Humanae Vitae

Exhausted by the horrors of two world wars and confused by the occurrence of two, what seemed to be, “non-winnable” wars (Korean and Vietnam), the people of the world looked for hope. At a time when the world began to see an increase in population and a fear to resourcefully support itself, when the demands of education, housing and working conditions, and economic pressure put a financial strain on large families, when a new understanding of women’s dignity was becoming prevalent in society, when the value of love in marriage was called to question, and when the rapid increase of technology and man’s ability to impose his control over his body, mind, emotions, and, most importantly, regulate the transmission of life, people looked for a meaning and purpose to their lives that had been lost throughout three-fourths of the century.[1] They called for peace from every which direction, but none knew where to find it. While the East was treading deeply in “Communist peace,” which hoped to equalize the class structure, and the “Western peace” was running ramped of flower-power, “free love,” and a deep sense of independence from traditional thought, the Church, guided by its supreme shepherd, Pope Paul VI, issued Humanae Vitae (Human Life), and proceeded to “throw cold water” on both the Eastern and Western thoughts; thus, it once again became a “sign of contradiction,” humbly spelling out the moral law for what was and is the foundation to true peace – the “family peace.”

In this personal commentary on Humanae Vitae and its connections to Catholic Social Teaching and Doctrinal Teachings, I hope to show the reader the “infinite” connection of the family structure with the social structure and their ultimate grounding in “God’s structure” – the Book of Nature and the Book of Revelation. By doing so, I hope to make some clear connections between familial moral concerns and social moral concerns, while connecting the two to the development of peace for the whole of humanity. Though this task cannot even come close to being completely sufficient within sixteen pages, my purpose is merely, by means of Humanae Vitae, to “scratch the surface” of true peace, which stems from God is poured out into the family, the society and ultimately all of humanity.

About halfway through Humanea Vitea, Pope Paul VI reminds humanity to look at the “whole picture” of any human moral issue. Even though man is amongst a boom in technological improvements to his life, he is still limited to the laws of nature and must not exceed them. Natural law, rooted in Thomistic metaphysics, reminds us to look at the efficient and final causality of mankind by means of revelation. One can see glimpses of this introduced by Pope Leo XIII in Rerum Novarum when he addresses the Church as continuing to be the remedy to mankind’s social concerns. He writes:

“…civil society was renovated in every part by the teachings of Christianity; that in the strength of that renewal the human race was lifted up to better things…to so excellent a life that nothing more perfect had been known before or will come to pass in the ages that are yet to be. Of this beneficent transformation, Jesus Christ was at once the first cause and the final purpose; as from him all came, so to him all was to be referred. For when, by the light of the Gospel message, the human race came to know the grand mystery of the Incarnation of the Word and the redemption of man, the life of Jesus Christ, God and Man, penetrated every race and nation, and impregnated them with his faith, his precepts, and his laws. And, if society is to be cured now, in no other way can it be cured but by a return to the Christian life and Christian institutions. When society is perishing, the true advice to give…is to recall it to the principles from which it sprung; for the purpose and perfection of an association is to aim at and to attain that for which it was formed; and its operation should be put in motion and inspired by the end and object which originally gave it its being.[2] (italics only for emphasis)

Here Pope Leo exemplifies how the Book of Nature and the Book of Revelation is wholly intertwined in man’s life. Being born in the image and likeness of God, he has stamped on his heart a transcendent dignity given to him by Christ who is his beginning and end, his efficient and final cause. Thus, Leo’s predecessor, Pius XI states that “it is the moral law alone which commands us to seek in all our conduct our supreme and final end, and to strive directly in our specific actions for those ends which nature, or rather, the Author of nature, has established form them, duly subordinating the particular to the general”[3] For it is the moral decision that will enable mankind to develop. If we rightly take into account this “whole picture,” or what Pope Pius XI introduced as the “principle of totality,” rooted in Christ, then we must consent to the reverence due to man by his dignity. For “to consent to any treatment which is calculated to defeat the end and purpose of his being is beyond his right…for it is not man’s own rights which are here in question, but the rights of God, most sacred and inviolable.”[4]

However, during the time of Pope Paul and the many years before him, this “principle of totality” was not rooted in Christ, but in utilitarianism (still very prevalent today). The “whole picture” had been stopped very short of what was intended by the Book of Nature and Revelation and left many questions to be answered – especially concerning marriage and procreation. By reading the “signs of the time,” Pope Paul VI, through Humanae Vitae, intended to rejuvenated the sacrament of marriage and the family, and by this, rejuvenate society.

Man has fallen from God and has allowed sin to turn himself away from his Creator and skewing his true dignity as being made in the image and likeness of God. But in His infinite wisdom, God has sent His Son, Jesus Christ to redeem man and has renewed his dignity. God allows man to freely search for Him and love Him and at the same time discover his own dignity through his life on earth by means of his interconnectedness with others through society and the seven sacraments, in particularly the sacrament of marriage. Thus, both marriage and any societal structure must be in uniform with the teachings of the Church, who interprets the moral law according to the eternal wisdom of God. If this is not the case, then true human dignity is degraded and rejected - for “all the striving of men will be vain if they leave out the Church.”[5]

The sacrament of Holy Matrimony and marital love, which has been given by God to man, not only allows man to find his true dignity, but also reflects God as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and His loving design - for in freely given themselves to one another in mutual love, a couple perfects each other. Through this love, God has given them the responsibility to rearing that most secret of all His gifts – life itself. He has given them the responsibility to love, nourish, and education their children according to his precepts and, thus, assist them in find their true dignity as His children through Christ.

This is precisely the reason why within “…the face of the so-called culture of death, the family is the heart of the culture of life.”[6] This holy sacrament cultivates the development of society and ultimately all of humanity. But at the same time, society must allow for the cultivation of the family. In his encyclical Centesimus Annus, Pope John Paul II writes:

The first and fundamental structure for “human ecology” is the family, in which man receives his first formative ideas about true and goodness, and learns what it means to love and to be loved, and thus what it actually means to be a person…But it often happens that people are discouraged from creating the proper conditions for human reproduction and are led to consider themselves and their lives as a series of sensations to be experienced rather than a work to be accomplished.[7]

Both communism (which is no longer as prevalent as during the time Humanae Vitae was written) and capitalism have their major setbacks when cultivating these conditions for marriage and the family. Communism draws its structure from an ideology, which pushes to “equalize” the class structure. Though at the time, this social structure seemed to be very attractive, especially to the lower class who were being greatly exploited for profit. However, its suppression of private property, which was first pointed out by Pope Leo XIII, would have led to an even greater turmoil. Communism puts the community as a whole as its “ideological center,” rather then the individual person and his dignity as its center. Thus, the human person is swallowed up by the “machine” and merely becomes a “cog” working “without reference to his free choice, to unique and exclusive responsibility which he exercises in the face of good or evil.”[8] The very subject to moral decisions and ultimately the social order loses his identity within the whole. Private property is suppressed and man no longer earns a living through his own initiative.[9] Pope John Paul warns that this subjects man to alienation and purposelessness, ultimately degrading the meaning behind the family.

Capitalism too has its major setbacks when cultivating the family. It seems that after the cold war and especially after the fall of the Berlin wall that capitalism was the answer- that this was the true way to a better humanity and push toward progress. But like everything else, when this structure fails to read the Book of Nature and the Book of Revelation it fails. Within the Western culture we see what one may call superdevelopment. The unrealistic notion of societal progress has been connected to capitalism ever sense the Enlightenment period.

However, this is cannot by the case apart from the eternal wisdom of God. It can easily be said that the human person is a “bottomless pit of desire,” and that the accumulation of finite goods is not enough for him to find his true happiness. His only happiness and fulfill can come about through participating in God’s glory. This is the problem that faces those within a highly consumer-set society. “This superdevelopment, which consists in an excessive availability of every kind of material goods for the benefit of certain social groups, easily makes people slaves of ‘possession’ and of immediate gratification…”[10] Ultimately we see a “radical dissatisfaction,”[11] which sets this society right back into the problems that face communist societies – alienation, a loss of the dignity of the human person, and a sense of meaningless and purposeless to the family life.

As we have stated before, the sacrament of Holy Matrimony is rooted in a human participation of the trinity. In giving oneself completely to another, a couple perfects each other through union and procreation, which are the prime purposes of marriage, and come to find their true dignity as being in the image of the Creator. However, “a society (capitalistic or socialistic) is alienated if its forms of social organization, production and consumption make it more difficult to offer this gift of self…”[12] The ultimate result “is a lack of freedom, which causes a person to reject a commitment to enter into a stable relationship with another person and to bring children into the world, or which leads people to consider children as one of the many ‘things’ which an individual can have or not have, according to taste, and which compete with other possibilities.”[13] This whole concept is the direct result behind problems the Church faces concerning artificial birth control (ABC). The need for immediate gratification or the notion that children are just another “thing” to have as any other good in society brings to question the use of ABC.

However, before focusing on the use of ABC, we must first focus on the martial act itself and its sacredness within marriage. As a man must act loyal in order to grow in loyalty or act honest in order to grow in honesty, so to a man must act in love in order to grow in love. All of these virtues and many more must be expressed through the body – for we are bodily beings and it is only through the body are we to express the spirit. Love must be consistently expressed through the body or it will die out. There is no such thing as spiritual love outside the body. As the body and spirit are one being, so to is a married couple called to be one. For it is stamped in their nature, in the image and likeness of God, to be one as the trinity is One. They are called to be one flesh; thus, sexual intercourse, which of course is expressed through the body, is the peak expression of love between a married couple.[14]

By this peak expression of love, the Creator has enabled man to participate in creation – to work as “partners with God” in generating life. This calls for a couple to recognize this very lofty responsible they have -the responsibility they have for themselves and to the children that God has gifted them with calls for much sacrifice. In other words, family itself calls for a sacrifice. Furthermore, Pope Paul writes that “…the exercise of responsible parenthood requires that husband and wife, keeping a right order of priorities, recognize their own duties toward God, themselves, their family and human society.”[15] A couple is obligated to unselfishly love one another and their children no matter what the circumstances may be. They are obligated to education their children in all areas of life (especially in their faith) and rise them in the best possible atmosphere, suitable for them to grow as individuals recognizing the dignity that lies within them.

However, this sacrifice can, like any other sacrifice, cause much tension within the family, and many times it is not so “black and white” when dealing with “the right order of priorities”[16] that Pope Paul speaks of above. Here we must focus on the importance of the sexual intercourse, the peek expression of love, between the couple especially when tensions arise within the family. Most the of the time this tension arise from financial difficulty due to the present situation within the society (note, as stated in the introduction, that women have began to enter into the workplace and the condition of the economy as put much strain on large families). Theologian Peter Chirico, S.S. in his article entitled “Tension, Morality, and Birth Control,” (note that is written is 1967 just a year before Humanae Vitae), list three different, and very prevalent (even today) choices a couple may face in this kind of tension. First, they may choose to continue to have intercourse even while running the risk of having more children beyond their limits. Secondly, they may abstain from intercourse and run the risk of much tension in their relationship, which would ultimately filter down onto their children. And thirdly, they may rely on technology to regulate the reproductive process and enable them to continue having sexual intercourse and express their love for each other.[17] It seems ABC is obviously the best and justified solution being that society deems it ok and the other two choices run the risk of causing even more of a financial strain on the family.

Here we MUST recognize that pragmaticism is not the means toward finding the truth, rather it must be through means of the Book of Nature and Revelation (this is also very note worthy when considering the two social structures which we have talked about above). Recall what has been stated above regarding the essence of marriage. Marriage is intended through the will of God for both a mutual intertwining of union and procreation, which is expressed in the peek act of love. But if “men rightly observe that a conjugal act imposed on one’s partner without regard to his or her condition or personal and reasonable wishes in the matter, is no true act of love, and therefore offends the moral order in its particular application to the intimate relationship of husband and wife.”[18] In other words, the martial act must be freely chosen between the husband and wife less it hinder the union part of marriage ultimately hindering God’s loving design. Furthermore, “…an act of mutual love which impairs the capacity to transmit life which God the Creator, through specific laws, has built into it, [also] frustrates His design which constitutes the norm of marriage, and [also] contradicts the will of the Author of life.”[19] Because ABC with the intent purpose to regulate life (may be used for therapeutic use) hinders the law of nature set by God, it is an intrinsically evil act and, as all other intrinsically evil acts (abortion, euthanasia), it must not be permitted by the Church. For “…to use this divine gift while depriving it, even if only partially, of its meaning and purpose, is equally repugnant to the nature of man and of woman, and is consequently in opposition to the plan of God and His holy will.”[20]

Many will argue that ABC may be justified within tough situations as mention above or within overpopulation as in developing countries. However, both of which seem to be promoting the common good, and in fact that is the only thing they are doing – promoting, not necessary doing. Just as communism may look very attracting to the lower class at first glance, so too is ABC, especially within the lower class of developing nations who struggle to feed its population. However, upon further investigation and reflection, we see that ABC, because it is contrary to the laws of reproduction set by God, it is always an intrinsic evil. Thus, an intrinsically evil act may never serve as meaning to the common good. It will never result in the development of the common good and the human person because it is contrary to the Book of Nature and the Book of Revelation. Note that “…it is true that sometimes it is lawful to tolerate a lesser moral evil in order to avoid a greater evil or in order to promote a greater good.”[21] However, “tolerate” is the key word here and it presupposes that the evil act is unavoidable.

The Church, knowing that this teaching would rise many eyebrows and be deemed as very ideal and non-practical, has encouraged married couples to recourse to Natural Family Planning. God has set nature in a way that allows for births to be spaced out, enabling the couple to express their utmost love through sexual intercourse even in those most difficult times when having another child would put a financial strain on the family and perhaps prevent the couple from raising their children in the most healthy available environment.[22]

I think most people would still find this method of NFP very unpractical and not nearly as reliable as ABC. However, if we look at the very materialistic and consumer hungry society we live in, which by the way does not cultivate the development of the family (as we have shown above), it seems to me that what the average westerner would say was a “financial strain” is very unreasonable. Sure by having another child that is “unplanned,” a couple may have to give up many of the pleasures they are so accustomed to and further make a greater sacrifice to provide for their family. But on further reflection, would they really find these pleasures more desirable then the joy a child brings to a family?

This question may irritate many couples who, being greatly influenced by consumerist society and lacking in the freedom to make life long commitments, only see children as another “thing” to have or not have (recall Pope John Paul’s quote given at the beginning of this section). In my opinion, “life,” given to a person in any situation no matter how difficult, is much better and more beautiful then “not life.”[23] Though this statement seems very bold and may bring much animosity to those that have seen or experience the overwhelming suffering in the world, I only make it in pure faith of the Gospel which proclaims hope for all of God’s children through Jesus Christ.

As when a couple using ABC has the intention to avoid having children, so to does a couple using NFP have that same intention. To most this may seem contrary to the essence of marriage as union and procreation. When referring to this issue in Humanea Vitae, Pope Paul states that, though the couple may not be intending to have children by using NFP, they are not interfering with God’s loving design. In addition, “it is equally true that it is exclusively in the former case that husband and wife are ready to abstain from intercourse during the fertile period as often as for reasonable motives the birth of another child is not desirable.”[24]

Here we see again the sense of sacrifice that has been noted several times earlier. A couple must sacrifice not have sexual intercourse during those fertile times. These times require much self-control and self-discipline from the couple, which is contrary to the immediate gratification mentality in society. However, “self-discipline of this kind is a shining witness to the chastity of husband and wife and, far from being a hindrance to their love of one another, transforms it by giving it a more truly human character.”[25] This sense of self-denial practiced by the couple together as one is a sure growing period for the couple and may further develop their love for one another. By practicing this self-denial, it will most likely strengthen the couple in other difficult times that call for self-denial, develop their personality, their spiritual blessings, and, most importantly, promote chastity by “repelling inordinate self-love,” which so often can destroy a marriage and ultimately a family.[26]

Having shown, by the example of ABC, how society has a direct affect on its foundation, the family, and how it must cultivate it, I plan, in this next section, to briefly show how the family has a direct affect on society, and how the two must “be one” in order for humanity to further develop (it may be said that the two are in a “spiral effect”)

Pope Paul lays down two major consequences that will arise through the practice of ABC. First, ABC makes a couple vulnerable to “martial infidelity and a general lowering of moral standards.”[27] As I have stated above, a married couple is called to continue growing in love as one mind and heart by continuously letting go of their selfishness and egoism and giving themselves more and more to each other in pure charity. This enables them to find their human dignity rooted in Christ and thus a greater respect for not only their own life but life in general. However, as in any act of charity, there seems to be a fine line between doing it for the “other” rather then the “self.” It can quickly become a means of dividing rather then uniting. By this, if the greatest expression of love, the marital act, is used contrary to the laws of God it can have the direct opposite affect

intended. It can quickly become a means of dividing rather then uniting a couple. It can become a means of disrespecting life rather then respecting life.

This leads into the second consequence spoken about by Pope Paul. A couple that uses ABC opens themselves up to abusing this divine gift, thus, degrading it from its essential form and making it merely as a means for immediate self-gratification. I say “immediate” with all intention because within the world of ABC there is no self-denial, there is no self-control, there is no sacrifice. Within the world of ABC, one’s husband or wife become an object as any other object of pleasure, thus, they become victim to “finite love,” rather then “infinite love.” For just as all material objects that we initially desire with “finite love” soon become less desirable, so too may one’s spouse.

Without “infinite love,” which is stamped on our hearts from God, one soon loses purpose to their life and disrespect to life itself. “Thus, we do not think it is a coincidence that in countries where contraception is accepted as normal, abortions have increased…It is not that contraception leads directly to abortion; rather, contraception acts produce a mentality that cares less for life and is, therefore, more inclined to accept abortion.”[28] Here is a clear example of a general lowering of morality and a social “structure of sin”[29] that starts directly with the family (recall Pope Pius XI’s statement above that places moral law as the sole motive behind true human development).

At this point, I would like to switch gears and briefly talk about the family and its connection with the issue surrounding ABC on labor and the preferential option for the poor. Pope John Paul II heavily emphasizes the dignity behind work and its ability to assist a person in finding their dignity in life. Just as sexual intercourse can be either a uniting or dividing element for a couple, so too can work be a great “dignifier” or degrader for the human person. Pope John Paul writes:

“Man’s life is built up every day from work, from work it derives its specific dignity, but at the same time work contains the unceasing measure of human toil and suffering and also of the harm and injustice which penetrate deeply into social life within individual nations and on the international level.[30]

In my opinion, I see the notion of self-denial, self-control, sacrifice, and parental responsibilities that are acquired by adhering to the Church’s teaching on ABC may indirectly affect the conditions of labor and the labor wage. As the end never justifies the means by using ABC, so to does the end never justify the means within the workforce. To use people as a means for a profit or to better the whole business is morally wrong and intrinsically evil. Often times, however, this may be very difficult for an employer to avoid being that many of us cannot deny the desire for profit and power. However, as a couple must practice self-control over their innate sexual drives within marriage, so to must an employer practice his or her self-control over their want of profit and power. As we have stated before, a person that misuses the gift of sexual intercourse by means of ABC will have a lesser respect for life. This will directly spill over into that person’s treatment of others within the workforce, making them more incline to use others as a means to fulfill their desire of profit and power. The same can be said for a person’s ability to go outside themselves and have a preferential option for the poor.

True peace is something that everyone searches for in there lives, yet it seems not many know where to truly find it. And of those, very few are willing to walk the narrow path of righteousness to obtain it. By this I mean sacrifice. Several times in this paper I mentioned individual sacrifice as something that must be prevalent within both the family and society in order for there to be true peace. “It is by uniting [our] own suffering for the sake of truth and freedom to the suffering of Christ on the Cross that man is able to accomplish the miracle of peace…”[31] Our moral laws must coincide with God’s law, yet we must recall that God’s law embodies the crucifixion, which is a “sign of contradiction.”

There is only one peace and it starts with the family, society and ultimately all of humanity as working as one – constantly cultivating each other according to the Book of Nature and Book of Revelation. We must recognize the interdependent web of relation we have amongst everyone in the world, and work for what Pope John Paul calls as solidarity:

a firm and persevering determination to commit oneself to the common good; that is to say to the good of all and of each individual, because we are all really responsible for all…[It] helps us to see the “other” – whether a person, people, or nation – not just as some kind of instrument…but as a “neighbor”…to be made a sharer, on a par with ourselves, in the banquet of life to which all are equally invited by God.[32]

Finally, in order to see that this be done we must dialogue with each other. We must over come the contextual-linguistic framework that so often divides us from reaching that one, true peace together. This must occur on all levels of interaction - from married couples ministering to other married couples on NFP and ABC to world leaders meeting to discuss the best possible social structure for the development of humanity. Because both issues interrelate with each other, they both must walk hand and hand with God. Though this will take sacrifice, it will bring the true peace people searched for, not only during Pope Paul IV’s time, but have been searching for throughout all of history.

[1] Humanae Vitae, 2

[2] Rerum Novarum, 22

[3] QA, 42

[4] RN, 32

[5] RN, 13

[6] Centesimus Annus, 39

[7] Ibid, 41

[8] Ibid, 13

[9]Ibid

[10] Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, 28

[11] Ibid

[12] CA, 40

[13] CA, 39

[14] Theological Studies, 275

[15] Humanae Vitae, 10

[16] Ibid

[17] Theoloical Studies, 281

[18] HV, 13

[19] Ibid

[20] Ibid

[21] Ibid, 14

[22] Ibid, 16

[23] Note this does not mean that I venture to say it is ok for a couple to have sexual intercourse and not consider their situation. Rather a couple must undertake this as a parental responsibility given to them by the Creator.

[24] Ibid

[25] Ibid, 21

[26] Ibid

[27] Ibid,17

[28] Theological Studies, 278

[29] Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, 35

[30] Laborem Exercens, 1

[31] CA, 25

[32] SRS, 38, 39

Chirico, Peter, S.S., “Tension, Morality, and Birth Control.” Theological Studies 28 (June

John Paul II. Centesimus Annus: On the Hundredth Anniversary of Rerum Novarum. In

John Paul II. Laborem Exercens. In Catholic Social Thought: The Documentary Heritage,

John Paul II. Sollicitudo Rei Socialis. In Catholic Social Thought: The Documentary

Leo XIII. Rerum Novarum: The Condition of Labor. In Catholic Social Thought: The