The Winnipeg Statement was an influential and controversial pastoral letter issued by the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) on September 27, 1968. Released during a plenary assembly in St. Boniface, Winnipeg, Manitoba, the document served as the Canadian hierarchy's official response to Pope Paul VI’s papal encyclical, Humanae vitae, which reaffirmed the Catholic Church's absolute prohibition on artificial birth control. [1]
The statement became a historical milestone due to its unique stance on individual conscience, which many interpreted as a departure or dissent from official Vatican teaching.