Humanae Vitae

Dear Friends,
July 25, 2008 will be the 40th anniversary of Pope Paul VI’s encyclical letter Humanae Vitae. Beginning on July 25 of 2007, Priests for Life will launch a special year-long preparation for that anniversary and will call attention to the wisdom and insight of this important document. Respect for human life is the basis of civilization, and respect for life demands respect for the sources of life. Many of my brother priests point to the failure of so many clergy to wholeheartedly embrace Humanae Vitae when it was issued, and say that this is the reason that so many were subsequently unwilling to address the abortion tragedy once it was legalized.

Now, however, we have a new generation of priests who are not caught in the dilemma of having to justify their past silence. They are ready, and are in fact engaged in, the mission of preaching and teaching the truth about human life and sexuality. Please feel free to make use of the resources you’ll find at my www.priestsforlife.org/contraception , and let’s spread the word!
Fr. Frank Pavone

Pope Paul VI made some dire predictions if Humanae Vitae were not heeded. He said that women would be made into sex objects, and that governments would begin to forcibly limit family size. The predictions looked far-fetched in 1967, and were laughed off by Catholic intellectuals. Fewer people are laughing today. Here's the text:

Let them first consider how easily this
course of action could open wide the way for marital infidelity and a
general lowering of moral standards. Not much experience is needed to
be fully aware of human weakness and to understand that human beings—and
especially the young, who are so exposed to temptation—need incentives to keep the moral law, and it is an evil thing to make it easy for them to break that law. Another effect that gives cause for alarm is that a man who grows accustomed to the use of contraceptive methods may forget the reverence due to a woman, and, disregarding her physical and emotional equilibrium, reduce her to being a mere instrument for the satisfaction of his own desires, no longer considering her as his partner whom he should surround with care and affection.
Humanae Vitae

Skyrocketing STD rates, a 30% abortion rate, of out of wedlock births, child molestation, pornography, and abuse against women, combined with the general lowering of the status of women to mere accumulation of body parts, are contraception's sorry legacy.


Finally, careful consideration should be given to the danger of this powerpassing into the hands of those public authorities who care little for theprecepts of the moral law. Who will blame a government which in its attempt to resolve the problems affecting an entire country resorts to the same measures as are regarded as lawful by married people in the solution of a particular family difficulty? Who will prevent public authorities from favoring those contraceptive methods which they consider more effective? Should they regard this as necessary, they may even impose their use on everyone. Humanae Vitae
Amazing how an old, celebate man could predict such things. One would almost think that he had a supernatural advisor.

The Chinese One Child Policy funded by the UN Population Fund, is well known. Congress will be funding forced contraception programs worldwide again, thanks to a recent vote to recind the Mexico City Policy. Indian baby girls, unborn and born are being exterminated. Environmentalists are speaking in terms of governmental limits on family size, due to the impact of children on global warming, despite evidence of a severely declining birthrate which threatens to eliminate Europe.

Amazing how an old, celebate man could predict such things. One would almost think that he had a supernatural advisor.

Married Couples reject the blessing of children

According to a study released July 1st by the Pew research center, Public Concern over the Delinking of Marriage and Parenthood. Adults of all ages consider unwed parenting to be a big problem for society. "At the same time, however, just four-in-ten (41%) say that children are very important to a successful marriage, compared with 65% of the public who felt this way as recently as 1990".

According to a Washington Post article, "This might be explained by a greater emphasis on soul mate relationships in marriage and an increasing recognition of the stress involved in raising children, said Barbara Dafoe Whitehead, co-director of the National Marriage Project at Rutgers University. There is also a more widespread belief that having children is a choice, she said. "Marriage and kids were kind of hyphenated before," she said, "and now the hyphens have been removed."

This is the direct result of forty years of ignoring Humanae Vitae, which begins with the following acknowlegement, " 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. " Hardships are thought to undermine marriage, and many couples try to avoid any type of sacrifice, for the good of the marriage, their own comfort,freedom of lifestyle, and financial success. It's all about personal satisfaction, and marriage, though it remains the ideal of many, in practice, is becoming less important.
"In the United States today, marriage exerts less influence over how adults organize their lives and how children are born and raised than at any time in the nation's history. Only about half of all adults (ages 18 and older) in the U.S. are married; only about seven-in-ten children live with two parents; and nearly four-in-ten births are to unwed mothers, according to U.S. Census figures. As recently as the early 1970s, more than six-in-ten adults in this country were married; some 85% of children were living with two parents; and just one-birth-in-ten was to an unwed mother."

Where have all the children gone?

Patrick at Driving Out the Snakes has a post with some depressing news about where children rank in importance in American's opinions on marriage.Eighth. What could be more important than raising up the next generation?
My next door neighbor said that instead of having a second child, they would be getting a boat. A big one. Then they got a second dog, which their son calls his brother. So sad. He used to look through my fence to watch my girls playing together in the yard.
Kimberley Hahn, in her wonderful book on incorporating the Church's teaching on life into your home, Life-Giving Love, said, "the best thing you can give a child is a sibling, someone to love them when you are gone".
God bless those brave Catholic parents who have large families, and put up with all kinds of grief from perfect strangers. My friend Alice Gunther writes about the different reactions she sees to her family of seven children here.
I could only have three children (I lost three children to miscarriage) and now my OB said that carrying a child to term at my age would be enough to help Blessed Mother Teresa qualify for sainthood. Come on Mother, I want twins!