55 Years of Humanae Vitae!

This month marks 55 years since the publication of the encyclical of Pope Paul VI Humanae vitae.

This is probably the most criticised encyclical of the last 100 years. The fallout was so great that Humanae vitae ended up being the last of 7 encyclicals in the pontificate of Paul VI, despite him going on to reign for another ten years. Yet everything Paul VI predicted in the encyclical in terms of what would happen if his advice was not followed actually eventuated. Paul VI was encouraged by the Pontifical Commission set up by John XXIII to reject the age-old teaching of the Church. He refused to do so, even as other Christian communities had done so decades before.

Humanae vitae may be the most hated encyclical of the last century - but it is also probably in 2023 one of, if not the most, relevant encyclicals of the last century. If people had just listened to Paul VI, then so much of what became the tragedy of the post-1960s Western world would not have occurred in the first place.

Pope Paul VI showed the whole Church that it was possible to accept non-dogmatic changes to the approach of the Church to the world. He was the first Pope to meet with an Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople in 1000 years. He gave his episcopal ring to the Archbishop of Canterbury. He supported ecumenism, provided it does not "deflect from the true Catholic doctrine". He saw through the reform of the Roman Missal. Yet he also remained steeped in the traditions of the Church and refused to accept any compromise whatsoever on unchangeable doctrines relating to sexual morality, women clergy, the hierarchical structure of the Church, the necessity of understanding the Catholic Church as the true Church of Christ, and the need for doctrinal clarity.

If only the world had listened to the prophetic voice of a Pope, who appeared at times to be a loan voice of sensibility crying in the wilderness of dissent of all sides of the Body of Christ. Then we would not be in such a state as we are in now.

In 2023, Humanae vitae appears in retrospect not only as a sad lament for what could have been, but as a call from the saintly Paul VI to a radical conversion and an understanding that to be Christian is to accept a path that may at times be difficult, but is directed ultimately towards the hope of mankind - Jesus Christ, Saviour of the World.

"Man cannot attain that true happiness for which he yearns with all the strength of his spirit, unless he keeps the laws which the Most High God has engraved in his very nature" - Paul VI, Humanae vitae.