The Meat of Humanae Vitae

Today we are going to get into the “meat of the matter”.

You know from the last posts the “why” for the document: The changes of society’s opinion on the sacredness of the conjugal act, how it became widely accepted as a means of Free Love ; and how the role of contraception contributed to the expansion of the practice, thus bringing into the question the use of contraception then into marriage as a means of regulating children.

Fact:Those interested in promoting the use of contraception within families targeted an idea of over-population.

As you will read in the above excerpt, the population scare was completely unfounded.  So much so, that today, we are now in a population decline unprecedented in the history of the Western world.  So…unrelated to the text, (or is it?) I ask an odd question: why would anyone want to decrease the World’s population?

Humanae Vitae: Part II

II. Doctrinal Principles

A Total Vision of Man

7. The problem of birth, like every other problem regarding human life, is to be considered, beyond (partial perspectives-whether of the biological or psychological, demographic or sociological orders) THE USUAL EFFECTS…

-in the light of an integral vision of man and of his vocation, not only his natural and earthly, but also his supernatural and eternal vocation.  (To think that this life on earth “is it”, and there’s nothing beyond it, is to believe that day is really night and night is really day.  We are eternal beings with an everlasting Creator as Our Father.)

And since, in the attempt to justify artificial methods of birth control, many have appealed to the demands both of conjugal love and of “responsible parenthood” …

it is good to state very precisely the true concept of these two great realities of married life,.. (that is “they help one another to attain holiness in their married life (cf. 1Cor 7:14) and in welcoming and educating their children” ~CCC§1641; cf. GS§50)

(Authentic Married Love is caught up into Divine Love ~CCC§1639; cf Mk 10:6-9)

…referring principally to what was recently set forth in this regard, and in a highly authoritative form, by the Second Vatican Council in its pastoral constitution Gaudium et Spes (Constitution on the Church in the Modern World). (See above reference GS§50)

8. Conjugal love reveals its true nature and nobility when it is considered in its supreme origin, God, who is love, (1Jn 4:8) “the Father, from whom every family in Heaven and on earth is named.” (Eph 3:15)

(Did you get that?  The Conjugal act (sexual intimacy) comes from God – who IS LOVE – and thus God gives us the supreme means of expressing this… He gives us,)

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 to realize in mankind His design of love…

By means of the reciprocal personal gift of self, proper and exclusive to them, husband and wife tend towards the communion of their beings in view of mutual personal perfection, to collaborate with God in the generation and education of new lives. ~ cf. CCC§1641

For baptized persons, moreover, marriage invests the dignity of a sacramental sign of grace, inasmuch as it represents the union of Christ and of the Church. (Eph 5:25-33)

(Do you understand?  Marriage is not a human institution, easily re-defined by society – aka the Same-sex agenda.  No, Marriage is a sacramental sign of grace and instituted by God as a means of expressing fully His Love for us – Let’s Repeat this…)

8. Conjugal love reveals its true nature and nobility when it is considered in its supreme origin, God, who is love, (1Jn 4:8) “the Father, from whom every family in Heaven and on earth is named.” (Eph 3:15) –

(This is not for US to mess with, to try and redefine.  Marriage represents the union of Christ and of the Church; and just as Christ holds NOTHING back from us, so too married couples CANNOT hold back from each other. By the use of contraception and artificial conception, that is what couples do… they keep a part of themselves out of the act.  What’s more, they do not allow God to act within them – to collaborate with God in the generation… of new lives.)

Its Characteristics

9. Under this light, there clearly appear the characteristic marks and demands of conjugal love, and it is of supreme importance to have an exact idea of these.

Tomorrow: What are the “Characteristic marks and demands” that appear so clearly?

Previous Posts:
Why Humanae Vitae?
All Life Is Sacred.