By Dr. Jeff Mirus ( bio – articles – email ) | Sep 24, 2024
One cannot help but be disturbed yet again by Pope Francis’ seemingly half-hearted commitment to Catholic doctrine. Some time ago he elevated Cardinal Hollerich to a major role in the Synod on Synodality despite his belief that Church teaching on homosexuality is based on an outdated anthropology. Now he has included among 28 new consultors to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith one who disagrees with the Church’s teaching that contraception is a sin. Why would anyone want to appoint an advisor to the Church’s doctrinal dicastery who does not himself uphold the teachings of the Magisterium? And one might well also ask why it is not yet obvious to everyone that the rejection of this teaching has borne an enormous quantity of exceedingly bad fruit.
Pope St. Paul VI settled the question of contraception deliberately and decisively in his 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae (On Human Life) (or listen in Catholic Culture Audiobooks) after the explosion of the use of “the pill”. But it had already been stated by Pope Pius XI in his 1930 encyclical Casti Connubii (On Christian Marriage) (or listen in Catholic Culture Audiobooks), in addition to being the constant understanding of the Church throughout her history. To take but one example, I still remember from my graduate studies that in the fifteenth century St. Antoninus of Florence condemned this practice in his Summa Moralia.
Of course, while I can remember the day that Humanae Vitae was issued (I was twenty years old), the vast majority of those living now missed that profoundly important event. Moreover, for both good reasons (such as sensitivity to children) and bad (such as avoiding hard sayings), the topic is seldom broached in homilies. Unsurprisingly, therefore, what has followed upon the widespread rejection of St. Paul VI’s encyclical was exactly what he expected: An explosion of sexual license, the destruction of marriage and family life, the degradation of women, an embrace of homosexuality, the denial of the human person’s sexual identity, widespread alienation from our own nature, and the insistence that we ought to be able to make ourselves into whatever gender we think at the moment we might like to be.
“For the want of a nail”, as the saying goes; or, to change the metaphor, Pope St. Paul VI resisted the majority of his own theological advisors by putting his finger in the dike, and so a fallen world insisted on simply demolishing the whole dike.
Remarkably concise
Humanae Vitae is a remarkably concise encyclical. If you print it out from our website, it will be just thirteen pages long, minus the footnotes. But for all that, one may well wonder whether Pope Francis ever bothered to read it or, perhaps more realistically, one does wonder how he could possibly think it a good idea to promote to an important doctrinal advisory position someone who claims Catholics can reject the teachings of the Magisterium.
Therefore, in case you missed this encyclical, or haven’t thought about it for a while, let’s hit the high points here. As was still the custom in those distant days, St. Paul VI used the royal and pontifical pronouns “we” and “us” to refer to himself when speaking formally and officially as Pope:
A matter of Natural Law: In numbered section 4 we learn that the moral authority of the Church extends to her ability to unerringly interpret the natural law:
No member of the faithful could possibly deny that the Church is competent in her magisterium to interpret the natural moral law. It is in fact indisputable, as Our predecessors have many times declared, (1) that Jesus Christ, when He communicated His divine power to Peter and the other Apostles and sent them to teach all nations His commandments, (2) constituted them as the authentic guardians and interpreters of the whole moral law, not only, that is, of the law of the Gospel but also of the natural law. For the natural law, too, declares the will of God, and its faithful observance is necessary for men’s eternal salvation.
A case of Magisterial authority: In section 6, Pope St. Paul VI affirms that, having studied the matter carefully, he intends to clarify it “by virtue of the mandate entrusted to Us by Christ”, precisely stated in this way:
Consequently, now that We have sifted carefully the evidence sent to Us and intently studied the whole matter, as well as prayed constantly to God, We, by virtue of the mandate entrusted to Us by Christ, intend to give Our reply to this series of grave questions.
A precise statement of what is proscribed: In section 14, the text identifies clearly the acts under consideration and their moral exclusion, especially noting that the direct interruption of the generative process once begun is to be absolutely excluded:
Therefore We base Our words on the first principles of a human and Christian doctrine of marriage when We are obliged once more to declare that the direct interruption of the generative process already begun and, above all, all direct abortion, even for therapeutic reasons, are to be absolutely excluded as lawful means of regulating the number of children. Equally to be condemned, as the magisterium of the Church has affirmed on many occasions, is direct sterilization, whether of the man or of the woman, whether permanent or temporary.
Anticipation of resistance: In section 18, the saintly Pope insists that when it comes to battling evil, the Church, like Christ Himself, must be a sign of contradiction to the world:
It is to be anticipated that perhaps not everyone will easily accept this particular teaching. There is too much clamorous outcry against the voice of the Church, and this is intensified by modern means of communication. But it comes as no surprise to the Church that she, no less than her divine Founder, is destined to be a “sign of contradiction.” She does not, because of this, evade the duty imposed on her of proclaiming humbly but firmly the entire moral law, both natural and evangelical.
Emphasis on the solemnity of the decision: And in section 31, Pope St. Paul VI emphasizes that the encyclical is an expression of “the unshakable teaching of the Church”, in the rejection of which “man cannot attain that true happiness for which he yearns”:
Venerable brothers, beloved sons, all men of good will, great indeed is the work of education, of progress and of charity to which We now summon all of you. And this We do relying on the unshakable teaching of the Church, which teaching Peter’s successor together with his brothers in the Catholic episcopate faithfully guards and interprets. And We are convinced that this truly great work will bring blessings both on the world and on the Church. For man cannot attain that true happiness for which he yearns with all the strength of his spirit, unless he keeps the laws which the Most High God has engraved in his very nature. These laws must be wisely and lovingly observed.
Truth and reality
Truth, as the very apt philosophical definition states, is the mind’s grasp of reality. Note that the decision to adhere to this particular moral truth enhances marriage and family life, building the appropriate space for sacrifice and spiritual maturation which is communicated throughout the family and formed in the next generation. Indeed, couples who commit themselves to living their love vocationally, in a lifelong union defined by the very will of God, have significantly higher success rates in marriage, find a deep and genuine joy in a generous family life, and—not incidentally—provide the kind of future citizens that are so badly needed to reshape a wholesome and spiritually productive society.
It is no secret, of course, that your personal mileage may vary. There are a great many personal and societal challenges that afflict marriage and family today—and there always have been some, even in generally supportive cultures. In addition to faith, moral commitment and spiritual maturity, there are combinations of psychological health and personal responsibility needed, perhaps especially the responsibility to form and education one’s children for life in Christ. And this will always mean embracing distinctive minority methods of schooling.
For this reason, in our alien culture, almost every marital attitude and familial task must be embraced to some degree as a conscious sign of God’s love. There is no escaping this in our time, for the surrounding culture will form both us and our children if we do not. In other words, married couples and their families must become the same sort of courageous and happy sign of contradiction which Pope St. Paul VI claimed as the sign of the Church herself—and as the sign of Jesus Christ.
Jeffrey Mirus holds a Ph.D. in intellectual history from Princeton University. A co-founder of Christendom College, he also pioneered Catholic Internet services. He is the founder of Trinity Communications and CatholicCulture.org. See full bio.
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