Tag Archives: Humanae-Vitae

A Greater Freedom – Sex and Love for Real

Posted on August 2, 2008 | 4 Comments

Last week I posted on the 40th anniversary of Humanae Vitae, looking at the aftermath and the effects on the individuals, families, the Church, and society as a whole. While not explaining the teachings per se, that post inferred from the predicted effects (which were seen as inevitable consequences should contraception be widely adopted, which was the case) that Humanae Vitae was clearly right.

One response (read it here) that I received took fundamental exception to both that conclusion and Humanae Vitae itself. This is a response to those comments.

I need to start by point out that what you oppose is not the Church’s teaching, plain and simple. Even more to the point, the reasoning that you attribute to the Catholic Church is not part of the Church’s thinking.

It is true that what you oppose is commonly attributed to the Church, yet it remains not so – perhaps it would be better labeled as common misperception.

Bear with me a moment, and I will try to offer some things up for you to consider, clarify what the Church does in fact, teach and why, and perhaps raise some questions for you to ponder. By necessity this will be the barest of overviews, so it is my sincere hope that you will find this intriguing enough to investigate further. Therefore, I will finish with a few resources for going deeper.

Foundations of Teaching
What the Church proposes for our belief in sexuality (of which the teachings on contraception are only a small, but important part) are precisely intended to bring us closer to the one who made us, to conform us more closely to Him, to enable us to understand and experience real joy.

In short, to teach us how to love.

On the other hand, what the world proposes for our belief about sexuality is entirely centered on ourselves – how does my partner make me feel, how am I most fulfilled, what will make my life better … this isn’t really authentic sexuality at all, but simply a shallow counterfeit, a caricature of what could be. It most definitely does not lead to genuine love … and the world is relentless.

Christ teaches us another way. In fact, His entire life teaches us that love is truly much more about sacrifice, self-donation, about losing our self, even losing our very lives … and as we know, that very disregard for ourselves is precisely the center in which we find who we really are, where God returns everything we could have been and far, far more.

The contrast could not be more fundamental.

Every parent knows this, of course, though not all see the gift. Admittedly, it’s hard to to truly appreciate our “school of love” while trudging down the hall in the wee hours with no sleep, a screaming baby or two in tow, and barf running down our clothes. Or perhaps when our tools or favorite book is lost or damaged, and not by our hands. Or yet again when when we receive some large medical bills even while we have bills – even the most basic ones – that remain unpaid.

Yet in each of these – and so many more, the list is nearly endless – we are presented with a chance to turn away from ourselves, and to turn toward others. Turn away from ourselves, and towards God. To learn how life is truly designed to be.

In fact, it is in just this sort of mutual self-donation, in marriage as a continual mutual gift of self, that we are truly gifted with love.

A Central Role
Where then, does our sexuality fit in?

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As Christopher West puts it in The Good News About Sex and Marriage,

“Love one another as I have loved you” (John 15:12). These words of Christ sum up the meaning of life and the meaning of human sexuality. At its core, sexual morality is about expressing God’s love through our bodies. This is why Pope John Paul II can say that if we live according to the truth of our sexuality, we fulfill the very meaning of our being and existence.

Ponder that a moment, and see if it sounds repressive.

West goes on to say

Sex, then, is by no means a peripheral issue. In fact, Pope John Paul II says the call to “nuptial love” revealed through our sexuality is “the fundamental element of human existence in the world” … He even insists that we can’t understand Christianity if we don’t understand the truth and meaning of our sexuality.

Marriage as a Revelation About God
God is, in Himself, a family. The Father makes an eternal gift of himself to the Son, as does the Son to the Father. The love between them is is so profound that it is an entirely new person, the Holy Spirit … and this is the pattern for our families.

Again from West

This is what we embody as male and female. Sex is so beautiful, so wonderful, so glorious, that it’s meant to express God’s free, total, faithful, and fruitful love.

In our marriages we image the reality of God, in our marriage embrace we reaffirm our marriage vows. Not just in words, but in deed … sealing our mental and spiritual commitments with out physical bodies.

In that embrace, fully understanding where we are and what we do, we can express our total and complete gift of self to our spouse. We learn how to love.

I think that if you reflect on this a bit, perhaps you will begin to see why the Church teaches that separating the physical act from the possibility of life is, by definition, a non-starter. Shorn of meaning, our actions descend from their intended place, and we drift farther from our intended dignity.

Or to put it another way, the very possibility of life is so inexorably intertwined in the very meaning of marriage, that we will choose a certain poverty of existence to separate the marital embrace from that possibility.

Pleasure and Meaning
Though lacking this transcendant meaning, it is still safe to say that a really good meal is likewise enjoyable. Of course I’m not making relative comparisons here – I’m simply observing that eating a good meal does result in pleasure.

The pleasure itself is a great thing, certainly a gift from God … and most Christians thank God for the provisions of each meal beforehand.

Of course at least part of that thanksgiving comes from the simple fact that we need nutrition, and the meal will satisfy those needs (at least for the moment!). So in addition to being pleasurable, eating food has an intended purpose.

What then, do we say happens when somebody purposefully throws up after eating? Obviously it is a disorder … bullimia. A person who purposely separates the act of eating from the intended purpose of consuming food has a problem. It doesn’t matter that they get more and more pleasure from eating more and more food … what matters is that they regain balance, learn to connect the act of eating with its intended biological purpose.

Of course the pleasure itself was good, so far as it went. But it wasn’t the ultimate meaning. Besides, anyone who has struggled with an eating disorder (and here I speak from my own experience) will also tell you that the pleasure itself diminishes, that it takes on a hollow quality when separated from it’s natural place.

In Meaning Comes Fulfillment
Notice that I am not saying that each time a married couple has sex it must result in a pregnancy – that would be absurd. I am also not saying that couples that contracept either get no pleasure nor benefit in their relationship in any way. What I am saying is the fullest richness of married life will come when our sexual lives are lived as intended by the one who made us, who knows us better than we know ourselves … and that means being open to the possibility of life, allowing God to make the final decision.

That is why the Church forbids all contraception – both artificial and otherwise. It has always done so (not just 40 years ago … I discussed that in several places in the last post), and will always do so. All Humanae Vitae did was acknowledge that the Church did not have the authority to rule differently in this area – that it had to continue to proclaim what was always understood to be true.

Truth simply cannot be subject to a vote.

In fact, when asked years later to reflect on each of his encyclicals (teaching documents, Pope Paul VI is reported to have spent five or ten minutes for each encyclical excitedly recounting what was on his mind, what points he was trying to convey, what needs of the Church he was trying to address, and so forth.

Yet when he got to Humanae Vitae, he grew quiet and simply said “I did not betray the truth”.

Natural Family Planning
With regards to Natural Family Planning (here, here and elsewhere), the difference is clear – NFP simply is not contraception. That is, couples who use NFP are not separating the meaning of the sexual act from the act itself … rather, they are acknowledging that meaning and living it in their very lives. Choosing to refrain from sex at any particular time is just not the same thing as changing the sexual act itself … these are no more alike than skipping a meal is the same thing as gorging and barfing.

There are tons of benefits and practical aspects to NFP – and yes, there can certainly be some frustrations as well – but that is really a discussion for another day.

The Authority of the Church
So where does the Church fit into all this? Simple – the Catholic Church has always understood (see Matthew 16:18+ and more), and faithful Catholics acknowedge and appreciate, that the Church has the responsibility to represent Jesus here on earth, to proclaim the Good News till the end of time, to faithfully teach what is true and right (whether or not it is fashionable or easy to accept), to guide Christians in their journeys towards God.

This does not mean that members and leaders of the Church have not sinned and strayed far from the truth – this is a sad reality of our battle with sin – but it does mean that Catholics can trust the Church to be right on matters of faith and morals.

While it is true that many people who call themselves Catholic dissent from teachings of the Church, that does not make the teachings wrong. In fact, something that I heard a few years back has been a big help to me in this area.

Clearly for all of us there are times when it may be difficult to understand or accept particular teachings – after all, we are all still on our journeys towards God. A more profitable approach to teachings that don’t yet make sense is to first accept them as true, then pray for understanding. That understanding will inevitably follow, and this approach has a big added benefit – we learn to trust God, then are drawn closer to truth, and therefore to God Himself. This is a direct result of trusting God to do as he says … “seek and you will find”.

Faith and Science
Faith is never in opposition to honest science – it can’t be, as they both reveal aspects of truth, and truth can never in opposition to itself. Faith reveals aspects of spiritual realities, and science reveals aspects of the physical world. Not only can these go hand in hand, the truth is they must go hand in hand. It is when they don’t that the trouble begins.

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Keep in mind that science can tell us how something works, or what is involved in making something happen. What it cannot tell us is why something happens, or whether we should take a particular action or not – that is, whether it is moral and just. That is the domain of faith.

The Church has always understood this to be true – that is why the father of modern chemistry is St. Albert the Great, why Catholic priests largely developed the scientific method, and much, much more. For that matter, the man who discovered genetics – Gregor Mendel – was a Catholic priest.

This is why the Church encourages the advancement of science, and reveres great scientific and engineering accomplishments … and will continue to oppose those that contravene spiritual realities. You might find it interesting to note that in Humanae Vitae itself Pope Paul VI contained an appeal to scientists to apply their skills and talents into this area, that we might benefit from the knowledge gained.

A Few Parting Thoughts
In your last comments you stated that “there are plenty of dogmatic church teachings that create a repressive attitude about sex and I think that this is one of them”. I would hope that if you reflect on what the Church actually teaches about sexuality (of which this is the very briefest of introductions) that you will see that far from being repressive, what the Church teaches enables us to understand and participate in the real meaning of sexuality, and in doing so to learn how to live truly free.

After all, what greater freedom can there be than to live as God intends us?

Places to Look for More
Early in his pontificate Pope John Paul II developed what came to be known as the “Theology of the Body” … a fantastic set of teachings that show how God reveals Himself through our physical bodies.

Christopher West has a very good apostolate dedicated to spreading these teachings in popular forms and language. Here are some select resources:

Christopher West also has a number of good talks on video and audio.

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On Human Life – 40 Years Later

Posted on July 26, 2008 | 4 Comments

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Perhaps no single teaching of the Catholic Church has ever evoked such uniform ridicule, laughter, vindictive taunts, as well as just plain old simple opposition as the famous Humanae Vitae (On Human Life), in which Pope Paul VI restated, despite enormous opposition from both within and outside of the church, the Church’s continual opposition to artificial contraception.

Now you may be tempted right now to simply stop reading, for any of a million reasons. I understand, because for much of my life I’d probably have had a similar reaction. But I’m going to ask you to be patient and at least read to the end. Perhaps, like me, you’ll find that the overwhelming weight of evidence might lead you to some, perhaps even shocking, new thoughts on the topic. I know that is exactly what happened to me over the past 30 years.

The encyclical itself was issued on July 25th, 1968, and to put it colloquially, all sorts of “stuff” hit the fan. Paul VI anticipated this, in fact, but was willing to do what he had to do. From Humane Vitae:

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 … 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 …

In preserving intact the whole moral law of marriage, the Church is convinced that she is contributing to the creation of a truly human civilization.

Outside the Church Humanae Vitae was taken as proof that the Catholic Church was doomed, clueless, flopping on the floor like one giant dying fish out of water, while inside the Church it was even worse – dissidents held up a desecrated Humanae Vitae as a sort of Confederate Flag, their own symbol of rebellion from a dying Union.

I grew up (particularly upon a radical re-conversion back to the faith in college in 1975) in the wake of Humanae Vitae, in the supposed bliss of the sexual revolution, when humanity would use it’s new scientific knowledge to finally fix all of the world’s suffering and give us all we could ever want.

Stuff like theology and dogma, the actual teachings of the Church? Well despite my new-found zeal for the faith I suppose that I really regarded this kind of stuff as really only suitable for zealots, for the really crazy ones. And Humanae Vitae? Well, it was sort of like peculiar behavior from a crazy older relative – if somebody pressed me on it, I’d try my best to smile, shrug my shoulders, maybe mumble and definitely try to change the subject.

One Crazy Thing and a Big Irony
Except here’s the really peculiar, almost funny (except for the disastrous consequences), and definitely crazy thing about Humanae Vitae, particularly when viewed with 40 years of history behind us: Pope Paul VI was right.

Not just a little bit right, but walk-off-grand-slam right.

The ironic part? Most of the real proof is coming from outside of the church, sometimes by genuinely curious social scientists simply doing their work, sometimes from rabid opponents inadvertently confirming the predictions.

Consequences
What were some of these consequences? Well, to give you a basic idea I’m simply going to quote from a brilliant analysis by Mary Eberstadt in the current issue of First Things:

The encyclical warned of four resulting trends: a general lowering of moral standards throughout society; a rise in infidelity; a lessening of respect for women by men; and the coercive use of reproductive technologies by governments.

Take a few moments to reflect on those points, and see whether the world we inhabit in 2008 exhibits any of these characterstics, at least more so than 1968.

Pretty hard to argue with it, I think. In fact, I’d argue (and I think not only the objective numbers but subjective personal experience supports this simple, but pointed observation: the world we inhabit today bears almost no resemblence to what the proponents of the sexual revolution promised.

In any case, continuing with her article:

… most of the experts actually producing the empirical evidence (that Humanae Vitae predictions were right) have been social scientists operating in the secular realm.

“I cannot imagine any development in human history, after the Fall, that has had a greater impact on human beings than the Pill. . . . The entire horizon of the sexual act changes. I think there can be no question that the Pill gave incredible license to everything from adultery and affairs to premarital sex and within marriage to a separation of the sex act and procreation.”

– Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

The entire analysis is well worth the read and careful reflection, but more on that later.

In the Long History of Christianity
Perhaps the most striking fact about the acceptance of artificial contraception itself is simply that it flies in the face of an essentially unbroken line of Christian tradition, both Protestant and Catholic alike. Again from the same article:

Of course, all that Paul VI did … was reiterate what just about everyone in the history of Christendom had ever said on the subject … It was, in a word, No.

… Martin Luther in a commentary on Genesis declared contraception to be worse than incest or adultery. John Calvin called it an “unforgivable crime.” This unanimity was not abandoned until the year 1930, when the Anglicans voted to allow married couples to use birth control in extreme cases, and one denomination after another over the years came to follow suit.

Seen in the light of actual Christian tradition, the question is not after all why the Catholic Church refused to collapse on the point. It is rather why just about everyone else in the Judeo-Christian tradition did. Whatever the answer, the Catholic Church took, and continues to take, the public fall for causing a collapse—when actually it was the only one not collapsing.

A careful look at the now historical record of the past 40 years really makes the case far more eloquently than I ever could – Paul VI was right about the consequences that would result.

What then?

Personal Effects
Our own lives, mostly unintentionally, have mirrored both the good effects that resulted from obeying the dictates of Humanae Vitae, and some of the tragic consequences from straying outside. That story has some very painful aspects to it and is not really ready (and may never be, at least not this side of the veil) to fully see the light of day.

Yet there have been some enormously grace-filled, beautful moments that we still enjoy today. In a later post I’ll mention a few vignettes from our personal life, particularly where they may be helpful for those making their minds up on these things.

A Crazy Idea?
This may seem like a completely crazy idea or it may make a lot of sense to you, but either way about ten years ago Archbishop Chaput put into words what so many of us have had trouble even admitting might be true, much less actually articulating in public:

“If Paul VI was right about so many of the consequences deriving from contraception, it is because he was right about contraception itself.”

– Arch Chaput of Denver, on the 30th anniversary of Humanae Vitae

So perhaps it comes down to just this. Taking the emotion out of the argument, just look at the facts. Read the encyclical (it’s short – I read it in about one or two hours), look at some of the articles analyzing the evidence of the past 40 years, perhaps dive into some of that evidence itself.

And then see where that evidence and simple logic takes you … perhaps even questioning assumptions and conclusions that we’ve taken as simply “givens” for must (if not all) of our lives.

Stuff to Ponder
This is a very rich, very deep topic and it’s almost hard to know where to stop. But maybe simpler is “where to begin”?

Personally, I think it’s worth starting by reading Humanae Vitae itself. I sat down to read the famous encyclical for the first time in my life yesterday, and finished it in an hour and a half to two hours (with distractions). While it may not be soaring poetry, it is a compact, sincere, well-grounded, loving presentation of what needed to be said in 1968 … and what needs to be understood in 2008.

So I’ve included a link to it here (in two forms), as well as a host of other materials, including:

This is obviously a topic which remains ever-current, and as Fr. Corapi notes actually gains in significance with each passing day. For those who care we are definitely in the throes of some real struggle.

Catholic or not, Christian or not, or simply not sure where you stand … this is worth a serious look. The evidence is real, the record is clear, the questions lie before us even now.

Two More Things
First of all, 40 years after Humanae Vitae the Catholic Church is in no way “doomed”. In fact, despite seemingly overwhelming odds, many self-inflicted injuries, and the predictions of many opponents, despite all that there are increasingly visible signs of fundamental renewal everywhere.

Much of that renewal is being led by the youth, whether it’s at these really stunning World Youth Day events (there were 500,000 people for the closing Mass at the WYD that just ended in Sydney, Australia), or regional events like Youth 2000 or the Steubenville Conferences there’s energy and real lives changing everywhere. Seminaries are filling back up, vocations to renewed religious orders are increasing, Catholic media (EWTN etc.) not only exists but is having growing impact everywhere, conversions into the Church are steadily increasing, innovative “new evangelization” efforts such as Catholics Come Home are showing real results, and much, much more.

Are there problems? Of course, and there will undoubtedly be many more. This is a battle after all. But there is hope, much hope all around.

Secondly, I want to thank Pope Paul VI for having the courage to take this stand when the whole world was sliding headlong in the opposite direction.

It’s almost as if our society was tumbling down the mountain on which it was perched, and in the middle of the chaos Paul VI planted a solid pole of truth to hold onto.

Perhaps overly dramatic? Maybe. But the stakes are that high, to be sure.

Muchas gracias, Papa.

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