"The problem is that HV11 insists that ‘Each and every marital act must remain open to the transmission of life’. But, NFP (the non-artificial method) closes the marital act to the transmission of life, and so is prohibited by HV11. If NFP did not close the conjugal act to the transmission of life, it could not control births.
I don’t see that “quote” anywhere in HV, let alone in HV 11. Instead, HV 11 speaks of maintaining the intrinsic nature of the marital act. NFP does this. ABC doesn’t.
Paul VI, in HV cites Casti Connubii and the teachings of Pius XII. It is clear he is teaching exactly what prior popes have also taught. Any unbiased student of Catholic moral theology in the 1960s should have drawn the same conclusion, that this teaching was irrevocable, and therefore infallible.
According to the
1959 moral theology textbook by John C. Ford, S.J., and Gerard Kelly, S.J.,
Contemporary Moral Theology Vol. 1: “
It is hardly conceivable that the papal teaching on such things as divorce, contraception, the direct killing of the innocent…is anything short of infallible” (p.22).
According to John T. Noonan’s
1965 publication, *Contraception - A History of its Treatment by the Catholic Theolgians and Canonists: *"***Never had it been admitted by a Catholic theologian that complete sexual intercourse might be had in which by deliberation, procreation was excluded." ***(*p.*438).
According to Felix Cappelo, S.J.'s
1933 and
1961 edition of *De Matrimonio, *n. 816, speaking of the teaching of
Casti Connubii on the immorality of contraception, he says, “***These very solemn words, uttered ‘in signum legationis divinae,’ obviously are an expression of infallible teaching authority, that is, a definition *
ex cathedra.”
According to Arthur Vermeersch, S.J., in his
1931 commentary on
Casti Connubii, he says that “***the pope wished to put the stamp of his own infallible teaching authority on the traditional teaching of the Church ***” [cited by Ford,
Contemporary Moral Theology, Vol II (1964), *p.263-264]
According to A. Piscetta, S.S., and A Gennaro, S.S., in their seventh volume of
Elementa theologia moralis published in
1944, they *
agree with Vermeersch above on the infallible teaching of Casti Connubii * on the matter.
According to Francis Ter Haar, C.SS.R., in his
1939 text
Casus conscientiae, II. De praecipuis hujus aetatis vitiis eorumque remediis, n. 136, speaking of the passage against contraception in Casti Connubii, "
this passage of the encyclical, contains a definition by the Roman Pontiff speaking ‘ex cathedra’.
According to Andre’ Snoeck, S.J., in his article"Fecondation inhibee et morale catholique," *Nouvelle revue theologique *75 (
1953), 690-702, at p. 700: “***the common opinion in the Church judges that we are here confronted with an irrevocable condemnation of conjugal onanism ***.”
According to John Ford, S.J. and Gerard Kelly, S.J., in their text
Contemporary Moral Theology, Vol II - Marriage Questions, published in
1964, “
in condemning contraception as intrinsically and gravely immoral, Pius XI was clearly and solemnly declaring a truth already infallibly taught by the universal Church… the main point is to insist on the substantial immutability of the Catholic doctrine on contraception**.” (p.271)
Consequently, according to Catholic moral theology texts of the 30s, 40s, 50s and early 60s,
Casti Connubii’s teaching against contraception was unanimously considered irrevocable teaching of the Church. Why Fr. Charles Curran and many other dissidents claimed otherwise tells us more about their own bias than authentic Catholic moral theology.
Furthermore, in
Humanae Vitae e Infallibilità (Vatican City, Libreria Editrice Vaticana,
1986), Fr. Ermenegildo Lio, O.F.M., affirms
the teaching against contraception in Pope Paul VI’s encyclical letter Humanae Vitae is infallible, not merely by virtue of being an instance of the constant, ordinary and universal magisterium of the Popes and Catholic Bishops against this practice, but because the encyclical itself contains (in article 14) **an
ex cathedra definition. **Fr. Lio is a professor in Rome’s Pontifical Lateran University, was a
peritus at Vatican Council II, and was an adviser to Pope Paul VI over the birth control issue. John Paul II wrote him letter thanking him for the presentation of his book, which was published by the Vatican Press.
I think the thesis that
Humanae Vitae is merely a “personal opinion” of the pope which can be licitly dissented with has lost all credibility among the Catholic faithful, clung to only by notoriously dissident theologians.
If one is sterile and they have sex, their sex is necessarily non-reproductive. They simply have not taken positive step to render it non-reproductive. On the other hand, if they cause their sterility through a pill or some other means intending to contracept, it is immoral. If they did not cause their own sterility intending to contracept, it is NOT immoral.
