Humanae Vitae (On Human Life) is Pope Paul VI’s famed 1968 encyclical on contraception and reproductive ethics. Written in light of a study commissioned by the Vatican on modern reproductive issues, its timing coincided with the sudden prevalence of contraception and concerns about overpopulation in society at large. Pope Paul [...]
The Second Prediction: Men Would Lose Respect for Women The second prediction of Paul VI in Humanae Vitae, no. 17, was that if people resorted to contraception, men would lose respect for women: Another effect that gives cause for alarm is that a man who grows accustomed to the use [...]
The Predictions of Pope Saint Paul VI The first prediction of Paul VI in Humanae Vitae, no. 17 was that if people resorted to contraception, there would follow a general increase in immorality, especially among the youth, and also an increase in marital infidelity: Upright men can even better convince [...]
Man as Collaborator “Married people are the free and responsible collaborators with God the Creator in the most serious duty of transmitting human life,” reads the very first sentence of Humanae Vitae. Explicit mention of God also occurs at least 24 times in the encyclical. Then Pope Paul VI refers [...]
The Predictions of Humanae Vitae We begin our exposition of Humanae Vitae (HV) with section no. 17. In this part of the document, Pope Paul VI lays out four predictions as to what would happen in society if teaching against contraception went unheeded. Let us remember that this teaching is [...]
Humanae Vitae Was No "Invention." It Repeated Church Teaching. Since the 1960’s Western culture has been in a downward spiral of moral decadence. The contraceptive pill, introduced in the U.S. during that decade, brought about the so-called “sexual revolution.” This revolution brought in turn an unprecedented increase in sexual promiscuity, [...]
"Contraception cannot be an expression of total self‑giving, because in contraception, something is done to oneself to destroy the power to conceive a child. That same selfishness that wants to prevent the child by contraception will grow until it wants to kill the child already conceived. We must fight selfishness [...]
Surveys in many countries consistently show that most Catholics believe that decisions of conscience about contraception rightfully belong with those who must bear and rear children. The legitimacy of teaching requires that it be embraced by the faithful. Your teaching has no such legitimacy. It is a marginalized minority view [...]
A Personal Story Years ago, I had the privilege of accompanying Human Life International’s founder, Father Paul Marx, on several of his parish weekends. His homilies usually covered the complete range of Church teaching on sexuality, from contraception to abortion to homosexuality. Several times after these Masses, I witnessed irate [...]
The moral doctrine of the Church judges human behavior, but is silent on chemical compounds. Most people do not know that it is permissible for Catholic women to use the birth control pill under carefully defined conditions when the intent is not to impair their fertility. Sometimes a young woman [...]
