45th Anniversary of Encyclical Letter Humanae Vitae

[YoungTradCath]

ENCYCLICAL LETTER
HUMANAE VITAE
OF THE SUPREME PONTIFF
PAUL VI
TO HIS VENERABLE BROTHERS
THE PATRIARCHS, ARCHBISHOPS, BISHOPS
AND OTHER LOCAL ORDINARIES
IN PEACE AND COMMUNION WITH THE APOSTOLIC SEE,
TO THE CLERGY AND FAITHFUL OF THE WHOLE CATHOLIC WORLD, AND TO ALL MEN OF GOOD WILL,
ON THE REGULATION OF BIRTH

Honored Brothers and Dear Sons,
Health and Apostolic Benediction.

The transmission of human life is a most serious role in which married people collaborate freely and responsibly with God the Creator. It has always been a source of great joy to them, even though it sometimes entails many difficulties and hardships.

The fulfillment of this duty has always posed problems to the conscience of married people, but the recent course of human society and the concomitant changes have provoked new questions. The Church cannot ignore these questions, for they concern matters intimately connected with the life and happiness of human beings.
…

No member of the faithful could possibly deny that the Church is competent in her magisterium to interpret the natural moral law. It is in fact indisputable, as Our predecessors have many times declared, that Jesus Christ, when He communicated His divine power to Peter and the other Apostles and sent them to teach all nations His commandments, constituted them as the authentic guardians and interpreters of the whole moral law, not only, that is, of the law of the Gospel but also of the natural law. For the natural law, too, declares the will of God, and its faithful observance is necessary for men’s eternal salvation.
…

The Magisterium’s Reply

However, the conclusions arrived at by the commission [of John XXIII to study this issue which eventually came to recommend change in the Church’s moral teching] could not be considered by Us as definitive and absolutely certain, dispensing Us from the duty of examining personally this serious question. This was all the more necessary because, within the commission itself, there was not complete agreement concerning the moral norms to be proposed, and especially because certain approaches and criteria for a solution to this question had emerged which were at variance with the moral doctrine on marriage constantly taught by the magisterium of the Church.

Consequently, now that We have sifted carefully the evidence sent to Us and intently studied the whole matter, as well as prayed constantly to God, We, by virtue of the mandate entrusted to Us by Christ, intend to give Our reply to this series of grave questions.

Unlawful Birth Control Methods

Therefore We base Our words on the first principles of a human and Christian doctrine of marriage when We are obliged once more to declare that the direct interruption of the generative process already begun and, above all, all direct abortion, even for therapeutic reasons, are to be absolutely excluded as lawful means of regulating the number of children. Equally to be condemned, as the magisterium of the Church has affirmed on many occasions, is direct sterilization, whether of the man or of the woman, whether permanent or temporary.

Similarly excluded is any action which either before, at the moment of, or after sexual intercourse, is specifically intended to prevent procreation—whether as an end or as a means.

Neither is it valid to argue, as a justification for sexual intercourse which is deliberately contraceptive, that a lesser evil is to be preferred to a greater one, or that such intercourse would merge with procreative acts of past and future to form a single entity, and so be qualified by exactly the same moral goodness as these. Though it is true that sometimes it is lawful to tolerate a lesser moral evil in order to avoid a greater evil or in order to promote a greater good," it is never lawful, even for the gravest reasons, to do evil that good may come of it —in other words, to intend directly something which of its very nature contradicts the moral order, and which must therefore be judged unworthy of man, even though the intention is to protect or promote the welfare of an individual, of a family or of society in general. Consequently, it is a serious error to think that a whole married life of otherwise normal relations can justify sexual intercourse which is deliberately contraceptive and so intrinsically wrong.

Humanae Vitae is, in my opinion, one of the clearest and most illustrous examples of direct intervention by Christ through Peter in the Church of the 20th century, and certainly the most critcally needed moral document in ages.

Many people paint Paul VI as a tragic and tormented figure. If that is true, then this document surely encapsulates one of his most glorious moments.

vatican.va/holy_father/paul_vi/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-vi_enc_25071968_humanae-vitae_en.html

 

[Melchior_1]

Humanae Vitae is, in my opinion, one of the clearest and most illustrous examples of direct intervention by Christ through Peter in the Church of the 20th century, and certainly the most critcally needed moral document in ages.

Agreed 1000%.

Many people paint Paul VI as a tragic and tormented figure. If that is true, then this document surely encapsulates one of his most glorious moments.

I paint him as a prophet and a Saint, full stop.

 

[Usige]

Humanae Vitae is, in my opinion, one of the clearest and most illustrous examples of direct intervention by Christ through Peter in the Church of the 20th century, and certainly the most critcally needed moral document in ages.

Yep. Unfortunately its also one of the most ignored.

I paint him as a prophet and a Saint, full stop.

Exactly. Many of the outcomes he predicted have already come to pass.

 

[quiet52]

Originally Posted by YoungTradCath
Humanae Vitae is, in my opinion, one of the clearest and most illustrous examples of direct intervention by Christ through Peter in the Church of the 20th century, and certainly the most critcally needed moral document in ages.

Thanks YTC for starting this thread.

Pope Paul VI is indeed a great prophet. By reaffirming the Church’s teaching against contraception when he did (7/25/1968), it is obvious he was allowing the Holy Spirit to work through him. It is tragic that so many of our clergy and laity have rejected or ignored this great work and this ongoing Church teaching.

I think each and every outcome of contraception he predicted have come to pass, and then some.

Please keep praying for our bishops, priests and deacons, that they will appreciate and pass on the fullness of Christ’s truths.

Here is Father Boquet’s “Spirit and Life” e-column from last Friday:
Father Paul Marx, founder of Human Life International, on Humanae Vitae
hli.org/component/acajoom/?act=mailing&task=view&listid=2&mailingid=879

excerpt: Theologians who dissented to Humanae Vitae do not realize how heavily they contributed to the unleashing of the sexual instinct to the destruction of youth and family; to the proliferation of out-of-wedlock births; to the increased number of single-parent families; and to the massive escalation of venereal (now sanitized as “sexually transmitted”) disease, divorce, that “alternative lifestyle” we used to call “shacking up,” marital unhappiness, and a host of other evils, including child and spousal abuse.

The campaign for Humanae Vitae (Crisis Magazine, 7/25/12)
crisismagazine.com/2012/the-campaign-for-humanae-vitae

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“48. Since faith is one, it must be professed in all its purity and integrity. Precisely because all the articles of faith are interconnected, to deny one of them, even of those that seem least important, is tantamount to distorting the whole. Each period of history can find this or that point of faith easier or harder to accept: hence the need for vigilance in ensuring that the deposit of faith is passed on in its entirety (cf. 1 Tim 6:20) and that all aspects of the profession of faith are duly emphasized. Indeed, inasmuch as the unity of faith is the unity of the Church, to subtract something from the faith is to subtract something from the veracity of communion…” (Pope Francis, encyclical Lumen Fidei, section 48, 7/05/13)

 

[quiet52]

Written by Dr. Janet Smith, one of my favorite defenders of and teachers of Catholic sexual morality:

Humanae Vitae at 45: An Epic War (7/30/13)
ncregister.com/daily-news/humanae-vitae-at-45-an-epic-war/#ixzz2aZ1bk3wD

…The rejection of the Church’s teaching on contraception contributes mightily to the growing presence of these evils. Forty-five years after the promulgation of Humanae Vitae, we must make teaching the truths of Paul VI’s encyclical a priority of the New Evangelization.

I pray that the day will come when the world at large realizes how lost it is concerning wisdom about sexual morality. The Church really does possess the truth about sexual morality. Its members must be prepared to share that wisdom with the world.