Humanae Vitae

07-22-2018Weekly ReflectionRev. John C. Granato

My Dear Friends,

On July 25th, 1968, fifty years ago, Pope Paul VI promulgated an encyclical that started a revolution in the Catholic Church; a revolution that has change the face of our church ever since. On that day, he issued the encyclical Humane Vitae, which reaffirmed the Catholic Church’s teaching on the morality of regulating births. Bishops, priests, nuns and other lay theologians, as well as prominent lay Catholics, took out a full page ad in the New York Times excoriating Pope Paul VI and questioned papal authority. These priests, the most famous being Fr. Charles Curran, a moral theology professor at Catholic University of America, argued that artificial means of birth control were licit and fell under the role of conscience for Catholics, Pope Paul VI did not get the full support of bishops and priests to uphold the teaching that artificial birth control was sinful.

Ever since, the Catholic Church has struggled with widespread dissent from her members, especially in the realm of sexual morality. They argue that a group of celibate men cannot understand the role of sex in a marriage nor could they understand women’s issues. Never mind that married couples and women moral theologians have accepted the teaching and have written beautiful defenses of the Catholic Church’s defense of the illicit means of controlling births. The most famous of the defenders of Pope Paul VI’s encyclical is Janet Smith, a moral theologian who has taught in the seminary and university level. Pope Paul VI himself has been called a prophet for his encyclical. It is a very short encyclical and the last one that Pope Paul would write even though he reigned as pope for ten more years. Pope St. John Paul II was also a defender of the encyclical and fleshed out the teaching in a longer apostolic exhortation in 1981 called familiaris consortio. Pope Paul wrote of four consequences that would happen if society dissented from the teaching. 1) An increase in marital infidelity. 2) A general lowering of moral standards. 3) A loss of respect for women (man would “reduce her to being a mere instrument for the satisfaction of his own desires”). 4) Governments would coerce people into using contraception and intervene in citizens’ sexual relationships.

These consequences have come true fifty years later. Many Protestants have come to see the wisdom on Pope Paul VI’s encyclical. Many Catholic couples have also embraced the teaching, especially recently, because of the lowering of moral standards and the loss of respect for women. The dissenters believed that artificial birth control would help marriages and give women more freedom. The opposite has happened. Many priests shy away from teaching on birth control because so many Catholics reject it. Also, due to the priest scandals that have rocked the Catholic Church, many priests feel they have no credibility to speak out on morality. Pope Paul was compassionate and realistic concerning this encyclical. He was fully aware of human weakness in this area. It is a difficult teaching of the Catholic Church, but when lived properly, this teaching brings about grace for the couple.

I encourage everyone to read not only Humane Vitae, but also Familiaris Consortio and the following works by Janet Smith: Humane Vitae: A Generation Later; Why Humane Vitae is Still Right; and Self-Gift: Humane Vitae and the Thought of John Paul II.

God bless.

Fr. John

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