Humanae Vitae, Introduction.

2018 marks the 50th anniversary of Humanae Vitae. A landmark document of the Catholic Church, this Papal Encyclical delivered by Pope Paul VI in 1968 outlines the moral stance of the Church with regards to "new questions" concerning reproductive technologies and sexual ethics. At the end of the sixties, the so-called "sexual revolution" had planted the unabortable seed of its ideology. Autonomy and self-determination, with regards to promiscuity and intimate relations, takes precedence over any archaic law that claims otherwise. The sexual act was a harmless, unifying moment. A coming together of persons, in peace. In the wake of the era of free love, such unbridled passion supposedly brought harmony, not war. Love was free--an ecstasy to be shared and mutually enjoyed; a social, recreational drug. Contraceptive technologies simply aided the proliferation of this act without its "negative", or at least inconvenient, consequences.

This has become the predominant opinion in the West, if not in preaching at least in practice. My generation and the generation after me have been spoon fed the consequences of this ideology. The exponential increase in sophisticated technology and widespread availability of internet-capable devices, with the development and use of social media and other entertainment, has made access to explicit content extremely accessible. What was once a scandal is now a norm. The porn of the past is the apparel of the present. We live in a society where it would be abnormal for a high school student not to have a smartphone--a device which, with a few taps, can take one to content that even the most brutish pagan orgies of ancient civilizations could not dream up. And all within a convenient pocket-size device. Our brains are trained, from an increasingly young age, to divorce sexual values from the reproductive consequences. Pleasure is prime.

The fluidity of sexual partners within one's teenage and undergraduate university years is a common-place and accepted the practice, without fear of future implications or negative repercussions (aside from STIs & STDs). If the sex is safe, it is permissible. Needless to say, we live in an unprecedented time, particularly with regards to the freedom and sexual autonomy of the young, both in terms of defining identity, as well as expression and practice. I have attended colleges both in the US and UK, Catholic and non-Catholic, and the ideology is as prevalent on both sides of the pond.

At this time, with the 50th Anniversary of Humanae Vitae, this document finds itself perhaps more relevant than ever, and I believe it should be of particular interest to young who concerned with the trends in our time. In a series of posts, I plan to dissect this relatively short encyclical, analysing its' components and key themes in a reflective manner.

Pope Paul VI opens his encyclical with the following series of introductory statements:

"The transmission of human life is a most serious role in which married people collaborate freely and responsibly with God the Creator. It has always been a source of great joy to them, even though it sometimes entails many difficulties and hardships."

The Pope begins with an emphasis on the seriousness of the task of parenthood, which is a freely chosen cooperation with God's creation. A task which is a grave responsibility, but which also has the possibility of authentic joy as a likely outcome, despite the challenges it presents.

True and lasting joy can only be experienced through suffering. The cross is the ultimate exemplification of this reality. According to the Catholic intellectual tradition, Christ on the cross is the archetype of a joyful, who has conformed himself in humility and obedience to the will of the Father (Bishop Barron stresses this, borrowing from Aquinas). This is a paradox of Christianity (see Chesterton's Orthodoxy), which seems counter-intuitive to our human nature and our post-modern hedonistic, voluntarist, and utilitarian culture. Parenthood, it goes without saying, demands a varying amount of sacrifice. On the part of the woman, this begins in a physical way from her pregnancy, with the physiological changes that occur as she transitions from trimester to trimester. A responsible and loving father will emotionally participate in this, albeit to a much less intense degree, to the extent that he is willing to take particular care of, and pay attention to, her often intensified needs during this period.

During childbirth, this suffering is intensified exponentially, but what follows immediately is a joy that remedies and nullifies the pain experienced only moments prior, when the mother, with father, gaze into the eyes of their a new-born child. Throughout life, parenthood is marked with this twinning of suffering and joy, sacrifice and liberty, death and resurrection. Blood, pain, sweat and tears bring forth new life, both on the cross and in the delivery room.

In light of this, the Pope observes: 

"The fulfilment of this duty has always posed problems to the conscience of married people, but the recent course of human society and the concomitant changes have provoked new questions. The Church cannot ignore these questions, for they concern matters intimately connected with the life and happiness of human beings." 

With the challenges that parenthood, by definition, brings on the "micro" level of each individual relationship of mother and father as they navigate the various hurdles of raising responsible human beings, the Pope observes that the future of society, in 1968, is presented with an onslaught of new concerns that affect both the possibility of human life and authentic joy on a "macro", or sociological, level. What is threatened, according to Pope Paul VI, is the life and happiness of humanity. Now 50 years on, we should carefully reconsider these warnings, examining the document's content and accuracy, in order to realize it's acute pertinency now more than ever.