Pope Paul VI: Prophet for the counter-revolution

Submitted on July 24, 2003

Send to friendThe significant revolutions of history have been preceded by technological innovation enabling revolutionary forces to be exported and purveyed. The same is true of the sexual revolution which grew to huge proportions because of a piece of pharmaceutical technology: the birth-control pill. To be sure artificial contraception was not new in 1951 when the pill was created. We know that it has been practiced for thousands of years with varying degrees of effectiveness. But never in human history had such a form of artificial birth control been mass produced, never before had the full force of science and the technique of mass production been applied to creating a standardized form of oral contraception. The revolution is still in full swing and is influencing most profoundly the development of a banal and brave new-world cultural life where "techno-sex" is fast becoming the norm. All we need do is witness the incredible and lucrative rise of "reproductive technologies." The Catholic Church is the only institution which teaches that the technology of the pill is responsible for intensifying and helping to produce many of society’s most grave social problems: rampant promiscuity, especially among teenagers, a staggering increase of illegitimate births, an ever proliferating divorce rate, a twisted view of what the family is and how it is constituted, epidemics of sexually transmitted diseases, the degradation and trivialization of marital life, the abortion industry, the technological creation of embryos purely for "use," fetal experimentation and the export of coercive population-control policies to the marginalized of the Third World. This catalog of moral catastrophes is accompanied by the inability of many good people from many nations, especially our own, to understand how these inhumanities are directly related to the ubiquitous use of the pill. Just as King David’s sin with Bathsheba produced a particular kind of spiritual blindness, so does the contraceptive mentality, the blithe and unquestioning acceptance of sterile sex as normal and even good, produce a deadening of the moral sense which eventually leads to a denial of natural law much less the divine law. This techno-sexual mentality has produced a reductive conception of nature and of man and woman. We have come to see nature, especially our sexual nature, as merely "a physical, biological, and sociological given to be technologically manipulated according to one’s own interests" and one’s own subjective view of fulfillment (Pope John Paul II, February 2001). However, there is a response to "the pill culture" as well as the means to change the cultural fabric itself. Thirty-five years ago, Paul VI wrote "Humanae Vitae," and it is arguably one of the most profoundly prophetic statements in the history of Christianity, serving as the theological basis for the present Pope’s original and innovative work on the theology of the body and the intrinsic meaning of human sexuality. Indeed, in leaving the dehumanized wreckage of 20th century, "Humanae Vitae" continues to be the bright line separating the culture of life from the culture of death in its defense of marital love and human dignity. The prophetic character of the encyclical is often referenced, but what does this mean? Paul VI is prophetic in the way that Jeremiah, Amos and Isaiah were prophetic. He speaks from the perspective of the divine with his eye perceiving clearly the reality of human motive and action in a fallen world where human beings are radically free. He speaks with the voice of an upright conscience and has helped the Church and the world be aware of "the substance of the Law" written in our hearts and demonstrated by our conscience, in order to penetrate the profound truth of married physical love. Finally, he has upheld the tradition of Christianity from its very beginnings to protect the dignity of sexuality and the marital covenant. Paul VI understood this tradition not as a set of human rules, but as a summons, a call to believers to rediscover the essence of the law. "Humanae Vitae" requires a personal answer to this summons by which we clearly express our inner adherence to the intrinsic dignity of humanity.