In the so-called sexual revolution of the 1960s, the magnificent vocation of marriage was not properly appreciated, esteemed, and understood. Yet in the face of monumental resistance, Saint Pope Paul VI courageously reminded humanity of God’s noble call for men and women to unite in lifelong, monogamous marriages and collaborate in His very work of creation. Let’s pause and wrap our heads around that….
Utilizing “the natural cycles immanent in the reproductive system…[to] engage in marital intercourse only during those times that are infertile” (Humanae Vitae)
While many were getting lost in the weeds of temptation toward libertine attitudes, Saint Pope Paul VI was reminding humanity that marriage/family/human sexuality was holy! God calls men and women to unite in lifelong, monogamous marriages and actually cooperate in His continuing work of creation! Wow!
In Humanae Vitae, the late Holy Father called everyone to a deeper understanding and appreciation of God’s awesome gift of marriage/family/human sexuality:
The transmission of human life is a most serious role in which married people collaborate freely and responsibly with God the Creator….
Marriage…is in reality the wise and provident institution of God the Creator, whose purpose was to effect in man His loving design. As a consequence, husband and wife, through that mutual gift of themselves, which is specific and exclusive to them alone, develop that union of two persons in which they perfect one another, cooperating with God in the generation and rearing of new lives….
Marriage and conjugal love are by their nature ordained toward the procreation and education of children. Children are really the supreme gift of marriage and contribute in the highest degree to their parents’ welfare [Vatican II’s Gaudium et Spes]…
each and every marital act must of necessity retain its intrinsic relationship to the procreation of human life….
an act of mutual love which impairs the capacity to transmit life which God the Creator, through specific laws, has built into it, frustrates His design which constitutes the norm of marriage, and contradicts the will of the Author of life….
If…there are well-grounded reasons for spacing births, arising from the physical or psychological condition of husband or wife, or from external circumstances, the Church teaches that married people may then take advantage of the natural cycles immanent in the reproductive system and engage in marital intercourse only during those times that are infertile
It can be very unsettling to look back to 1968 and Humanae Vitae’s prophetic warnings about the proliferation of contraceptives, rather than – for serious reasons – married couples’ use of “the natural cycles immanent in the reproductive system…[to] engage in marital intercourse only during those times that are infertile”:
how easily this course of action could open wide the way for marital infidelity and a general lowering of moral standards….
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….
careful consideration should be given to the danger of this power passing into the hands of those public authorities who care little for the precepts of the moral law.
Humanae Vitae recognized the incredible power (for better and for worse) of social media, the primacy of the family and its need for civil protection, and the indispensable need for the collaboration of bishops and priests:
Everything…in the modern means of social communication which arouses men’s baser passions and encourages low moral standards, as well as every obscenity in the written word and every form of indecency on the stage and screen, should be condemned publicly and unanimously by all those who have at heart the advance of civilization and the safeguarding of the outstanding values of the human spirit….
The family is the primary unit in the state; do not tolerate any legislation which would introduce into the family those practices which are opposed to the natural law of God….
We turn Our mind to you, reverently and lovingly, beloved and venerable brothers in the episcopate….We invite all of you, We implore you, to give a lead to your priests who assist you in the sacred ministry, and to the faithful of your dioceses, and to devote yourselves with all zeal and without delay to safeguarding the holiness of marriage, in order to guide married life to its full human and Christian perfection. Consider this mission as one of your most urgent responsibilities at the present time.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Natural Family Planning Awareness Week starts on July 25th, the 53rd anniversary of Saint Pope Paul VI’s Humanae Vitae. Its second day coincides with the memorial of Saints Joachim and Anne, Jesus’ own grandparents. Pope Francis has announced that henceforth the fourth Sunday in July will also be the World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly.
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Thank you very, very much for your comment.
When I read my submission again this morning, I wondered if “Utilizing ‘the natural cycles immanent in the reproductive system…[to] engage in marital intercourse only during those times that are infertile’ (Humanae Vitae)” should have ONLY followed the lengthier quote. Couples are to have a SERIOUS reason for engaging “in marital intercourse only during those times that are infertile.”
Your welcome very, very much.
Sometimes synchronicity is so sweet it feels like a duty. Such is this timely post on a clutch of easily foiled points – score one for the secular world. So, if Utilizing “the natural cycles immanent in the reproductive system…[to] engage in marital intercourse only during those times that are infertile” in a world that is sinfully degraded with abortion , the question germane to the issue lies in part, in the principle of double-effect. Granted, the conditions can not be met, in fact there are so very few situations where it may be applied as to be almost non existent. For this exercise, Condition four seems to offer enough common sense and reason to indubitably have a positive effect, hence: The good effect that is directly intended must be significantly more dire to attain than the bad effect that is accepted. Point 1. premarital sex has been with us since the dawn of creation and it is never going away. Point 2. this sin results in abortions and the taking of hormones harmful to the body temple. Point 3. The scourge of abortion is significantly more dire than pre marital sex. End point. The teaching of natural family planning should include the secular world. In-so-far as Grandparents day, the secular world recognized this honor in 1979 and it falls on the first Sunday after Labor Day. In-so-far as family: Marriage and conjugal love are by their nature ordained toward the procreation and education of children. Children are really the supreme gift of marriage and contribute in the highest degree to their parents’ welfare [Vatican II’s Gaudium et Spes]… Canadian Prime minister Trudeau has again called for the CC to publicly apologize to the 150,000 indigenous children forcibly taken from their home and parents between 1831 and 1996 and placed mostly in Catholic institutions where rampart abuse of every nature occurred. At present they are trying to ID the remains of 250 who lie in unmarked graves.