His “council”, the Pontifical Commission on Birth Control, was not advisory and had not been asked to make recommendations.

Pope John XXIII established a commission of six European non-theologians to study questions of birth control and population in 1963.

Pope Paul VI added theologians to the commission and expanded it to 72 members.

On its own initiative it produced a report in 1966 proposing that artificial birth control was not intrinsically evil.

John Ford, SJ, with Germain Grisez wrote a  working paper with three theologian priests on the commission stating that the Church could not change its long-standing teaching.

Paul VI’s delay in responding compounded his error in failing to direct the commission, and by the time Humanae Vitae was issued the damage had been done.