Many people, both inside and outside the Catholic Church, continue to criticise Her teaching in relation to contraception, and one of the chief documents referred to in this attack on the sacredness of human life and the institution of marriage is Pope Paul VI’s prophetic encyclical Humanae Vitae. It is generally agreed that probably an important aspect of the non-acceptance of the teaching of the Church is the fact that what is presented to us in the encyclical is not understood.
In 1988, on the twentieth anniversary of the publication of the encyclical, Cardinal Desmond Connell, then Archbishop Connell of Dublin, addressed a meeting of the Presidents of Family Commissions of Episcopal Conferences at the Vatican. During the course of his talk, entitled ‘The roots of misunderstanding of Humanae Vitae: doctrinal truth and personal conscience’, he said:
‘The sexual difference of male and female pertains to the mode of being according to which God created us with a view to a distinctive participation in the mystery of his love. Through the exercise of that love, by which a man and a woman enter into a deep communion of life, he calls each to live not just in the sufficiency of his/her own life but in a richer wholeness achieved by the mutual exchange of the gift of self that reflects the mystery of God’s own life. It is a communion of life wondrously fertile in the generation of new lives endowed with personal dignity, a fertility that reflects and shares in the prerogative of the divine Author of life. Through that fertility the greater wholeness of the race itself is progressively promoted. …
‘The expression of human sexual love in an act that eliminates and thereby negates the divinely implanted possibility of generation conflicts with the lordship of God in what concerns the gift of life….
‘The misunderstanding of Humanae Vitae can be traced to a failure to grasp either the nature and implications of this revealed truth about marriage, or else the Church’s competence to declare it. …
‘One way of approaching the roots of misunderstanding of Humanae Vitae is to recall the historical circumstances in which Paul VI published his Encyclical. The document appeared at the conclusion of a lengthy period of consultation, and for many its teaching came as a disappointment. It was a time of widespread and valuable change in accordance with the desire of the Second Vatican Council for aggiornamento, a period of altered perception of the relation between the Church and the modern world. During the interval of consultation preceding the publication of the Encyclical, the conviction that change in the Church’s position on contraception was inevitable had gained ground in the minds of many who applied themselves honestly and sincerely to this most difficult question, of vital importance to the pastoral ministry of the Church. …
‘When the Encyclical was published it was rejected by the secular world for its incompatibility with the new permissive attitude fostered by the invention of the contraceptive pill. In such an environment there was no perception of the context of divine revelation, within which the teaching was proposed. …
‘ [T]o dismiss the teaching of Paul VI for his dependence on allegedly outmoded philosophical theory is to underestimate the influence of the teaching of the Second Vatican Council upon his treatment, especially in what concerns the unitive significance of the marital act.…
‘Influenced by the confusion all around them, [ordinary married people] felt justified in making up their own minds on the issue, and sought its resolution in the personal decision to which they referred as their conscience. … The human task of being husband and wife, which is deeply personal, is diminished by contraception. …
‘All who occupy influential positions in the Church, who are tempted to assert their own view in opposition to its teaching, should reflect on the responsibility they incur by depriving people of God’s truth. …
‘ … the truth of conscience is made relative to subjective feeling or decision and this is completely opposed to the way of Christ, who came to bear witness to the truth. …
‘Our task now is to devise the appropriate pastoral means of leading the many who have gone astray to the discovery of the truth. It is a daunting task that obliges us to bear witness to the truth, not just against the overwhelming odds of our technological, consumerist society, but also against the confusion that still obscures the minds of so many of our faithful people. …’
It is over twenty years since the above address was written and presented. Sadly, its content could equally apply to today’s world. Why and how is it that nothing has changed? Where are our pastors - those who should be instructing us on the truths of Humanae Vitae?
Link to Humanae Vitae
