THINKING OF HUMANAE VITAE by Gary L. Morella
here are some disturbing suggestions in the Humanae Vitae anniversary
report of the Catholic Register for the Altoona-Johnstown PA diocese. Namely,
that we must not hurry the Faithful into something that they
are not prepared to accept. There were quotes from many sources with,
surprisingly, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, THE definitive position of
the Church on birth control, missing. The Catechism tells it like it is.
Anything other than natural means for regulating birth is a grave sin. Why is
everyone afraid to tell the truth? Artificial contraception is a MORTAL SIN
putting one in danger of perdition for eternity. There are no excuses.
Ignorance cannot be claimed. The Catholic has full knowledge that the teaching
of his Church forbids it, he consents to it and performs the forbidden act
anyway. That's MORTAL SIN folks! There is no such thing as following one's
conscience because one's conscience must be informed via the teaching
Magisterium of the Church on all matters of Faith and morals.
How ironic it is that Catholics get motivated when it comes to questions
of abortion as they rightfully should but totally ignore the catalyst behind
abortion - the fact that contraception varies directly with abortion everywhere
it's tried. And why not, abortion is nothing more than failed contraception.
We can't even get seven "C"atholic senators to override a veto so horrible it's
beyond comprehension. Why is that? The answer is easy. Man has become God
and it starts with contraception.
To suggest that patience is called for here in the name of some pseudo-idea
of pastoral care totally ignores the fact that death comes like a thief in
the night. Where is the ultimate responsibility for our clergy and those
who teach in our schools? Is it directed to the natural, i.e., "we don't want
to hurt anyone's feelings," or to the supernatural - the Last Things, the
only reason for our creation. What ever happened to Matthew 18:6?
As Dr. Janet Smith has pointed out Pope Paul VI made four rather general
"prophecies" about what would happen if the Church's teaching on
contraception were ignored.
The Pope first noted that the widespread use of contraception would "lead
to conjugal infidelity and the general lowering of morality." That there
has been a widespread decline in morality, especially sexual morality, in
the last 30 years, is very difficult to deny. The increase in the number
of divorces, abortion, our-of-wedlock pregnancies, and venereal diseases
should convince any skeptic that sexual morality is not the strong suit of
our age.
There is no question that contraception is behind much of this trouble.
Contraception has made sexual activity a much more popular option that it
was when the fear of pregnancy deterred a great number of young men and
women from engaging in premarital sexual intercourse. The availability of
contraception has led them to believe that they can engage in premarital
sexual activity "responsibly." But teenagers are about as responsible in
their use of contraception as they are in all other phases of their lives-
such as making their beds, cleaning their rooms and getting their homework
done on time.
Paul VI also argued that "the man" will lose respect for "the woman" and
"no longer (care) for her physical and psychological equilibrium" and will
come to "the point of considering her as a mere instrument of selfish
enjoyment and no longer as his respected and beloved companion." This
concern reflects what has come to be known as a "personalist"
understanding of morality. The personalist understanding of wrongdoing is
based upon respect for the dignity of the human person. The Pope realized
that the Church's teaching on contraception is designed to protect the
good of conjugal love. When spouses violate this good, they do not act in
accord with their innate dignity and thus they endanger their own
happiness. Treating their bodies as mechanical instruments to be
manipulated for their own purposes, they risk treating each other as
objects of pleasure.
Paul VI also observed that the widespread acceptance of contraception
would place a "dangerous weapon... in the hands of those public
authorities who take no heed of moral exigencies." The history of the
family-planning programs in the Third World is a sobering testimony to
this reality. In Third World countries many people undergo sterilization
unaware of what they are doing. The forced abortion program in China shows
the stark extreme toward which governments will take population programs.
Moreover, few people are willing to recognize the growing evidence that
many parts of the world face not overpopulation, but underpopulation. It
will take years to reverse the "anti-child" mentality now entrenched in
many societies.
Pope Paul's final warning was that contraception would lead man to think
that he had unlimited dominion over his own body. Sterilization is now the
most widely used form of contraception in the U.S.; individuals are so
convinced of their rights to control their own bodies that they do not
hesitate to alter even their own physical make-up.
The desire for unlimited dominion over one's own body extends beyond
contraception. The production of "test-tube babies" is another indication
of the refusal to accept the body's limitations; so too are euthanasia and
the use of organs transplanted from those who are "nearly" dead. We seek
to adjust the body to our desires and timetables, rather than adjusting
ourselves to its needs.
When man becomes the arbiter of when life begins it soon follows that man will
become the arbiter of when life ends - all in the name of a "limitless
freedom" which doesn't exist except in the minds of the secularists. This is
the inevitable legacy of a contraceptive society which has embraced a
"culture of death". Authentic freedom is doing what you ought in the light of
perfect, absolute truth, not doing what you want. The former was recognized
when slavery was abolished. The latter is called "license", something the
Supreme Court overlooked in Planned Parenthood vs. Casey (1992) which
redefined liberty to mean only what is chosen by the autonomous, unencumbered
self.
Just what do you appeal to when another individual's liberty conflicts with
your person or property? Casey raises the serious question as to whether any
law can be enacted in pursuit of the common good as individual choice always
takes precedence. In the matter of artificial birth control, we insignificant
specks who would vanish from the scene if God forgot us for a nanosecond, have
the unmitigated gall to tell God "we won't allow you the opportunity to create
another human being with the chance to spend eternity with you in Heaven."
I would not want to explain that to an almighty, immutable God upon drawing my
last breath. A God whose infinite Mercy has no meaning without equally His
infinite justice.
The enclosed article is a valuable teaching tool for the Faithful on why
the Catechism says what it does regarding the teaching in HUMANAE VITAE.
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"HUMANAE VITAE" AFTER 25 YEARS
By Father Paul A. Duffner, O.P.
On July 25, 1993 there was celebrated the 25th anniversary of the publication
of the encyclical HUMANAE VITAE by Pope Paul VI, the encyclical giving the
Catholic doctrine on the regulation of birth, and condemning the use of
contraceptives in that regard. There has perhaps never been a papal document
that has met with as much opposition and has caused as much controversy as
this encyclical. It was not because the Church has taught something that was
not true, but because it has taught something that was not
popular,...something that calls for sacrifice....something that our
pleasure-seeking world flatly rejects .... something that some Catholics with
weak faith have not accepted.
THE BASIS OF THE CHURCH'S TEACHING
Pope John Paul II, speaking to an International Congress on Moral Theology on
the twentieth anniversary of Humanae VitAE, explained: "It is not a doctrine
invented by man; it is stamped on the very nature of the human person by the
Creator's hand, and confirmed by Him in revelation." This encyclical confirms
the doctrine expressed by Pope Pius XI in his encyclical on Christian
Marriage: "Any use whatever of Matrimony exercised in such a way that the act
is deliberately frustrated in its natural purpose to generate life is an
offense against the law of God and of Nature."
Pope Paul VI explained the basis of the doctrine of HUMANAE VITAE as follows:
"That teaching, often set forth by the magisterium, is founded upon the
inseparable connection, willed by God and unable to be broken by man on his
own initiative, between the two meanings of the conjugal act: the unitive
meaning and the procreative meaning" (12).
Commenting on this teaching of Paul VI, Pope John Paul II declared in his
Apostolic Constitution "Familiaris Consortio": "When couples, by means of
recourse to contraception, separate these two meanings that God the Creator
has inscribed in the being of man and woman and in the dynamism of their
sexual communion, they act as judges of the divine plan, and they manipulate
and degrade human sexuality (and with it themselves and their married
partner) by altering its value of total self-giving." (32)
As to the Scriptural basis of this doctrine, the Lord referred to the unitive
meaning of the conjugal act when He said in the beginning: "A man leaves his
father and mother and clings to his wife, and the two become one flesh"
(Gen.2:24; Mt.19:5). He referred to its procreative meaning when He said to
our first parents: "Increase and multiply, fill the earth..." (Gen. 1:28)
Yet, we must not misunderstand the Church's teaching in this respect. As the
noted moral theologian Monsignor William Smith points out, "while the Church
declares that these two dimensions of the conjugal act are inseparable, that
does not mean that the two must be realized in every single instance, but
rather that one must never act against them in any single instance. Why?
Because this is God's design, God's plan; and we are meant to be cooperators
with God's plan, not its judge."
This doctrine, the Monsignor declared, "comes to us from three sacred
sources: the Sacred Scriptures revealed by God, Sacred Tradition guided by
the Holy Spirit, and the Magisterium which has been endowed with the gift by
Jesus Christ to teach in His Name." Of these three sources the second Vatican
Council declared in its decree on Revelation: "It is clear that sacred
tradition, sacred Scriptures, and the teaching authority of the Church (the
Magisterium), in accord with God's most wise design, are so linked together
that one cannot stand without the others, and that all together and each one
in its own way under the action of the one Holy Spirit contribute effectively
to the salvation of souls." (n.10)
Every situation involving human sexuality that has been rejected by the
Church as immoral because contrary to God's design, involves an attempt in
one way or another to separate these two fruits of married love (unitive &
procreative) that God has put together. To mention a few of them: artificial
insemination, in vitro fertilization (test tube reproduction), surrogate
motherhood, sperm banks, cloning, artificial birth control, etc.
While the following words of Christ were spoken in reference to divorce, they
are equally applicable to the inseparable connection between the unitive and
procreative meaning of the conjugal act: "What God has joined together, let
no man separate." (Mt.19:6)
PETER, THE ROCK
It is important to see the role of the Pope in these difficult times of
dissent and crisis of faith on the part of many within the Church. Christ
founded His Church on Peter: "Upon this rock I will build my Church" (Mt.
16:18). He entrusted His message to the apostles headed by Peter, and gave
them the authority to teach and to bind: "He who hears you, hears Me. He who
rejects you rejects Me, and he who rejects Me, rejects Him who sent me."
(Lk.10:16). "What you shall bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven" (Mt.
16:19)
Christ gave to his Church a twofold source of unity .... a twofold guide. One
is an interior guide, the LIGHT OF FAITH; the other is an exterior guide, the
VOICE OF PETER. For Catholics those two guides must always go together. One
without the other will not stand.
-the light of faith (if the voice of Peter is rejected) will go out.
-the voice of Peter (without the light of faith) will be rejected.
CONSCIENCE - NOT ALWAYS A TRUE GUIDE
Once one rejects this twofold source of guidance that God has given, he is no
longer guided by the light of faith, but only by human reason which has been
obscured by original sin. Such a one (whether he knows it or not) is given to
wishful thinking, for that is one of the weaknesses of our fallen nature.
That is, we easily justify doing what we want to do, or not doing what we do
not want to do. This is because our judgments are colored or slanted by our
desires. And the greater our attachment to some created good, some
satisfaction, the more our bodily and rational appetites tend to obscure our
reason, and the more we are given to this self-deception.
That is why our conscience, which is simply a practical judgment of the
intellect, is not always a reliable guide. This is the root of the problem of
many in the Church today who reject this or that teaching of the Church. "I
am following my conscience," they say, "which allows me to reject this
teaching of the Church (e.g. regarding contraception), and do what common
sense tells me." What they are saying amounts to this: "My conscience allows
me to reject what the Spirit of Christ dictates, and follow what the spirit
of the world suggests."
Pope John Paul II, speaking on this topic in a general audience Aug. 17,
1983, said:
"It is not sufficient to say to man: 'always follow your conscience.' It is
necessary to add immediately and always: 'Ask yourself if your conscience is
telling you the truth or something false, and seek untiringly to know the
truth. If we were not to make this necessary clarification, man would risk to
find in his conscience a force which is destructive of his true humanity,
rather than that holy place where God reveals to him his true good."
Once one rejects the wisdom of Christ handed down by the Church (that wisdom
which includes the cross), he will invariably accept the wisdom of the world.
There is no middle course, no neutral zone. "He who is not with Me, is
against Me" (Mt. 12:30).
Once one rejects the teaching of the Church on any key issue, it is easy to
reject other basic teachings of the Church. We read of those who consider
themselves Catholic, and yet favor abortion..."Catholics pro-choice" as they
like to call themselves. In all probability, a great percentage of these
first began their rejection of Church authority by joining the ranks of those
who rejected Humanae Vitae. Once one is no longer guided by the light of
divine faith, the spirit of the world takes over.
Pope John Paul II, on the twentieth anniversary of the publication of HUMANAE
VITAE, commented:
"It cannot be said that the faithful have embarked on a diligent search for
truth if they do not take into account what the Magisterium teaches, or if,
by putting it on the same level as any other source of knowledge, makes
oneself judge; or if in doubt, one follows one's own opinion or that of
theologians, preferring it to the sure teaching of the Magisterium.......
"Closely connected with the theme of moral conscience, is that of the binding
force of the moral norm of HUMANAE VITAE. By teaching that the contraceptive
act is intrinsically illicit, Paul VI meant to teach that it does not admit
exceptions. No personal or social circumstance could ever, can now, or will
ever, render such an act lawful in itself. This is the constant teaching of
Tradition and of the Church's Magisterium which cannot be called into
question by the Catholic theologian."
(That is, it cannot be done lawfully; and where it happens, you have the
blind leading the blind. "If a blind guide leads the blind, both fall into
the pit." (Mt. 15:14)
THE GARDEN OF EDEN TODAY
It will be helpful to consider briefly how all that we are speaking of ties
in with what happened at the very beginning of the human race. You recall the
story of Genesis, how Adam and Eve rebelled against God's command not to eat
of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The devil deceived them. "You
will not die. God knows that the moment you eat of it your eyes will be
opened and you will be like gods, knowing good and evil" (Gen. 3:5).
Instead of recognizing God's authority and sovereignty, God's dominion over
all creation, they rebelled against the restriction He had placed on them;
and we know the consequences.
The devil, who knows our human nature so well, uses the same tactics today,
the same strategy that deceived our first parents. "Reject that teaching of
the Church. Those who issue these decrees are far behind the times. You know
the world better than they do. They don't experience the same problems as
you. Do whatever you feel is right for you."
So suggests the Evil One. Once Adam and Eve had sinned, the kingdom of Satan
was established, and they came under his dominion. Every descendent of Adam
(with the sole exception of the Immaculate Mother of God) comes into this
world under the dominion of Satan, and remains under his dominion until
baptism. And even after baptism, the baptized Christian who falls away from
the state of grace comes again under the power of Satan; and the greater the
rebellion against the authority that God has established, the more he comes
under Satan's power and influence and furthers his cause.
THE TREE OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD & EVIL
How many today, in the use of their marriage, has the devil enticed to
partake of that forbidden fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil. God had allowed our first parents to partake of every kind of fruit in
the Garden of Eden with one single exception. What precisely was God
withholding from them? What was He not allowing the head of the human race by
His command not to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil? A note in the Jerusalem bible explains this as follows: "It is the
power of deciding for himself what is good and what is evil, and of acting
accordingly, a claim of complete moral independence by which man refuses to
recognize his status as a created being. This first sin was an attack on
God's sovereignty, a sin of pride."
Speaking of this verse in Genesis, Pope John Paul II says in his new
encyclical on Christian morality "Veritatis Splendor," that "it teaches that
the power to decide what is good and what is evil does not belong to man, but
to God alone..... Man's freedom is not unlimited. It must halt before the
'tree of the knowledge of good and evil,' for it is called to accept the
moral law given by God" (n.35).
Yet, how many today, rejecting God's warning handed down by the Church, have
partaken of that forbidden fruit! How many have claimed for themselves (as
did Adam & Eve) a moral independence, refusing to acknowledge the restrictions
placed on them by their Creator. How many, no longer guided by the light of
faith but following their own selfish inclinations, have convinced themselves
that they know better than the Church. How many are gradually coming more and
more under the influence of the Evil One, following his suggestions rather
than the voice of Christ speaking through His Church. "He who hears you,
hears Me; He who rejects you, rejects Me" (Lk.10:16).
"PRO-CHOICE" CATHOLICS
Those who reject the teaching of the Church put forth in HUMANAE VITAE join
the ranks of "Pro-Choice" Catholics. I have a right to choose. "But," some
will object, "that term 'pro-choice' refers to abortion." That is precisely
the point; it does apply to abortion. And the expression fits perfectly those
who use contraceptives, for many forms of contraception are abortifacient;
that is, they cause abortions. Janet E. Smith, who has published two books
upholding the doctrine of HUMANAE VITAE, explains this point:
"There is much evidence to show that not all contraceptive pills work by
stopping ovulation. With many forms of the Pill a woman may still be
ovulating and thus may be conceiving. If she conceives when on the Pill, she
will most likely self-abort. Since the contraceptive has made the uterine
wall hostile to a fertilized egg, the fertilized ovum, the new young life,
does not implant and dies an early death. The IUD, it is believed, nearly
always works this way. Thus, IUDs and some forms of the Pill not only
contribute to abortion, they in fact cause abortions; they are
abortifacients. Is it not clear, then, that contraception is a leading cause
of abortions.?" ("WHY HUMANAE VITAE WAS RIGHT" p. 523)
Only God knows how many human lives have been conceived and then snuffed out
by those who use contraceptives. It is all so minute and so hidden, but it is
the destruction of innocent human life. "Let them remember," warns Pope Pius
XI in his encyclical on Christian Marriage, "that God is the Judge and
Avenger of innocent blood which cries out from earth to heaven."
Independently, however, of the fact that abortion often follows the use of
contraceptives, the deliberate use of artificial means to frustrate what God
and nature intends is intrinsically wrong, and can never be justified. Such a
one claims the right to negate God's plan, to interfere with the natural
process established by the Creator. O Mother of God, Mother of the Church,
Mother of all mankind, obtain for your children the grace to recognize the
rights of God ... the plan of God ... a plan that requires sacrifice ... a
plan that involves the carrying of a cross in the footsteps of your divine
Son. Obtain for them the light of faith to see that plan with the sacrifices
it requires, and the love to embrace it, that they may experience that
interior peace that all the satisfactions and pleasures of the world can
never bring.