What if?

08/04/2018 • View profile

This last week marked the 50th anniversary of the encyclical Humanae Vitae, written by Bl. Pope Paul VI. It was written as a repudiation of contraception and abortion, but the tone of the encyclical was decidedly more pastoral than doctrinal. What if doctrine had been stressed over pastoral matters?

I took some time this week to do some reading about this encyclical and these thoughts occurred to me.

1. Pope Paul was indeed prophetic in predicting the fallout of widely accepted contraception and abortion in society. At this very time in history we are witnessing the collapse of Western Christian society by the decimation of our population through birth control and abortion. We are also witnessing the objectification and dishonor of womanhood and particularly motherhood. #MeToo movements don't exist in societies that respect and honor women and the unique role they play in the creation of new life.

2. What if the tone that Pope Paul had used was more like Casti Connubii, written by Pope Pius XI? Casti Connubii was written in direct response to the Lambeth Conference which accepted rather than condemned the use of contraception in marriage.

Over time, the Doctors of the Church have written definitively on marriage and the relations between husbands and wives. St. Paul was pretty direct about what you could NOT do. St. Augustine, St. Alphonsus Ligori, and St. Thomas Aquinas also were very clear about the roles of husband and wives in marriage. But Pope Paul does not cite them, does not refer to them.

What if he had?

Furthermore, what if our bishops and pastors had instructed and reinterated clear Church teaching in the last 50 years? What if their "accompaniment" consisted in counseling, consoling and exhorting their flocks in contracting and maintaining holy and chaste marriages and families?