Shane MacCarthy, a fifth-generation Washingtonian, graduated from the Catholic University Campus School in 1952, Gonzaga High School in 1956, and Holy Cross College in Worchester, Massachusetts, in 1960. His seminary studies were at Saint Vincent's Seminary in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, 1960-1965. He served as a priest for the Archdiocese of Washington at St. Camillus Parish in Silver Spring, Maryland, 1965-1967, and at Assumption Parish in Southeast Washington, 1967-1975. Following the publication of Humanae Vitae in 1968, he was part of a group of mostly Archdiocesan priests, who signed a Statement of Conscience expressing disagreement with the encyclical's approach to artificial birth control. As a result, he and the other signers were penalized by Patrick O'Boyle, the Cardinal Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Washington. Many, like MacCarthy, were suspended from preaching, teaching, or hearing confessions, with some others expelled from their parish rectories. MacCarthy was one of 19 priests who disputed their suspension and brought their case before the Church judicially, with an eventual decision that Cardinal O'Boyle had followed the requirements for the Code of Canon Law. Eventually, the priests who still wished to resume their duties were able to do so by signing a statement crafted by Cardinal Wright that seemed to mollify the encyclical's original intent. MacCarthy left active ministry with the Roman Catholic Church in 1975, working thereafter with the Peace Corps and the Agency for International Development (AID), retiring in 2009. The digital collection consists of correspondence, clippings, meeting notes, publications, photos, and audio cassettes.
