either condemned, or at least not approved.
[citation needed] In a 2019 BBC podcast on papal infallibility it was argued that Paul VI was bound by his predecessor's ruling in Casti connubii in December 1930, that was itself partly a reply to the Anglican church opinion that was approved at the 1930 Lambeth Conference.