“I could ask the same question about the Orthodox,...”
For us, artificial contraception is a matter for decision between a couple and their spiritual father. Orthodoxy recognizes all sorts of reasons for the use of artificial contraception. We simply don’t view it as +Paul VI did.
“...or indeed about abortion.”
The rate of abortion among Orthodox Christians here in the US is slightly lower than that found among Roman Catholics. I’d place that statistic in the category of “damning with faint praise”, however.
“Either the laity of the entire church are to be counted or none.”
Not at all. The Western hierarchy had seen to it over the centuries that the laity’s role is to pay, pray and obey. When Vatican II came along, it had somewhat the same effect as the French Revolution on the peasantry, though not so bloody, a dangerous sort of anarchy which has lead to the clown masses, nuns in pantsuits demonstrating for abortion rights and Kosta’s naked women shaking their breasts in liturgical dance before the Bishop of Rome! I think its best we take a pass on the Western laity until they get their feet under them.
Perhaps but depending on who you ask the highest rates of abortion are in either Russia, Romania or Greece. I will grant that Russia and Romania are still exercising the demons of Communism, but Greece?
The Western hierarchy had seen to it over the centuries that the laity’s role is to pay, pray and obey.
Let us not pretend that the laity in the East at the time of Florence were knowledgeable about Catholic theology or the intricacies of the procession of the Holy Spirit. Even St. Mark of Ephesus declared that he was unfamiliar with the teachings of the Western Fathers on the subject. No, they had been formed by their clergy to hate all things Latin and would not accept union in any form except by a full act of contrition by the entire Western church. This is an attitude that, sadly, I find alive and well today.