‘Humanae Vitae’ 40 years later
This past July 25 marked the 40th anniversary of the publication by Pope Pius VI of the encyclical Humanae Vitae, “Of Human Life.” Remembrances of the event and its aftermath appeared in many places. The San Antonio Archdiocese celebrated the event on July 26 with a very fine “Fiesta of Life” at St. Mark the Evangelist Parish. The magazine First Things in its latest issue (Aug.-Sept. 2008) published a major article on the encyclical by Mary Eberstadt (“The Vindication of Humanae Vitae”). John L. Allen of the National Catholic Reporter wrote on the document in (of all places) the Sunday July 27 edition of the New York Times (“The Pope vs. the Pill”). In the July 29 issue of the California Catholic Daily, Cardinal Francis Stafford, former archbishop of Denver, recalled with sadness the dissent to the encyclical (“In 1968, something terrible happened to the church”). By the way, we should note that Father Charles Curran’s latest book appeared a month or so ago (Catholic Moral Theology in the United States: A History) with a chapter devoted to Humanae Vitae and a continued defense of his dissent to it.
Unless one lived through 1968 and its immediate aftermath, it would be difficult to appreciate the intensity of opposition to Humanae Vitae and its teaching about contraceptive sex. Allen remarks: “Pope Paul VI provoked the greatest uproar against a papal edict in the long history of the Roman Church.” Cardinal Stafford cites the judgment of Cardinal Shehan: “Never in the recorded history of the church has a solemn proclamation of a pope been received by any group of Catholic people with so much disrespect and contempt.” And this dissent was found among large numbers of the clergy.
Eberstadt in her article First Things draws attention to the warnings of Pope Paul VI in the encyclical concerning consequences of a widespread practice of artificial birth control and how these consequences actually came to pass. It makes interesting reading. The pope stated in Humanae Vitae: “How wide and easy a road would be opened toward conjugal infidelity.” Over the past 40 years, marital infidelity has dramatically increased and the divorce rate has skyrocketed. The absence of fathers in the family is a national tragedy. The pope also predicted that there would be a “general lessening of morality” as a result of the contraceptive mentality. This too has happened. Novels, films, television soaps and sit-coms all portray a promiscuous society in which men and women jump into bed with easy facility. Condoms are given out to teenagers with impunity, as a protection against pregnancy, and accepted as an inducement to sex.
Pope Paul VI also warned: “Man growing used to the employment of anti-conceptive practices, may lose respect for the woman, considering her as a mere instrument of selfish enjoyment.” A sure sign of that is the massive development of pornography, which is becoming all-pervasive due to the efforts of a multibillion dollar industry and legal permissiveness. Soft-porn is now entering even into mainstream culture. And the pope also warns: “A dangerous weapon would be placed in the hands of public authorities who take no heed of moral exigencies, even imposing upon their people contraception.”
China maintains a one-child-per-family policy and forces the practice of contraception and abortion to maintain the policy. U.N. agencies have practically imposed condom use in many countries and demanded legalization of easy abortion, under the pretext of curbing AIDS and overpopulation. Forced sterilizations have been reported in a number of countries.
Eberstadt cites multiple secular studies that testify to these changes in society. The irony, of course, is that the researchers had no idea they were providing support for Pope Paul VI’s predictions. Yet I think we have to add that the dire social consequences forecast by the pope were not caused solely by contraceptive sex. There have been many other secular influences upon our society in the past 40 years, including loss of a sense of God, alienation from institutional religion, relativistic ethics, etc. But the contraceptive mentality has played a major role — and still does, not only among the American people in general but also among our Catholic people in particular. The commemoration of the 40th anniversary of Humanae Vitae is a wonderful opportunity to recall the authentic “theology of the body” teaching of the church and its message that the unitive and procreative aspects of marriage cannot be separated without disastrous effects.
Father John A. Leies, SM, STD, is president emeritus of St. Mary’s University and was formerly dean of the Theology Department there.