July 4, 2008 Humanae Vitae, Pt. 1
Bishop Michael Sheridan, STD
Aug 1, 2008 11:00 AM

Several years ago, when I was serving as a pastor in the Archdiocese of St. Louis, a man came to see me with a question about his family. He and his wife were the parents of seven children. His question had to do with the limiting of any further births in the marriage.

I

had made some acquaintance with the man, and I knew him to be a good Catholic husband and father. He told me that he and his wife, after much prayer and discussion between them, believed that it would be best if they had no more children. He had brought this decision to a priest in confession for advice. Without hesitation the priest encouraged the man and his wife to take advantage of an oral contraceptive to ensure that they would not increase the size of their family.

Sadly, that was not the first time that someone told me that this kind of counsel was being given by priests — nor would it be the last time. So why was this man coming to see me? As much as a part of him would have liked simply to turn to contraception as the answer to his difficulties, he could not accept what the priest had told him. And so he asked me: "Father, do you agree that my wife and I, having given birth to and rearing seven children, may now begin to use contraceptives?" I told him that I could not agree with what the priest had told him because a contraceptive conjugal act violates the natural law. The young man sighed and said, "Thank you, Father, for telling me the truth.I knew that what I heard in the confessional was wrong." Later I learned that this couple was practicing natural family planning

Forty years ago, Pope Paul VI promulgated his landmark encyclical "Humanae Vitae" (HV), "Of Human Life," in which he articulated the age-old teaching of the church that contraception violates the very nature and purpose of the human sexual act. The decade of the 1960s saw the widespread distribution of the newly developed oral contraceptive. It was also a time of overwhelming social upheaval, calling for liberation from all the constraints that had previously bound people to an "outmoded" moral code. It was the age of "free love," and the pill was just what this new age needed in order to pursue any and all sexual pleasures without consequence. It was the perfect storm, and Paul VI knew that he had to speak out boldly and honestly, with all the power of the church’s tradition.

Pope Paul knew well what the reaction to his encyclical would be: "It is to be anticipated that perhaps not everyone will easily accept this particular teaching. There is too much clamorous outcry against the voice of the Church, and this is intensified by modern means of communication. But it comes as no surprise to the Church that she, no less than her divine Founder, is destined to be a ‘sign of contradiction.’ She does not, because of this, evade the duty imposed on her of proclaiming humbly but firmly the entire moral law both natural and evangelical" (HV, 18).

The encyclical was truly prophetic, and in two ways. First, it was the genuine preaching of the Gospel of Life. It made clear, as had sacred Scripture and the constant teaching of the church, the revelation of God regarding human sexuality. "Humanae Vitae" was prophetic also in its prediction of a contraceptive mentality coming from a widespread acceptance and use of artificial contraception. Pope Paul wrote of how easily the use of contraception could lead to "marital infidelity" and "a general lowering of moral standards." People need incentives to keep the moral law, not the means to easily break that law. Men who were accustomed to the use of contraceptives "may forget the reverence due a woman, and, disregarding her physical and emotional equilibrium, reduce her to being a mere instrument for the satisfaction of his own desires." Pope Paul feared that governments would begin to impose the regulation of births on their citizens (cf. HV, 17). These evils, and more, have all materialized.

Those who favored the sanctioning of contraception insisted that there would be nothing but good that would come from the use of the pill. Abortions would decrease (because unwanted pregnancies would decrease); marriages would be strengthened (no more fear of a family that is too large to manage) and teen pregnancies would decrease. None of this happened. In fact, the situation in our country and world became worse than before.

The church’s prohibition of contraception, however, does not arise from its bad consequences. Contraception is wrong in and of itself because, as noted above, it violates the very nature and purpose of the human sexual act.

"The Church, which interprets natural law through its unchanging doctrine, reminds men and women that the teachings based on natural law must be obeyed and teaches that it

is necessary that each and every conjugal act remain ordered to the procreation of human life. There is an unbreakable connection between the unitive ["love giving"] meaning and the procreative ["life giving"] meaning of the conjugal act. This connection was established by God and cannot be broken by man through his own volition" (HV, 11-12).

synthesizes wonderfully the meaning of the conjugal act and the plan of God for living the marriage commitment authentically. The encyclical is not just about what married couples may not do. It expresses clearly what is necessary for a happy, healthy and fully human experience of marriage, based upon the natural law and divine revelation. And yet, from my experience, very few Catholic spouses have ever read "Humanae Vitae." I encourage all Catholics to become familiar with the teaching of the church regarding contraception and the regulation of birth.

In the next issue of The Colorado Catholic Herald we will consider this beautiful teaching.