---

Humanae Vitae: A Defence

When asked by Bertie Wooster if there was anything in the papers, Jeeves replied that there was “Some slight friction threatening in the Balkans, otherwise nothing.” Some “slight friction” occurred 40 years ago when Pope Paul issued the encyclical Humanae Vitae. It caused quiet a stir as there had been an expectation that the Church was about to reverse its constant teaching that artificial contraception in marriage is inherently immoral. Pope Paul wrote ; “I am sorry but as I am only the Pope, I am unable to change the natural moral law”-or words to that effect.

In the United States, Fr. Charles Curran organised the “loyal dissent.” He declared that Humanae Vitae is utterly null and void - or words to that effect.

It was Fr. Curran who would later proclaim that abortion in certain circumstances is also acceptable and he was told by the Church that he was no longer a Catholic theologian - words precisely to that effect.

Hans Kung wrote to say that this disastrous encyclical proved that the Pope is not infallible. Karl Rahner wrote that although the decision was wrong, it did not effect Papal infallibility. Padre Pio wrote to thank the Pope for Humanae Vitae.

My own first reading of Humanae Vitae occurred when I was opposed to abortion but undecided on the issue of contraception. I immediately perceived that the Pope had been remarkably prophetic in predicting how contraception would be used to exploit the poor and vulnerable. However, I knew (and still know) of many catholic couples who have recourse to contraception and are wonderful fathers, husbands, wives, and mothers.

My opinion changed when I joined the Pro-Life cause. It soon became apparent to me that a contraceptive mentality and an abortion mentality are one and the same. I was also influenced by reading a life of Margaret Sanger-founder of Planned Parenthood, ex-catholic and Nazi sympathizer. Planned parenthood has become not only the great promoter of contraception in the world but abortion as well.

I was also disturbed by the Gillick case. If we provide contraception to the married, then why not the unmarried, the adolescent and the child who is -what irony - Gillick competent? The great philosopher Elizabeth Anscombe warned us that if we accept contraception as something good, we are bound to accept homosexual acts as also something good. Once there is a complete severance of the procreative meaning and unitive meaning of the marriage act, then why not homosexual acts as the logical consequence?

More recently, some have been persuaded by the teaching of Pope John Paul on this issue. There have also been significant advances in our understanding of Natural Family Planning and an interesting result has been the development of NaPro technology.

It is likely that a convert to the Catholic Church would look for something extraordinary in that Church prior to conversion and for me, Humanae Vitae was one of those extraordinary things. Here we have a Pope known for his liberal views on many issues writing an encyclical in 1968 - the year of great revolutions quite against the spirit of the age. In doing so, he surely demonstrated that the Catholic Church is the one Church protected by the Holy Spirit from error on matters of faith and morals.

Humanae Vitae has been described in prosaic fashion as an infallible teaching of the ordinary magisterium. But there is nothing ordinary about it. It is one of the ecclesiastical wonders of our age and it makes our beloved Church one of the few institutions worth defending- with ploughshares, I mean, not swords.

© 2008 Dr Pravin Thevathasan

Published by Gracewing Publishers - Foreword by Fr Aidan Nichols OP
Imprimatur from Bishop McMahon of Nottingham Diocese, England

This is an in depth investigation into the major Marian apparitions that have occured during the last five centuries. It relates them to secular happenings and important revolutionary events in Western history including the Reformation and the French and Russian Revolutions.