THE PROPHETIC VISION OF BLESSED PAUL VI
BLESSED PAUL VI
BACKGROUND
This year marks the 50th Anniversary of the Encyclical, Humanae Vitae, published by Pope Paul VI who will be canonized this Fall by Pope Francis as a recognized Saint of the Church. Pope Paul VI reminded Catholics and all people of good will that something as sacred as the transmission of human life cannot be cut loose from its moorings without grave consequences. The publication of “Humanae Vitae” on July 25, 1968 was a reaffirmation of the traditional moral teaching of the Catholic Church. It was met with widespread controversy and a vocal dissent that was symptomatic of the age.
In 1968 not only was a sexual revolution in full swing but also dissent from any authority Vietnam protests, political protests, Democratic Convention in Chicago, and demonstrations against law enforcement etc. It should be no surprise that the challenge to authority that characterized that age, and ours, affected the way this teaching was received by many within the Catholic Church and certainly by those outside of the Church.
Secular mentality says that human beings, rather than God, are the measure of all things. Right and wrong are determined on the basis of what is practical rather than what is true or good. It has affected the attitudes and values of many in the Church as well. Uncomfortable with being a “sign of contradiction,” some prefer to accommodate the Gospel and the Church’s teaching to the wisdom of the world.
POPE PAUL VI PROPHETIC VISION
In his Encyclical, Humane Vitae, Pope Paul VI offered prophetic insight in recognizing the grave consequences of separating sex from babies.. A contraceptive mentality would lead inevitably, he said, “toward conjugal infidelity and the general lowering of morality, leading to loss of respect for women, to the point of considering her as a mere instrument of selfish enjoyment, and no longer as man’s respected and beloved companion.”
Pope Paul VI’s final warning was that contraception would lead man to think that he had unlimited dominion over his own body. The desire for unlimited dominion over one’s own body extends beyond contraception. The production of “test-tube babies” is another indication of the refusal to accept the body’s limitations; so too are euthanasia and the use of organs transplanted from those who are “nearly” dead. We seek to adjust the body to our desires and timetables, rather than adjusting ourselves to its needs.
COMMENTARY
According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC 1643), there are three goods of marriage. They are: unity, fidelity, and openness to children. The choice of contraception denies the intrinsic meaning of giving and receiving which is proper to the conjugal sexual act and closes it arbitrarily to the dynamics of transmitting a new human life.
Unity demands permanence (indissolubility) for the entire life of the married couple. The very nature of conjugal love, total union for life of a married couple, demands fidelity and prohibits any disorder such as adultery. Openess to children is the fruit of total self-giving love. One aspect of man in the image and likeness of God is procreator, sharing in God’s creative work, the completion of the human race. God created mankind in his image; in the image of God he created them; male and female He created them. God blessed them and God said to them: Be fertile and multiply“(Genesis 1:28)
The recent judicial decision legalizing same-sex marriage (man-made law) certainly ignore God’s intention for marriage between man and woman. Refusing to accept God’s creation of male and female with a natural complementarity between the sexes has also led to gender confusion on a massive scale whereby children are choosing their own gender and their parents are encouraging them to do so. Copied below are just a few of the consequences of man-made laws regarding contraception that I see:
- Sex as a recreational hobby
- Increase in infidelity in marriage
- Objectification of women
- Increased pornographic media
- Children a burden instead of a blessing
- Mandatory World-wide sterilization programs in poor countries
- Acceptance of abortion as a means of birth control since children are neither wanted or respected
- Increased sexually transmitted diseases
- Man believing he has dominion over his body
CONCLUSION
Man does not have dominion over his/her body. Ever since the beginning man has been going up against God and pretending to be equal to God. The only result has been disaster when man has made his own idols and claimed to be in charge.
We are in charge of nothing. We are contingent beings. We did not create ourselves. We don’t get to name our gender or make our own rules. Like it or not there is an authority way beyond ourselves. We have little to no control over anything. With God all things are possible; without him nothing is possible.
The Church cannot change its teaching on the immorality of artificial contraception however unpopular and difficult it can be to live it. The Church does not create the moral law, but is only its guardian and interpreter. Catholics who strive to live according to the Church’s teaching will find divine assistance by having recourse to the grace of the sacraments, especially the Sacrament of Penance and the Eucharist, as well as to prayer.
“Good Roman Catholics do not need to breed like “rabbits“, the Pope Francis has said, but should practice “responsible” parenting instead Pope Francis has consistently spoken out in support of Humanae Vitae (of Human Life). In Humanae Vitae, the Church teaches, ” If there are well-grounded reasons for spacing births, arising from the physical or psychological condition of husband or wife, or from external circumstances, married people may then take advantage of the natural cycles in the reproductive system and engage in marital intercourse only during those times that are infertile”
Natural Family Planning (NFP) is a healthy and moral means of family planning that enables couples to cooperate with God and one another in spacing pregnancies in a way that actually strengthens their relationship.
Some may say, so what’s the difference between having sex at infertile times and artificial contraception. The Church replies, “In reality, these two cases are completely different. In the former the married couple rightly use a faculty provided them by nature. In the later they obstruct the natural development of the generative process.”
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