"At first, no Catholic theologians supported even this qualified endorsement of the pill for contraceptive purposes. Until the end of 1961, Catholic theologians concurred that oral contraception constituted a deliberate act of direct sterilization and consequently was illicit. As Pius XII made clear in a 1958 speech to the Seventh International Congress of Hematology, the individual’s intentions determined the morality of ingesting an ovulatory medications: “If the woman takes the pill with no intention of preventing contraception, but solely for a medical purpose as a necessary remedy for a disease of the uterus, she brings about an indirect sterilization, which is permissible according to the general principle concerning actions that have a double effect. But a direct sterilization and consequently an illicit one, is brought about whenever ovulation is impeded with the goal of protecting the uterus and the body from a pregnancy that it cannot support.” If the aim was contraceptive, the Church condemned the use of the pill. December1961 witnessed the first significant modification of this position. In response to reports of multiple rapes of nuns stationed in the Congo, the Italian Catholic theological journal Studi Cattolici posed the following theoretical question: Could an unmarried woman (particularly a nun) who had reason to fear being raped take the pill as a means of protection?"