Humanae Vitae maintained, under the Holy Spirit’s
guidance, the teaching of the Church from its inception until the end of time,
for as Jesus said “For truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away,
not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished” (Matthew 5:18). When Humanae Vitae was
promulgated, Paul VI made four alarming predictions about the use of
contraceptives that have come to devastating fruition in the decades between
the publication of his encyclical and now. They are as follows:
1.
The Church has always
taught that contraception is a serious evil and with serious evil comes grave
consequences. Pope Paul VI’s first warning was that contraception use would
“lead to conjugal infidelity and the general lowering of morality.” These two
things go hand in hand; one not need look further than the dramatic increase in
divorce, abortion, and disease since 1968 to see the vivid accuracy of Paul’s
warning. Sexual morality in this age has reached an all-time low and the root
cause is contraception.
2.
The Pope’s second
warning is that man may lose “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.” And indeed, women have become
increasingly treated as objects; because the pleasure derived from the marital
act, disconnected from its primary ends by contraception, reduces it to the
egocentric quest for self-gratification. Notice the exponential increase in the
objectification of woman by the explosion in pornography, declining media
standards, and popular cultural icons who sell the sexual objectification of
women and men alike.
3.
The Pope predicted
greater abuses of power by the extended use of contraception when “this power
passing into the hands of those public authorities who care little for the
precepts of the moral law” is wielded as it is by our federal government today.
The highest powers in this land encourage the use of contraceptives and thereby
immoral and disordered sex acts that further degrade our society. We are almost
powerless to protect our children from contraception’s deadly ideology,
ubiquitous use and destructive outcomes.
4.
The Pope’s final warning
is that by the use of contraceptives, man would come to believe that he has
unlimited dominion over his body and sexuality. The Pope asserts this point by
saying that “just as man does not have unlimited dominion over his body in
general, so also, and with more particular reason, he has no such dominion over
his specifically sexual faculties.” The contraceptive mentality has led man to
the false notion that he is his own creator and can be and do whatever he wants
sexually, the transgender and in vitro movements illustrate this false notion
as clearly as can be.
We are creatures created
in the image and likeness of God. This reminder calls us to recognize that we
are bound to the rules of the Creator, who has revealed divine law to us by His
Most Holy Word.
The Synod has been
called to discover pastoral solutions to assist us in evangelizing those who
have been taken in by the ideology of this age, neomodernism, who suffer from the traumatic
effects of a progressively more contraceptive society. Until we come to fully recognize and acknowledge the
destructive nature of the contraceptive movement, we will continue to decline
as a society, and the Body of Christ will also weaken as a result. As we reach
out to those afflicted by the deceptions of the Father of Lies, let us always remember the
perennial prohibition against contraception as we embrace God’s plan for life.
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