The Bishop of Arundel and Brighton, Kieran Conry, who is responsible for evangelisation in England and Wales, said that enforcing strict teaching on the use of contraception risked turning people away from the Church and said that most practising Catholics had accommodated the teaching while following their own consciences.
His remarks seemed to contradict the Bishop of Portsmouth, Philip Egan, who said at the end of last year that society's rejection of Humanae Vitae, the 1968 papal encyclical by Pope Paul VI that forbade the use of artificial contraception, had led to human trafficking and the legalisation of gay marriage.
Speaking on Monday at the launch of a campaign to bring four million lapsed Catholics back to church, Bishop Conry said that Catholics had made up their own minds about contraception and that most were happy to live "with ambiguity".
"It's important to remember that [author of Humanae Vitae] Paul VI made it quite clear you follow your conscience," he added. "Many people may not be happy with what Church says but it seems this is not turning people away. People make accommodation."