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well this coming July we celebrate the
50th anniversary of Pope Paul the sixth
famous and controversial encyclical
letter humanity vitae I won't bore you
with all the details of the battles and
the conflicts that ensued over humanity
vitae suffice it to say that it was a
major point of contention between what
emerge really is as liberal and
conservative camps within the Catholic
Church the central argument of humanity
vitae is fairly easy to to lay out
namely that the integrity of the sexual
act is a function of the coming together
of its unitive and procreative
dimensions so when the sexual act
expresses love between the marry
partners and remains open to the
conception of a child it has this
integral quality when through a
conscious choice
a couple introduces an artificial block
to procreation they're doing something
which violates this integrity and
thereby stands opposed to to God's will
so there's the the central argument of
Humana vitae now again I'm not gonna in
this video look at all the you know
arguments pro and con you can read those
in many other places what I am
interested in and and find really
fascinating as I reread you mighty vitae
with this anniversary coming up is
section 17 so we'd go online or you have
a copy of this text go right to section
17 because in that section Pope Paul
plays the Prophet and he you know
clearly holds at the that artificial
contraception is bad in itself but he
also sees all kinds of societal
ramifications that if this thing it
becomes a widely accepted lots of other
bad things will ensue and that section
of the in so cool I will confess to you
jumped out at me as I reread it because
I thought wow 1968 but this man was
looking very clearly into
into our time so I'm gonna give you just
some examples of this here's here's a
first prophetic citation from the
section 17 the Pope says let them
consider how easily this course of
action so artificial contraception would
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
especially the young are so exposed to
temptation that they need incentives to
keep the moral law and it's an evil
thing to make it easy for them to break
that law well here's the thing I mean
would anyone doubt that in the last 50
years the years since Humana vitae that
we've seen a weakening of the
institution of marriage would anyone
doubt that we've seen a rather
remarkable rise in the rates of
infidelity within marriage
can anyone sincerely doubt that we've
seen a lowering a coarsening of moral
standards
now it's not to lay everything at the
feet of artificial contraception and the
Pope isn't suggesting that either there
are multiple causes of this however I do
think he was intuitive something of
extraordinary importance namely when we
begin on our own terms to redefine the
sexual acts we have placed ourselves on
a steep and very slippery slope toward a
complete volunteerism by which I mean we
by an act of the will define what things
mean we define what they ought to be the
minute we start that process by
interrupting the unitive and procreative
dimensions then we're on that slippery
slope toward well we can define the
sexual act any way we want what might
have seemed even a little bit paranoid
back in 1968 or a little exaggerated I
don't know look around the scene today I
think you find a good deal of complete
volunteerism when it comes to the
definition of the
sexual act here's a second bit of
prophecy from section 17 Pope says
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 well I don't know
about you but as I read that now in the
immediate wake of the Harvey Weinstein
business and I record these words were
going through this this extraordinary
cleansing if you want in our culture as
people are realizing there's been
enormous amount of the deep mistreatment
of women a deep disrespect toward women
and you know it's now everyday in the
news some new celebrity is accused and
precisely this kind of behavior now see
again the entire society is rightly
outraged at this but I wonder how many
have drawn the connection as Pope Paul
prophetically did between this casual
separation of the unitive and
procreative dimensions and the treatment
of women as objects for the mere
satisfaction of men if the sexual act as
God designed it involves indeed pleasure
and unity and love but also procreation
when you divide those things very easily
the sexual act slides into being simply
a means for a man to find sexual
pleasure and the woman to become simply
an object of his manipulation you know
say what you want about the Church's
teaching oh it's oppressive
oh it's puritanical I don't know I think
what we're seeing especially today is if
people had followed the church's
intuition women would be a lot more
respected than they are
in the current secular scene today
here's now a third bit of prophecy from
section 17 Pope Paul says finally
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 who will blame a government
which in its attempt to resolve the
problems affecting an entire country
resorts to the same measures as a
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 okay
again I think someone reading at 1968
might have said oh I don't know Pope
Paul come on aren't you being a little
exaggerated even a little bit paranoid
about the government taking over this
business I don't know I think he was
pretty prophetic you look around us
today in light in our country of the HHS
mandate which was doing what precisely
mandating that even Catholic
institutions yes even the Little Sisters
of the Poor would have to include in
their insurance plans coverage for
abortifacients and for contraception
again should they regard this the
government as necessary they may even
impose their use on everyone paranoid I
don't think so this this aggressiveness
on the part of the government Pope Paul
the sixth sought 50 years ago as a
shadow as an aftereffect of what was
going on in 1968 just one more
observation our current Pope Pope
Francis is a great admirer of Paul the
sixth and you've seen a lot of different
ways you see it certainly in in his
focus on evangelization his own text
evangelii gaudium the joy of the gospel
is meant to echo Avon jelly noon see on
day of Pope Paul 6 which is a master
text in the tradition of evangelization
however I'd say this too
he also admires Paulus
for this great text of humanity vitae
look by the way in amoris Laetitia Pope
Francis texts on marriage and family
life where humanity vitae is reaffirmed
the the coming together of the
procreative and unitive elements of the
sexual act is reaffirmed and moreover
Pope Francis who on numerous occasions
has bemoaned what he calls ideological
colonization meaning the West imposing
its sexual ideology on the rest of the
world often making their economic aid
contingent upon the acceptance of
certain ET law ideological
presuppositions that fathers Pope
Francis as much as it bothered Pope Paul
the sixth so anyway I think now in the
course of this year this 50th
anniversary year a lot of us will be
rereading humanity vitae good can I
suggest a great place to start section
17
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