noting that the Holy See has not published an official condemnation of the Winnipeg Statement, per se. Opposition The statement was met with immediate and vocal opposition, which found root especially among conservative practicing Catholic anti-abortion activists. The objections of opponents to the statement are perhaps best summarized in the writings of Vincent Foy, who contends, among other things, that the Winnipeg Statement: is tantamount to blasphemy, has increased dissent in the church, and is an act of disobedience to the Holy See has fostered support for homosexuality, the ordination of women, the "fundamental option", and abortion is a major factor in the crisis of vocations to the priesthood and religious life has facilitated anti-life and immoral government legislation has deprived spouses of married love, has pitted spouses against one another, has made faithful Catholic couples feel betrayed and unsupported, and has been the cause of many marital breakups permits extra-marital sex, and has led to a lowered respect for women has not only adversely affected married life in Canada but in many other countries has led to the killing of countless persons through abortifacient pills and devices Foy further alleges that Cardinal Gerald Emmett Carter, one of the authors, partially repudiated the wording of the most controversial paragraph of the statement, writing in a private letter that "I am not prepared to defend paragraph 26 totally. In a sense, the phraseology was misleading and could give the impression that the bishops were saying that one was free to dissent at will from the Pope's teaching". Reiteration in 1969 In view of calls for the Canadian bishops to officially retract the Winnipeg Statement, they issued a year later a statement in which they declared: "Nothing could be gained and much lost by an attempt to rephrase what we have said in Winnipeg. We stand squarely behind our position but we feel it is our duty to insist on a proper interpretation of that position." They added: In 1998, the Canadian bishops voted by secret ballot on a resolution to retract the Winnipeg Statement. It did not pass. Calls for retraction continue, though some see the Canadian bishops' December 1, 1973, document, Statement on the Formation of Conscience, as evidence that they were trying to distance themselves from the Winnipeg Statement. In 2008, the Canadian bishops issued a pastoral letter titled "Liberating Potential" that was unquestioned as being in full conformity