The LuLac Edition #3844, July 29th, 2018

HUMANAE VITAE @ 50

The tumultuous year of 1968 that saw an ever expanding proliferation of sex, drug and rock and roll was temporarily put on notice by The Vatican and a consequential encyclical by Pope Paul VIth. Paul who succeeded John XXIIIrd continued the ground breaking tenants of the Ecumenical Council of the Catholic Church. There were many changes that many assumed would lead to a more liberal interpretation of birth control. For those thinking that, they were incorrect.
The Pope’s Encyclical essentially called for moral clarity among Catholics regarding the family. The text was issued at a Vatican press conference on 29 July, fifty years ago today Subtitled On the Regulation of Birth, it re-affirmed the orthodox teaching of the Catholic Church regarding married love, responsible parenthood, and the rejection of most forms of artificial contraception. In formulating his teaching he explained why he did not accept the conclusions of the Pontifical Commission on Birth Control established by his predecessor, Pope John XXIII, a commission he himself had expanded.
With the appearance of the first oral contraceptives in 1960, dissenters in the Church argued for a reconsideration of the Church positions. In 1963 Pope John XXIII established a commission of six European non-theologians to study questions of birth control and population. It met once in 1963 and twice in 1964. As Vatican Council II was concluding, Pope Paul VI enlarged it to fifty-eight members, including married couples, laywomen, theologians and bishops. The last document issued by the council (Gaudium et spes) contained a section titled "Fostering the Nobility of Marriage" (1965, nos. 47-52), which discussed marriage from the personal point of view. The "duty of responsible parenthood" was affirmed, but the determination of licit and illicit forms of regulating birth was reserved to Pope Paul VI. In the spring of 1966, following the close of the council, the commission held its fifth and final meeting, having been enlarged again to include sixteen bishops as an executive committee. The commission was only consultative but it submitted a report approved by a majority of 64 members to Paul VI. It proposed he approve at least some form of contraception for married couples. A minority of four members opposed this report and issued a parallel report to the Pope. After two more years of study and consultation, the pope issued Humanae vitae, which removed any doubt that the Church views hormonal anti-ovulants as contraceptive. He explained why he did not accept the opinion of the majority report of the commission (
To Pope Paul VI, as with of all his predecessors, marital relations are much more than a union of two people. In his view, they constitute a union of the loving couple with a loving God, in which the two persons generate the matter for the body, while God creates the unique soul of a person. For this reason, Paul VI teaches in the first sentence of Humanae Vitae, that the "transmission of human life is a most serious role in which married people collaborate freely and responsibly with God the Creator." This is divine partnership, so Paul VI does not allow for arbitrary human decisions, which may limit divine providence. According to Paul VI, marital relations are a source of great joy, but also of difficulties and hardships. The question of human procreation with God, exceeds in the view of Paul VI specific disciplines such as biology, psychology, demography or sociology. According to Paul VI, married love takes its origin from God, who is love, and from this basic dignity, he defines his position:
Mainly because of its prohibition of most forms (some licit therapeutic procedures with sole intent to cure bodily diseases are excepted) of artificial contraception, the encyclical was politically controversial. It affirmed traditional Church moral teaching on the sanctity of life and the procreative and unitive nature of conjugal relations.
It was the last of Paul's seven encyclicals.
Paul VI reaffirmed the Catholic Church's orthodox view of marriage and marital relations and a continue condemnation of "artificial" birth control. There were two Papal committees and numerous independent experts looking into the latest advancement of science and medicine on the question of artificial birth control, which were noted by the Pope in his encyclical. The expressed views of Paul VI reflected the teachings of his predecessors, especially Pius XI, Pius XII and John XXIII, all of whom had insisted on the divine obligations of the marital partners in light of their partnership with God the creator.
Although polls show that many Catholics dissent from church teaching on contraception, there has nevertheless been a resurgence of support for it in certain quarters, from Roman Catholic theologians and numerous Catholic authors. There seems to be a deeper appreciation and understanding of the Church's teaching regarding sex and marriage. At the official level, Catholicism’s commitment to Humanae Vitae is more stable than ever. After five decades of bishops’ appointments by John Paul II and Benedict XVI, both unambiguously committed to Humanae Vitae, mean that senior leaders in Catholicism these days are far less inclined than they were in 1968 to distance themselves from the ban on birth control, or to soft-pedal it.
You can’t argue though with Paul’s conclusions that the strength of the family would be diminished if the tenants were not followed by many Catholics. That much was stated in the reaction by current Pope Francis. On 16 January 2015, Pope Francis said to a meeting with families in Manila, insisting on the need to protect the family: "The family is threatened by growing efforts on the part of some to redefine the very institution of marriage, by relativism, by the culture of the ephemeral, by a lack of openness to life. I think of Blessed Paul VI. At a time when the problem of population growth was being raised, he had the courage to defend openness to life in families. He knew the difficulties that are there in every family, and so in his Encyclical he was very merciful towards particular cases, and he asked confessors to be very merciful and understanding in dealing with particular cases. But he also had a broader vision: he looked at the peoples of the earth and he saw this threat of the destruction of the family through the privation of children . Paul VI was courageous; he was a good pastor and he warned his flock of the wolves who were coming."
A year before, on 1 May 2014, Pope Francis, in an interview given to Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, expressed his opinion and praise for Humanae Vitae: "Everything depends on how Humanae Vitae is interpreted. Paul VI himself, in the end, urged confessors to be very merciful and pay attention to concrete situations. But his genius was prophetic, he had the courage to take a stand against the majority, to defend moral discipline, to exercise a cultural restraint,
Fifty years after its presentation, it is telling that there isn’t much discussion among Catholics regarding this letter. American Catholics treat this as a private if not flexible matter. But the church’s stance is concrete. The legacy of Humane Vitae is mixed. The Doctrine itself remains intact, but the support of it among modern day Catholics is not universally accepted. Paul VI never produced another encyclical after this one.
He died in 1978 after a 15 year reign as Pope. (LuLac, wikipedia, The Vatican website).

The text of Humane Vitae.  http://w2.vatican.va/content/paul-vi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-vi_enc_25071968_humanae-vitae.html