Prophetic Insights for our Day
Humanae Vitae by Pope Paul VI was very Prophetic explains Professor
Janet E. Smith
Humanae Vitae, Pope Paul VI
Section 17…
Man … may finally lose respect for the woman
and, no longer caring for her physical and psychological equilibrium,
may come to the point of considering her as a mere instrument of
selfish enjoyment, and no longer his respected and beloved
companion. …
Excerpts from Article
HUMANAE VITAE: A PROPHETIC DOCUMENT?
By: Professor Janet E. Smith
In section 17 of Humanae Vitae, Pope Paul
VI made four prophecies about the bad consequences that would follow
upon widespread acceptance of contraception.
EFFECTS ON SEXUAL MORALITY
First Prophecy. The
Pope noted that the widespread use of contraception would "lead to
conjugal infidelity and the general lowering of morality." That there
has been a widespread decline in morality, especially sexual morality,
in the last twenty years is very difficult to deny. The increase in the
number of divorces, abortions, out-of-wedlock pregnancies, and venereal
diseases should quickly serve to convince any skeptic that sexual
morality is not the strong suit of our age.
Contraception may not be the sole cause of this
decline but it is certainly among the contributing factors. The
phenomenon of teenage pregnancy is a case in point. While many predicted
that ready access to contraception would reduce teenage pregnancy, it
seems in fact to have exacerbated the problem. Indeed, studies show that
in places where efforts to provide teens with contraceptives have
intensified, there has been no clear decrease in teenage pregnancy, and
in some cases there have been increases.1
The availability of contraception has led
teenagers to believe that they can engage in premarital sexual activity
"responsibly." But teenagers are about as responsible in their use of
contraception as they are in all other phases of their lives –like
making their beds, and cleaning their rooms, and getting their homework
done on time. …
Children who do not have mature and loving
parents have a hard time meeting the demands of life, have a hard time
resisting the call to easy pleasures and other modes of escape. … Many
now recognize, however, that widespread use of contraception has paved
the way for more abortions. Contraception has led the way to more
extramarital sexual intercourse, which in turn leads to more unwanted
pregnancies. …
Indeed studies show that over 80 percent of
young women having abortions are contraceptively experienced. …
Not many women intend to use abortion as a
"backup" to failed contraception but that in fact is how it is often
used. …
THE DIGNITY OF THE PERSON
Second Prophecy.
Pope Paul VI also feared that the man who grew accustomed to the use
of contraceptive practices might ultimately lose "respect for the
woman," and "no longer caring for her physical and psychological
equilibrium" might come to consider her as an "instrument of selfish
enjoyment, and no longer as his respected and beloved companion." …
By treating their bodies as mechanical
instruments to be manipulated for their own purposes, they risk treating
each other as objects of pleasure. …
Certainly, one of the side-effects of the pill
is depression, but more is involved than that. Pope Paul VI warned that
the use of contraception can assist "the man" in looking upon "the
woman" not as a special woman with her own needs and desires, not as a
female with a marvelous procreative faculty, but as an object from which
to derive sexual pleasure without the risk of personal bonding.
The bond created by sexual intercourse open to
procreation needs to be more fully understood. Young girls often have a
preference for "unprotected" sexual intercourse because they feel they
are thereby giving themselves more fully, that they are showing their
love more completely to their boyfriends. And there is something
fundamentally right about that "feeling."
Few are willing to have "procreative" sex with
someone whom they do not love, with whom they are not willing to share a
lifetime of responsibilities. "Recreational" sex admits of a large
number of partners for they are partners only for momentary sexual
pleasure, not for sharing in a lifetime project. Engaging in
"procreative" sex, on the other hand, is an act which bespeaks a more
exclusive and profound commitment.
For when a man and woman engage in sexual
intercourse without thwarting its procreative meaning, they are
expressing a willingness to have children with each other, a willingness
to effect a lifetime bond with one another.
Contraception is also alienating because there
is rarely "mutuality" in the use of contraception. Most often the woman
bears responsibility for contraception and it is she who suffers most of
the unpleasant "side-effects." Natural family planning (NFP) requires a
loving and respectful relationship for successful use.
Whereas men who engage in contracepted sexual
intercourse often come to view women as objects and desire to have them
always at their disposal, men using natural family planning (NFP) learn
self-mastery and begin to appreciate the woman and her cycles and her
needs. Disenchanted former users of contraception and converts to NFP
are often the most avid and eloquent defenders of the difference between
them.
Today in the United States, where almost half of
all marriages end in divorce, couples who use NFP experience an almost
negligible divorce rate….
Still contraception makes infidelity easier and
infidelity leads to divorce. And there is much evidence that couples
using NFP communicate better and experience stronger bonds with each
other. Contraception, then, rather than being a source of happiness in a
marriage, may be assisting in the breakdown of marriages. …
POPULATION CONTROL AS A WEAPON
Third Prophecy.
Pope Paul VI also observed that the widespread acceptance of
contraception would place a "dangerous weapon... in the hands of those
public authorities who take no heed of moral exigencies." The history
of family planning programs in Third World nations is a sobering
testimony to this reality. In these
countries many undergo sterilization unaware of
what is being done to them. The forced abortion program of China shows
the stark extreme to which governments can take population control
programs… the world now face not a problem of overpopulation but a
problem of underpopulation.11 Countries such as France and West Germany
have tried without much success to adopt legislation that will make
child-bearing more attractive to their citizenry.
THE BODY AS AN INSTRUMENT
Fourth Prophecy.
The final warning Pope Paul VI gave about contraception is that it would
lead men and women to think that they had limitless dominion over their
own bodies and functions. Although he did not elaborate, his worry now
seems well-grounded. For instance, sterilization is now the most widely
used form of contraception in the United States; in the quest for
control over their own bodies individuals do not hesitate to alter
permanently the very make-up of their bodies.
Undoubtedly, we have not begun to realize the
long-term physical and psychological ramifications of widespread
sterilization. We are tampering unthinkingly with one of the chief
sources of human happiness: the ability to have children.
The desire for unlimited dominion over one's
body extends beyond contraception. Surely the making of babies in test
tubes is an indication of a refusal to accept the limitations of the
body. Demands for euthanasia and pleas for transplant organs from the
nearly dead are strong indications of our lack of respect for the body
and its nature. Certainly, for each of the problems mentioned above
there are a host of contributing factors. It is reasonable, though, to
view contraception as a contributing factor to many of the problems
society faces today problems contraception was predicted to help solve.
POPE PAUL VI’s POSITIVE
PROPHECIES
In Humanae Vitae Pope Paul VI also
pointed to the good that would come from abiding by the Church's
teaching on contraception. He acknowledged that spouses may have
difficulty in acquiring the self-discipline or self-mastery needed to practice methods of family
planning requiring periodic abstinence. But he believed this was
possible, especially with the help of sacramental grace. In section 21,
he remarked that
" ... this
discipline which is proper to the purity of married couples, far
from harming conjugal love, rather confers on it a higher human value.
It demands continual effort yet, thanks to its beneficent influence,
husband and wife fully develop their personalities, being enriched with
spiritual values.
"Such
discipline bestows upon family life fruits of serenity and peace, and
facilitates the solution of other problems; it favors attention
for one’s partner, helps both parties to drive out selfishness,
the enemy of true love; and deepens their sense of responsibility.
"By its means, parents
acquire the capacity of having a deeper and more efficacious influence
in the education of their offspring; little children and youths grow up
with a just appraisal of human values, and in the serene and harmonious
development of their spiritual and sensitive faculties.
Throughout his teachings, Pope John Paul II
explains the meaning of the human body and the human person as these
bear upon sexuality. … In this original condition [ before original sin
] they did not
experience self-serving lust or disordered passions. Thus they were able
to love each other authentically and without all the troublesome
emotions and disordered passions men and women now experience.
After the fall, however, a great deal of
selfishness entered into human relationships; individuals easily exploit
and use one another in the realm of sex, as in other realms. If men and
women are to regain the authentic loving relationships for which their
hearts yearn, they must learn to control their disordered passions.
If they do not do so, they will be expressing
lust rather than love in their sexual relationships. Rather than giving
themselves and receiving each other as gifts, they will be imposing
themselves on each other and using one another. But if they learn the self-mastery spoken of in
Humanae Vitae, there will be tremendous fruits for their own
relationship and for the other relationships of their lives, especially
those within the family.
The passage cited earlier from Humanae Vitae
indicates what some of these "fruits" are. It claims that spouses
will be able to develop their personalities, which will be enriched with
spiritual values. It speaks of the "serenity and peace" that comes with
discipline, a discipline that flows to other areas of ones life. Perhaps
most importantly, the spouses become unselfish; they
become more concerned about the well-being of their spouses rather than
about themselves.
Not to be underestimated is the witness spouses
can give to their children and other young people. One practitioner of
NFP told me what a great witness his commitment was to the young men at
his place of work to whom he was trying to counsel restraint in sexual
behavior. He found them most impressed with his argument, that if he
could sleep in the same bed with the woman he loved and control his
sexual desire, they could control their sexual desire for the women they
were dating. Young people sense the attitudes about sex held by adults;
if their parents have a reverence for the meaning of sex, if their
parents have learned how to exercise self-control, surely they are more
likely to be responsible about their sexuality.
NFP vs. CONTRACEPTION,
the Difference
Some think there is little difference between
NFP and contraception, since both contraceptors and practitioners of NFP
want to control their fertility. But users of NFP gain this control by
self-mastery, by obtaining internal control over themselves;
contraceptors seek this control by technological mastery of their
bodies. Indeed users of contraception and users of NFP agree that there
is a great difference between the two; neither switches easily or
readily-to the other.
Contraceptors are generally reluctant to give
NFP a try because they fear they will lose control over a very important
part of their live that they will be casting their fate to the winds-or
to their fertility, as it were. They do not take a lot of comfort in the
reassurances that NFP is every bit as effective a form of family
planning as the most effective forms of contraception. But apparent lack
of trust in the method may conceal a lack of trust in themselves, their
spouses and the strength of their marriage. Although they may have had
to abstain many times in their marriage because of illness or prolonged
separation, they do not think it is wise deliberately to plan to
abstain….
Pope John Paul II recently spoke of the Church's
teaching on contraceptive as part of the "permanent patrimony" of the
Church. The above analysis tries to indicate that twenty years of
neglect of Humanae Vitae have produced enough unpleasant consequences to
enable us to recognize how foolish and dangerous it is to waste this
patrimony. The successful marriages and happiness of couples who use NFP
suggests that once we reclaim this patrimony, we shall begin to
experience joys and benefits we have nearly forgotten.
Pope Paul VI in Humanae Vitae implored priests,
doctors, educators, and spouses to promote the teaching of the
encyclical. Pope John Paul II has reiterated this plea. It is time we
all do what we can to answer it, for the benefits will be ours and will
be great.
Professor Smith teaches in the Program of
Liberal Studies at the University of Notre Dame.
Also see
What Do We Do Now? Making the Switch from Contraception to Natural
Family Planning
Abortion or
Contraception,
Which Do We Fight ?
The Bible explains the types of marriages over
which the Devil has Power.
Tobit Chapter 6: 16-22
“Then the angel Raphael said to him: Hear me, and I will shew thee who
they are, over whom the devil can prevail. For they who in such manner
receive matrimony, as to shut out God from themselves, and from their
mind, and to give themselves to their lust, as the horse and mule, which
have not understanding, over them the devil hath power. … 22 And when
the third night is past, thou shalt take the virgin with the fear of the
Lord, moved rather for love of children than for lust, that in the seed
of Abraham thou mayst obtain a blessing in children.”
Douay-Rheims Bible
.
Papal Decisions in
AD 1853, 1880
Casti Connubii, (December 31, 1930)
Humanae
Vitae (July 25, 1968)
Veritatis Splendor (October 5, 1993)
Humanae Vitae: A Challenge to Love
by Janet E. Smith, PhD
Janet Smith: Humanae Vitae and Conscience
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Contraception: Why Not? JANET E SMITH
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Study Guide,
Discussion Questions –
Testimonials,
Suggestions for Classroom Use
Religious Freedom and Sexual LIberationism -
Helen Alvare at Franciscan University
Mary Eberstadt:
Myths of the Sexual Revolution
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