IX Sunday after Pentecost –

In the name of the Father…

Wednesday of this week - July 25th - is the 50th anniversary of the publication of Pope Paul VI’s Humanae Vitae which re-affirmed the ’s unchanging and unchangeable teaching on the intrinsic evil of contraception.1 A generation earlier, in the encyclical Casti Connubii - on Chaste Marriage - Pope Pius XI wrote that for marriages to be happy… it is necessary… that men’s minds be illuminated with the true doctrine of Christ … and … that Christian spouses, the weakness of their wills strengthened by the internal grace of God, shape all their ways of thinking and of acting in conformity with that pure law of Christ.2 Grieving that the sanctity of marriage was being trampled underfoot, Pius noted that… most pernicious errors and depraved morals have begun to spread even amongst the faithful and are gradually gaining ground. Pope Paul similarly was concerned that societal changes had given rise… to new questions which the Church could not ignore, having to do with a matter which so closely touches upon the life and happiness of men. Pius declared his purpose: [I]n Our office as Christ’s Vicar upon earth and Supreme Shepherd and Teacher, We consider it Our duty to raise Our voice to keep the flock committed to Our care from poisoned pastures and - as far as in Us lies - to preserve it from harm. We have decided therefore to speak to … the whole Church of Christ and indeed to the whole human race on the nature and dignity of Christian marriage. Solemnly addressing not only the whole Church but the whole human race as Christ’s Vicar, and proposing to confront the errors of the age, Pius was assured the Holy Ghost’s assistance. If Paul VI was more reserved and less sure of his authority, that did not make his authority less sure. Recalling that he discarded the advice of his own commission… because certain… solutions had emerged which departed from the moral teaching on marriage proposed with constant firmness by the teaching authority of the Church, he continued: Therefore… after mature reflection and assiduous prayers, we now intend, by virtue of the mandate entrusted to us by Christ, to give our reply to these grave questions.

1 Pope Paul VI: Humanae Vitae 2 Pope Pius XI: Casti Connubii Pius stressed the principle error: that many considered children… the disagreeable burden of matrimony… to be carefully avoided… not through virtuous continence… but by frustrating the marriage act, which he labelled criminal abuse. Acknowledging… difficulties whether on the part of the mother or on the part of family circumstances, Pius continued: Holy Mother Church very well understands and clearly appreciates all which is said regarding the health of the mother and the danger to her life. And who would not grieve to think of these things? Who is not filled with the greatest admiration when he sees a mother risking her life with heroic fortitude, that she may preserve the life of the offspring which she has conceived? God alone, all bountiful and all merciful as He is, can reward her for the fulfillment of the office allotted to her by nature, and will assuredly repay her in a measure full to overflowing. Paul VI also recalled the need for fortitude: We do not at all intend to hide the sometimes- serious difficulties inherent in the life of Christian married persons: for them as for everyone else, “the gate is narrow and the way is hard which leads to life.” But the hope of that life must illuminate their way, as with courage they strive to live with wisdom, justice and piety in this present time, the Pope recognizing that fidelity to marriage… cannot be observed without sacrifices, sometimes heroic sacrifices. As had Pius, Paul stressed that fulfilment would be found only in conformance to God’s designs: Marriage is not, then, the effect of chance or the product of evolution of unconscious natural forces; it is the wise institution of the Creator… [F]idelity… can sometimes be difficult, but is always possible, always noble and meritorious… The example of so many married persons down through the centuries shows, not only that fidelity is according to the nature of marriage, but also that it is a source of profound and lasting happiness. Pope Paul concluded: In the task of transmitting life, therefore, they are not free to proceed completely at will, as if they could determine in a wholly autonomous way the honest path to follow; but they must conform their activity to the creative intention of God, expressed in the very nature of marriage and of its acts, and manifested by the constant teaching of the Church, Pope Paul rejecting conscience and experience as the basis of morality. Both Popes issued their solemn judgement based on the Natural Law. Having recalled: The teaching authority of the Church is competent to interpret even the Natural Moral Law… which is also an expression of the will of God, the faithful fulfillment of which is equally necessary for salvation, Pope Paul judged: [T]he Church, calling men back to the observance of the norms of the Natural Law as interpreted by her constant doctrine, teaches that each and every marriage act must remain open to the transmission of life… That teaching, often set forth by the magisterium, is founded upon the inseparable connection, willed by God and unable to be broken by man on his own initiative, between the two meanings of the conjugal act: the unitive … and the procreative… Indeed, by its intimate structure, the conjugal act, while most closely uniting husband and wife, capacitates them for the generation of new lives, according to laws inscribed in the very being of man and of woman. Pope Pius XI was more forceful: But no reason, however grave, may be put forward by which anything intrinsically against nature may become conformable to nature and morally good. Since, therefore, the conjugal act is destined primarily by nature for the begetting of children, those who in exercising it deliberately frustrate its natural power and purpose, sin against nature and commit a deed which is shameful and intrinsically vicious… Small wonder, therefore, if Holy Writ bears witness that the Divine Majesty regards with greatest detestation this horrible crime and at times has punished it with death. As St. Augustine notes, “Intercourse even with one’s legitimate wife is unlawful and wicked where the conception of the offspring is prevented. Onan, the son of Judah, did this and the Lord killed him for it.” Pope Paul offered counsel to priests: To diminish in no way the saving teaching of Christ constitutes an eminent form of charity for souls. But this must ever be accompanied by patience and goodness, such as the Lord himself gave example of in dealing with men. Having come not to condemn but to save, he was indeed intransigent with evil, but merciful towards individuals. In their difficulties, may married couples always find, in the words and in the heart of a priest, the echo of the voice and the love of the Redeemer… [S]peak with confidence, beloved sons, fully convinced that the spirit of God, while He assists the magisterium in proposing doctrine, illumines internally the hearts of the faithful inviting them to give their assent. Teach married couples the indispensable way of prayer; prepare them to have recourse ‘often and with faith’ to the sacraments of the Eucharist and of Penance, without ever allowing themselves to be discouraged by their own weakness. Pope Pius had words of warning: We admonish, therefore, priests who hear confessions and others who have the care of souls, in virtue of Our supreme authority and in Our solicitude for the salvation of souls, not to allow the faithful entrusted to them to err regarding this most grave law of God; much more, that they keep themselves immune from such false opinions, in no way conniving in them. If any confessor or pastor of souls, which may God forbid, lead the faithful entrusted to him into these errors or should at least confirm them by approval or by guilty silence, let him be mindful of the fact that he must render a strict account to God, the Supreme Judge, for the betrayal of his sacred trust, and let him take to himself the words of Christ: “They are blind and leaders of the blind: and if the blind lead the blind, both fall into the pit”, words which, in our own day, are a timely warning for the commission tasked to “re-visit” Humanae Vitae in light of current theological trends. Arguments about whether these are extraordinarily infallible are misplaced: both encyclicals repeat and affirm the Church’s unchanging teaching stretching at least from St Augustine to St John Paul II, thus forming part of the ordinary infallible teaching of the Church which is irreformable. No Jesuit-style “acceptance” is necessary. Marriage can be happy only according to God’s designs. The way to eternal happiness at times is steep and difficult. Warning of reprisals, the Church exhorts to virtue and sacrifice, even heroic virtue and sacrifice. However, because her teaching is the irreformable revelation of God, she never will change it. And woe to those who would try. In the name of the Father…