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GENERAL AUDIENCE OF WEDNESDAY, 1 AUGUST 1984
On Wednesday morning, 1 August, at the general audience in St Peter's
Square, Pope John Paul II continued his analysis of Paul VI's "Humanae Vitae" and the Conciliar document "Gaudium et Spes", in the
context of his theme, responsible parenthood. Following is our translation of
the Holy Father's address.
1. For today we have chosen the theme of responsible parenthood in the light of Gaudium
et Spes and of Humanae Vitae. In treating of the subject, the
Council document limits itself to recalling the basic premises. However, the
papal document goes further, giving a more concrete content to these premises.
The Council text reads as follows: "When it is a question of harmonizing
married love with the responsible transmission of life, it is not enough to take
only the good intention and the evaluation of motives into account; the
objective criteria must be used, criteria drawn from the nature of the human
person and human action, criteria which respect the total meaning of mutual
self-giving and human procreation in the context of true love; all this is
possible only if the virtue of married chastity is seriously practiced" (GS
51).
The Council adds: "In questions of birth regulation, the sons of the
Church, faithful to these principles, are forbidden to use methods disapproved
of by the teaching authority of the Church" (GS 51).
Ruled by conscience
2. Before the passage quoted, the Council teaches that married couples
"shall fulfill their role with a sense of human and Christian
responsibility, and the formation of correct judgments through docile respect
for God." (GS 50). This involves "common reflection and effort; it
also involves a consideration of their own good and the good of their children,
already born or yet to come, an ability to read the signs of the times and of
their own situation on the material and spiritual level, and finally, an
estimation of the good of the family, of society and of the Church." (GS
50).
At this point words of particular importance follow, to determine with greater
precision the moral character of responsible parenthood. We read:
"It is the married couple themselves who must in the last analysis arrive
at these judgments before God" (GS 50).
And it continues: "Married people should realize that in their behaviour
they may not simply follow their own fancy but must be ruled by conscience—and
conscience ought to be conformed to the law of God in the light of the teaching
authority of the Church, which is the authentic interpreter of divine law. For
the divine law throws light on the meaning of married love, protects it and
leads it to truly human fulfilment" (GS 50).
3. The Council document, in limiting itself to recalling the necessary premises
for responsible parenthood, has set them out in a completely unambiguous
manner, clarifying the constitutive elements of such parenthood, that is,
the mature judgment of the personal conscience in relationship to the divine
law, authentically interpreted by the Magisterium of the Church.
True conjugal love
4. Basing itself on the same premises, Humanae Vitae goes further and
offers concrete indications. This is seen, first of all, in the way of
defining responsible parenthood (cf. HV 10). Paul VI seeks to clarify this
concept by considering its various aspects and excluding beforehand its
reduction to one of the "partial aspects, as is done by those who speak
exclusively of birth control." From the very beginning, Paul VI is guided
in his reasoning by an integral concept of man (cf. HV 7) and of conjugal love
(cf. HV 8, 9).
Under different aspects
5. One can speak of responsibility in the exercise of the function of
parenthood under different aspects. Thus he writes: "In relation to the
biological processes involved, responsible parenthood is to be understood as the
knowledge and observance of their specific functions. Human intelligence
discovers in the faculty of procreating life, the biological laws which involve
human personality" (HV 10). If, on the other hand, we examine "the
innate drives and emotions of man, responsible parenthood expresses the
domination which reason and will must exert over them" (HV 10).
Taking for granted the above-mentioned interpersonal aspects and adding to them
the "economic and social conditions," those are considered "to
exercise responsible parenthood who prudently and generously decide to have a
large family, or who, for serious reasons and with due respect to the moral law,
choose to have no more children for the time being or even for an indeterminate
period" (HV 10).
From this it follows that the concept of responsible parenthood contains the
disposition not merely to avoid a further birth but also to increase the family
in accordance with the criteria of prudence. In this light in which the question
of responsible parenthood must be examined and decided, there is always of
paramount importance "the objective moral order instituted by God, the
order of which a right conscience is the true interpreter" (HV 10).
6. The commitment to responsible parenthood requires that husband and wife,
"keeping a right order of priorities, recognize their own duties toward
God, themselves, their families and human society" (HV 10). One cannot
therefore speak of acting arbitrarily. On the contrary the married couple
"must act in conformity with God's creative intention" (HV 10).
Beginning with this principle the encyclical bases its reasoning on the
"intimate structure of the conjugal act" and on "the inseparable
connection of the two significances of the conjugal act" (cf. HV 12), as
was already stated. The relative principle of conjugal morality is, therefore,
fidelity to the divine plan manifested in the "intimate structure of the
conjugal act" and in the "inseparable connection of the two
significances of the conjugal act."
Taken from: L'OSSERVATORE ROMANO - English Edition -- Reprinted with Permission -- Libreria Editrice Vaticana - The Holy See