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GENERAL AUDIENCE OF 28 AUGUST 1984
At the 28 August general audience held in St Peter's Square, the Holy Father continued his reflections on the encyclical "Humanae Vitae" regarding the Church's teaching on the transmission of life.
The following is our translation of the Pope's address.
1. The Encyclical Humanae Vitae, while demonstrating the moral evil of
contraception, at the same time fully approves of the natural regulation of
fertility and, in this sense, it approves of responsible parenthood.
Here one must exclude the possibility of describing as "responsible"
from the ethical point of view that procreation in which recourse is had to
contraception in order to regulate fertility. On the contrary, the true concept
of responsible parenthood is connected with the right and lawful regulation of
fertility from the ethical viewpoint.
2. We read in this regard: "The right and lawful ordering of the births of
children presupposes in husband and wife first and foremost that they fully
recognize and value the true blessings of family life, and secondly, that they
acquire complete mastery over themselves and their emotions. For if with the aid
of reason and of free will they are to control their natural drives, there can
be no doubt at all of the need for self-denial. Only then will the expression of
love, particular to married life, conform to right order. And this is especially
true as regards the practice of periodic continence. But self-discipline of this
kind is a shining witness to the chastity of husband and wife and, so far from
being a hindrance to their love of one another, transforms it by giving it a
more truly human character. And if this self-discipline does demand that they
persevere in their purpose and efforts, it has at the same time the salutary
effect of enabling husband and wife to develop to the full their personalities
and be enriched with spiritual blessings..." (HV 21).
The proper attitude
3. The Encyclical then points out the consequences of such a line of conduct
not merely for the couple themselves but also for the whole family understood as
a community of persons. It will be necessary to treat this subject again. The
encyclical underlines that a right and lawful regulation of fertility demands
above all from husband and wife a definite family and procreative attitude.
That is to say, it requires "that they acquire and possess solid
convictions about the true values of life and of the family" (HV 21).
Beginning from this premise, it was necessary to proceed to an overall
consideration of the question as the 1980 Synod of Bishops did (cf. On the Role
of the Christian Family). Later, the doctrine concerning this particular problem
of conjugal and family morality, treated of in the Encyclical Humanae Vitae,
found its proper place and fitting perspective in the comprehensive context of
the Apostolic Exhortation Familiaris Consortio. The theology of the body,
especially as the pedagogy of the body, has its roots, in a certain sense, in
the theology of the family and, at the same time, leads to it. This pedagogy of
the body, whose key today is the Encyclical Humanae Vitae, is explained
only in the full context of a correct vision of the values of life and of the
family.
4. In the text quoted above, Pope Paul VI refers to conjugal chastity when he
writes that the observance of periodic continence is the form of self-mastery in
which conjugal chastity is manifested (cf. HV 21).
In undertaking now a deeper analysis of this problem, it is necessary to bear in
mind the whole doctrine on chastity understood as the life of the Spirit (cf.
Gal 5:25), already considered by us, in order to understand the respective
statements of the encyclical on the theme of periodic continence. That doctrine
remains indeed the real reason, beginning from which the teaching of Paul
VI defines the regulation of births and responsible parenthood as
ethically right and lawful.
Even though the periodicity of continence in this case is applied to the
so-called "natural rhythms" (HV 16), the continence itself is a
definite and permanent moral attitude. It is a virtue, and therefore the
whole line of conduct guided by it acquires a virtuous character. The Encyclical
emphasizes clearly enough that here it is not merely a matter of a
definite technique, but of ethics in the strict sense of the term as the morality
of conduct.
Therefore, the Encyclical opportunely sets out in relief, on the one hand, the
necessity to respect in the above-mentioned line of conduct the order
established by the Creator, and on the other hand, the necessity of an immediate
motivation of an ethical character.
5. In regard to the first aspect we read: "To experience the gift of
married love while respecting the laws of conception is to acknowledge that one
is not the master of the sources of life, but rather the minister of the design
established by the Creator" (HV 13). "Human life is sacred"—as
our predecessor of holy memory, John XXIII, said in his Encyclical Mater et
Magistra—"from
its very beginning it involves directly the creative action of God" (AAS
53, 1961; cf. HV 13). As regards the immediate motivation, the Encyclical
Humanae Vitae requires that "there exist reasonable grounds for
spacing births, arising from the physical or psychological condition of husband
or wife, or from external circumstances..." (HV 16).
Living by the Spirit
6. In the case of a morally upright regulation of fertility effected by means
of periodic continence, one is clearly dealing with the practice of conjugal
chastity, that is, of a definite ethical attitude. In biblical language we could
say that it is a case of living by the Spirit (cf. Gal 5:25).
The morally correct regulation is also called "the natural
regulation of fertility," which can be explained as conformity to the
natural law. By natural law we mean that order of nature in the field of
procreation, insofar as it is understood by right reason. This order is the
expression of the Creator's plan for man. It is precisely this that the
encyclical, together with the whole Tradition of Christian teaching and
practice, stresses in a particular way: the virtuous character of the attitude
which is expressed in the natural regulation of fertility is determined not so
much by fidelity to an impersonal natural law as to the Creator-Person, the
Source and Lord of the order which is manifested in such a law.
From this point of view, the reduction to a mere biological regularity,
separated from the order of nature that is, from the Creator's plan, deforms the
authentic thought of the Encyclical Humanae Vitae (cf. HV 14).
The document certainly presupposes that biological regularity. Indeed, it
exhorts competent persons to study it and to apply it in a still deeper way, but
it always understands this regularity as the expression of the order of
nature, that is, of the providential plan of the Creator, in the faithful
execution of which the true good of the human person consists.
Taken from: L'OSSERVATORE ROMANO - English Edition -- Reprinted with Permission -- Libreria Editrice Vaticana - The Holy See