1968 Press Photo Congregants Boycott Part of Mass, St. Matthews Cathedral

Washington, September 23 - Exodus - Part of the congregation at yesterday's 12:30 p.m. mass in St. Matthews Roman Catholic Cathedral walks out as Patrick Cardinal O'Boyle reads his pastoral letter urging priests and laity to accept his ruling forbidding the use of artificial birth control devices. Many of those who walked out returned for the balance of the mass. Cardinal O'Boyle is at the left side of the altar in the background. More than a dozen priests in the Archdiocese of Washington have been disciplined by Cardinal O'Boyle for challenging his interpretation of Pope Paul's recent encyclical.

Photo is dated 1968.

Photo measures 10.25 x 8 inches.