Since Blessed Pope Paul VI’s encyclical Humanae Vitae was published 50 years ago, it has sparked wide-ranging debates, and frequent calls to change its teaching from some theologians.
At the 50th anniversary of the encyclical, some theologians have again begun calling for a reinterpretation of the document, or suggesting that adhering to it may be morally impossible for some Catholics.
Moves are underway to push the idea that what some see as a “new moral paradigm” in Amoris Laetitia — to give Holy Communion to some living in irregular unions — could be applied to Humanae Vitae to allow contraception in certain cases.
The latest example of this comes from a newly appointed member of the Pontifical Academy for Life, Professor Maurizio Chiodi, who delivered a lecture last month saying there are “circumstances — I refer to Amoris Laetitia, Chapter 8 — that precisely for the sake of responsibility, require contraception.”
And so it seems that five decades after its promulgation, Humanae Vitae will continue to be a source of controversy, but controversy among Bishops and theologians and not the Catholic in the pew.
Why?
My take on that answer may be very surprising and it has to do not with Humane Vitae (whose 50th Anniversary the Church will make on July 25th this year). Rather, I refer to an event which took place 52 years ago.
For centuries, the Church had insisted upon strict adherence to regulations regarding fasting and abstinence. These included abstinence from meat on all Fridays of the year and certain other occasions, and fasting on all weekdays of Lent and certain other days.
For generations, Catholics had been told that a violation of these dietary regulations amounted to a mortal sin which needed to be sacramentally confessed and reconciled before attempting to receive Holy Communion.
Then, suddenly (without any substantial catechesis) in the aftermath of Vatican Council II, in 1966, the United States Bishops released a pastoral statement on penance and abstinence that terminated the traditional regulations which had demanded abstinence from meat on Friday under penalty of mortal sin.
The new regulations were simple: fasting and abstinence on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. Abstinence on the other Fridays of Lent were “recommended” and other personal acts of penance were "encouraged", not mandated by Church authority.
The pastoral statement was accompanied by the following admonition: “While the Bishops have give definite guidelines to follow in the matter of Lenten penance, and these may not be lightly disregarded, still the individual can and should judge for himself whether he has valid reason to be excused from these precepts.”
I suggest that this change completely undermined the laity’s trust in the authority of Church teaching and governance.
I further contend that this change contained within it the seeds of the present practice among Catholics to question the authority and discount any moral precept uttered by the Pope universally as well as the Bishops locally.
Looking back on that simple change in age-old Catholic practice, I believe we can see how we have gotten to where we are now, with the faithful excusing themselves from any and all disciplinary precepts.
Every now and then in the course of the past five decade, there have been futile attempts by the Bishops or the Holy See to swing the pendulum back toward tradition and the imposition of obligations on the basis of Church authority.
Every attempt has been doomed to failure.
As a good friend is want to remind me about other phenomena in our changing world and culture: “you can’t get the toothpaste back in the tube once it’s been squeezed out”.
So, the theologians will debate, the Bishops will pontificate, the Church may utter whatever it wishes regarding the obligation which Catholics may have vis a vis the teachings and obligations, old or revised, of Humanae Vitae.
I suggest that the laity are no longer listening and have accepted the challenge and burden of deciding issues such as contraception and other forms of birth control for themselves.
I further suggest that most Priests are in agreement with the Catholic faithful on this particular moral issue.
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