| | Humanae Vitae and the Year of Priests | | William L. Daniel | | | When most Catholics hear mention made of Humanae Vitae (HV), they think, “the encyclical that condemned birth control.” There are many reasons for this—political, social, historical, theological and spiritual. However, to the careful reader of that monumental July 25, 1968 encyclical letter of the Servant of God Pope Paul VI, this is an evident over-simplification. For HV offers a holistic, person-centred vision of human love in light of the mystery of the divine person Jesus Christ.
What does this have to do with the Year of Priests we just concluded? In his letter proclaiming the special year, His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI described it as an occasion for priests to make “a generous and renewed commitment to the ideal of complete self-oblation to Christ and the Church” (Letter, 6/16/09). Among other things, he describes the priest as a servant of the authentic liberation of every person; and he says that the priest can become this by “a substantial ‘losing of himself’ in Christ” by a greater conformity to Christ (General Audience, 6/24/09).
HV guides married couples, and indeed every man and woman, to the same authentic liberation described by Pope Benedict. It does this by calling us to a high (and highly attainable) ideal of human love. Therefore, since the priest is the servant of this liberation, the message of HV is close to his heart and integral to his sacred ministry. However, since the message of HV is challenging to today’s married and engaged couples, priests may not always find an eager reception when they preach or teach it. In HV 28-29, Paul VI addresses priests directly, and he offers them a little programme for losing themselves in this one, very important area of their ministry to married couples and Christian families. |
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In this article, we will first very briefly recall the heart of HV’s teaching and then dwell on HV’s message specifically to priests. It is hoped that these reflections will provide fodder for prayerful consideration to priests, as well as to married and engaged couples as they search for the deeper meaning of conjugal love.
The dynamic message of Humanae Vitae in brief
Space limitations make it impossible to summarize the details of HV, nor is there any substitution for a careful reading of the text itself. Still, it is helpful to recall in broad strokes the crux of its message, in light also of some subsequent magisterial teachings.
Responsible parenthood calls spouses to make prudent yet generous decisions about the size of their family; indeed, for serious reasons (seriae causae) a couple can decide to delay the procreation of children (HV 10). This responsible parenthood must respect the fact that unity and the possibility of procreation are both always included in each conjugal act (11-12). If spouses wilfully remove the procreative potential of a given act of intercourse, they exclude the procreative meaning, which violates the plan of God for marriage and sexuality (13). This happens, for example, when spouses themselves prevent procreation within the very act of intercourse—e.g., by using a barrier method of contraception, chemical contraception or the insertion of a device. Such acts are intrinsically immoral (14). When just reasons (iustae causae/rationes) demand a certain spacing of children, the couple may abstain during the fertile phase of a woman’s ...Contd. | | |
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