Humanae Vitae: Prophecy fulfilled

Humanae Vitae was a prophetic document when it was published 50 years ago.  I give you Paragraph 17:

Responsible men can become more deeply convinced of the truth of the doctrine laid down by the Church on this issue if they reflect on the consequences of methods and plans for artificial birth control. Let them first consider how easily this course of action could open wide the way for marital infidelity and a general lowering of moral standards. Not much experience is needed to be fully aware of human weakness and to understand that human beings—and especially the young, who are so exposed to temptation—need incentives to keep the moral law, and it is an evil thing to make it easy for them to break that law. Another effect that gives cause for alarm is that a man who grows accustomed to the use of contraceptive methods may forget the 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, no longer considering her as his partner whom he should surround with care and affection.

Finally, careful consideration should be given to the danger of this power passing into the hands of those public authorities who care little for the precepts of the moral law. Who will blame a government which in its attempt to resolve the problems affecting an entire country resorts to the same measures as are regarded as lawful by married people in the solution of a particular family difficulty? Who will prevent public authorities from favoring those contraceptive methods which they consider more effective? Should they regard this as necessary, they may even impose their use on everyone. It could well happen, therefore, that when people, either individually or in family or social life, experience the inherent difficulties of the divine law and are determined to avoid them, they may give into the hands of public authorities the power to intervene in the most personal and intimate responsibility of husband and wife.

Consequently, unless we are willing that the responsibility of procreating life should be left to the arbitrary decision of men, we must accept that there are certain limits, beyond which it is wrong to go, to the power of man over his own body and its natural functions—limits, let it be said, which no one, whether as a private individual or as a public authority, can lawfully exceed. These limits are expressly imposed because of the reverence due to the whole human organism and its natural functions, in the light of the principles we stated earlier, and in accordance with a correct understanding of the "principle of totality" enunciated by Our predecessor Pope Pius XII.

Infidelity   I think it is obvious that more people are getting divorced today than they did back when birth control first began to become legal in the middle of the last century.

Lack of reverence for women   There has definitely been an increase in reports of sexual abuse and sexual assault since legal birth control came about.   The aforementioned infidelity is another sign of disrespect for women when the man leaves his wife, which happens more frequently now.

Abuse of power  There has definitely been an  increase, especially in the later part of the 20^th century, in government enforced limits on number of children, which utilizes enforced abortion, and sterilization to achieve its ends.  (See my series on population control entitled “Be Fruitful and Multiply” for more information, especially this section here: 

http://jimscatholicblog.blogspot.com/2017/04/be-fruitful-and-multiply-part-five.html

Unlimited Dominion   We now think we can do whatever we want with our bodies; this includes abort the child inside it, end its vitality whenever we want (euthanasia)  alter it to change our gender, sterilize, drug it up, the list goes on.  There are dangers when man thinks there are no limits to what he or she can do with his or her body.

We no longer realize our bodies, and that includes our reproductive organs, are gifts from God and that we are called to be good stewards of them.  Let us heed the warnings of Pope Paul VI, and see our bodies as they truly are “temples of the Holy Spirit.” (1 Corinthians 6:19).  (For more on the glorious creation that is our body, see my post here:

 http://jimscatholicblog.blogspot.com/2017/12/gods-great-creation-part-three-man.html

This encyclical was truly prophetic.  But as I stated in the first post in this series, it possibly could have been a richer document.  There is a slight chance it may have been received differently than it was if it had been supplemented with more appeals to Scripture and Tradition.   I will discuss that in a little more detail in the last post of this series.

Why contraception is wrong, Part Two

Last night, I listed several reasons why contraception is wrong.  The last I listed was:

Contraception leads to abortion.   

Let’s expand on that a little tonight.*

When one contracepts, one wishes to enjoy the sexual act without all the responsibility that comes with it.  If the contraception fails, then the child is not seen as a gift from God, but rather as an inconvenience, or even a “failure”.  If the contraception fails, which it often does, what is the only way to ensure its failure is not final?  The answer is abortion, the ultimate form of birth control. 

A misguided notion today is that using contraception should lead to fewer abortions.   The more contraception is used, however, the more sexually active people are, and therefore, the more contraceptive failures there will be, and so, therefore, there will be more “need” of abortion as a backup plan.   

Some forms of contraception are actually what are called abortifacients.  Abortifacients do the same thing as medically induced abortions do; they end the life of a fully realized human person.  Some, like IUD, prevent a fertilized egg from implanting in the uterus.  (When an egg is fertilized, that is conception and this when human life begins.)   Some, like RU 486, actually abort an intact fetus inside the woman’s body.   So, really, if we wish to speak about abortion, we have to talk about all forms, including ones fostered by various forms of contraceptives.

The sexual revolution, which was in full force when Humanae Vitae was published, was about having sex more openly and freely and frequently, and the effects remain today. It was about the pleasures of sex, not about its meaning and purpose. Because it was about pleasure, it was definitely not about babies.  To have sex openly, freely, and frequently, and exclude babies, contraception was deemed necessary.   If there were no contraceptives, there would have been no sexual revolution.  And of course, as we stated, when the contraceptives failed, abortion had to become the fall back option, and therefore, it had to be made accessible to all.

This revolution taught that we, not God, were the masters of sex.   The sexual revolution stated we could have sex whenever we wanted.  It was disassociated with love and responsibility.   It became “casual” or “recreational”.   The deep meaning of sex, ingrained by the Creator, was lost.  No longer was sex a result, or a deepening, of true love, but rather, sex was used to try to create love, or maybe not even love, but maybe some kind of high feeling, like a drug.  That is not what sex was designed for.

Sex, untethered to morality, leads to consequences, which the Holy Father predicted in Humane Vitae, and which I listed briefly in the first post in this series.  I will discuss them in a little more detail in the next post. 

*This material is drawn mostly from my post on this connection between abortion and contraception in October of 2016.

http://jimscatholicblog.blogspot.com/2016/10/connection-between-contraception-and.html

Why contraception is wrong, Part One

If someone asks me why contraception is wrong, here is what I would say*. 

1)      If you break the word down, it means "against conception" (contra- ‘against’ + a shortened form of conception.).  So, the act is against conception.  Well, there is the first clue God would not approve of it.   It is against something He created, the act of conception.  

2)      How do human beings come into the world?   They do through conception.  Therefore, conception is a good thing because human beings come into the world through it.   Without conception, there is no birth, no baby, no beautiful child, and correspondingly, no further children.  Something that goes against all that cannot be a good thing.

3)      We often hear the phrase "actions speak louder than words".   We speak more than with just words.  Saint John Paul II spoke of the "nuptial meaning of the body".   Through all the actions of our body, we speak something.  When we use contraception in the midst of the conjugal act, what are we saying?  We are saying we love the other person, but not with our whole selves.  Is this really the love we want to show the other person, especially in such a deep and profoundly intimate moment?  By using contraception, we indeed make it look like we are giving our whole selves to the other, but we really are not.  Contraception makes us liars.   God, who is truth, does not lie, and we who are created in his image, are made for truth, not for falsehood.  Therefore, in addition to going against the good, it goes against truth, and that is another reason why God would not approve of contraception.

4)      Close to the beginning of the Bible, God says "Be fruitful and multiply.  Fill the earth and subdue it." (Genesis 1:28).  God wants to fill the earth with people made in his image!   Contraception specifically, and all forms of population control in general, goes directly against this wish of God's.  There are serious affects when we lower birth rates which I discussed in detail in my series entitled “Be Fruitful and Multiply”, specifically Part Three:  http://jimscatholicblog.blogspot.com/2017/04/be-fruitful-and-multiply-part-three_2.html

5)      It is wrong because the supreme moral authority in the world, the Catholic Church, says so.  Let us read the exact words of the Catechism on this matter, which quotes Humane Vitae.  "Every action which, whether in anticipation of the conjugal act, or in its accomplishment, or in the development of its natural consequences, proposes, whether as an end or as a means, to render procreation impossible" is intrinsically evil." (p.2370) When we introduce something to thwart fecundity, into an act that is designed by God to promote fecundity, we do wrong.  

6)      Contraception leads to abortion.  This will be the topic of the next post.

*much of this material comes from a previous post on contraception I did in 2016:

http://jimscatholicblog.blogspot.com/2016/08/tough-teachings-contraception.html

The good and bad of Humanae Vitae at 50

This coming Wednesday, July 25, marks the 50th anniversary of the publication of the encyclical Humanae Vitae by Pope Paul VI. (And I just realized now for the first time that this encyclical came out just a little over a week before my parents got married; I had never realized that before!)

Probably more people inside and outside the Church have heard of this encyclical than any other papal encyclical in modern times because it discusses such a controversial topic, contraception. Everyone has an opinion on it.

Again, much will be written about it in Catholic media about it this week, and one can find a wealth of information. I will just say a few things:

From where I stand, the encyclical has more good than bad, but both need to be discussed.

The good is that it came to the right conclusion, using artificial birth control is not a morally right decision. Its predictions what would happen with increased use of it have largely come true: increased divorce, infidelity, abortions, sterilization programs, and loss of respect for women have all occurred since then.

There is some bad though.

First, is it is generally agreed that it could’ve been a better written document, with more references to Scripture and Tradition, as well as more references to the theology of the entire body, not just the sexual act. (Would things be different if John Paul II had written it instead of Paul VI? A case could be made for that.)
Another bad, which I just learned today, was that there was a three year gap between the end of the commission to study the issue, and the time the encyclical was published. It certainly didn’t come across as decisive with that amount of time passed.
Finally, the worse bad of them all it that has been largely been a failure, more Catholics are practicing birth control now than ever before. ( Maybe it didn’t stand a chance being published at the height of the sexual revolution in 1968? Who knows? )

So while it has been proved prophetic, it has not necessarily been proven successful.

All these things should make rich topics of conversation this week in the Church, and hopefully we all can do some reflection this week on this issue. To that end, I most likely will publish a few more things about this issue throughout this week, so stay tuned!

The reasons why May is the month of Mary

I think many of us know that May is the month of Mary, but not many of us know why it is.  Here are some insights into this, courtesy of the National Catholic Register, and Aletia.org.

The custom spans both centuries and cultures, with roots going back as far as the Ancient Greeks. In early Greece, May was dedicated to Artemis, the goddess of fecundity.  In Ancient Rome, May was dedicated to Flora, the goddess of blooms, or blossoms. They celebrated ludi florals, or floral games, at the end of April and asked the intercession of Flora for all that blooms. 

In medieval times, similar customs abounded, all centering around the practice of expelling winter, as May 1 was considered the start of new growth.  This was long before “Mother’s Day” was ever conceived, though the modern celebration is closely related to this innate desire to honor maternity during the spring months.  During this period, the tradition of Tricesimum, or “Thirty-Day Devotion to Mary,” came into being.  Also called, “Lady Month,” the event was held from August 15-September 14 and is still observed in some areas.  It included thirty daily spiritual exercises honoring Mary. 

However, the idea of a calendar month dedicated specifically to Mary didn’t come into play until the 18^th century.  It was in this era that Mary’s Month and May were combined, making May the Month of Mary with special devotions organized on each day throughout the month. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, “The May devotion in its present form originated at Rome where Father Latomia of the Roman College of the Society of Jesus, to counteract infidelity and immorality among the students, made a vow at the end of the eighteenth century to devote the month of May to Mary. From Rome the practice spread to the other Jesuit colleges and thence to nearly every Catholic church of the Latin rite.”

Various private devotions to Mary quickly became widespread during the month of May, as it is recorded in the Raccolta, a publication of prayers published in the mid-19th century. It is a well-known devotion, to consecrate to most holy Mary the month of May, as the most beautiful and florescent month of the whole year. This devotion has long prevailed throughout Christendom; and it is common here in Rome, not only in private families, but as a public devotion in very many churches. Pope Pius VII, in order to animate all Christian people to the practice of a devotion so tender and agreeable to the most blessed Virgin, and calculated to be of such great spiritual benefit to themselves, granted, by a Rescript of the Segretaria of the Memorials, March 21, 1815 (kept in the Segretaria of his Eminence the Cardinal-Vicar), to all the faithful of the Catholic world, who either in public or in private should honour the Blessed Virgin with some special homage or devout prayers, or other virtuous practices.

So we see a connection here between Mary and the themes of new life, springtime, maternity, and fruitfulness.  It makes sense!   Let us use the graces available this month to counteract the anti-life and anti-motherhood mentality that has been unleashed in our times, and pray for a renewal of life and family values in the world today.

The important (still ) reasoning behind the Feast of Saint Joseph the Worker

The Feast of Saint Joseph the Worker is May 1.   That date has a history.  In some ancient cultures, it was typically associated with the beginning of summer.  Down through the centuries, it has been celebrated by different cultures with song, dance, and food.   It was chosen by labor groups in the late 1800's as International Workers Day, sort of a "rebirth" so to speak of worker's rights, specifically the 8 hour work day.  The Communist Party adopted this day to fit its own platform.

It was in response to this that Pope Pius XII designated this day in 1955 to be forever celebrated in honor of Saint Joseph the Worker.  The Holy Father saw the pitfalls of communism and was quick to recognize that a Catholic response was needed.  

Communism may have seemed attractive.  It may have been seen as a legit response to the extremes of unbridled capitalism.   Communism may have had noble aspirations in the beginning, to make the lives of the common worker better,  but it was doomed to failure because some of its central underpinnings went against the yearnings of the human heart. It denied man the ability to work for and own property, to be a “master” of at least part of creation.  It abolished religion, which deprived  man the ability to publicly praise and worship God, which is his destiny.   It abolished freedom of the press, the ability to freely share information, vital for a healthy society.  It abolished the free ballot, thus guaranteeing the continued reign of one political party/ ruling class.

God created man with free will.   Despite the fact that we will sometimes do badly, we must still be allowed freedom to speak (freedom of the press), to worship (freedom of religion), and to have dominion over the world around us (right to own property), if we are to achieve our potential and be happy.

In communism, every right was subjected to the state.   A just society, on the other hand, while recognizing the state does need some things from us, and we do indeed need the state for some things, will not give the state total power over us.   God created man in his own image and likeness (Genesis 1:27).  He created man first before He made a government.  Society needs to think in the same order; man first, government second.  

We must remain vigilant in America that we do not respond to the ills of capitalism in the extreme like the Soviet Union did.  Yes, there are wrongs with capitalism, and our current Holy Father Pope Francis has spoken about them.  However, the other extreme is just as bad, as I have discussed here.

Let us not make the same mistake as a country that Russia made.   Let us not even allow us to go down that path.  Let us not let the government get too big, and too all-encroaching in our lives that it tramples our freedom.  

Saint Joseph the Worker, pray for us.

(This post was a condensed version of my post on this topic on August 8, 2015 entitled Saint Joseph the Worker versus Communism).   

The four wonderful characteristics of a resurrected body

 So it is with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable. ⁴³ It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. ⁴⁴ It is sown a physical body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a physical body, there is also a spiritual body.

1 Corinthians 15:42-44

Based on this Scripture passage, Saint Thomas Aquinas defines four characteristics of what our bodies will be like in heaven; impassibility, subtlety, agility, and clarity.   I came across recently an article by a man named John Johnson for the Catholic blog Veritas.  He does a good explaining what they are, so I will let him speak:

First, Impassibility (“It is sown in corruption, it rises in incorruption…”). Not only will you live forever in heaven but the gift of impassibility means that the glorified body can suffer no corruption or pain, and it will not be subject to carnal passions. You won’t need any physical food and you won’t age. Your bodies will be animated, in a sense, by God, who is Life itself. You will have spiritual bodies – or, should we say, spiritualized bodies. No longer, tied to the dust of the earth from which you came, you will be totally aimed at God.

Next, the blessed will have subtlety. (“It is sown a natural body, it shall rise a spiritual body…”). By subtlety, we do not mean underratedness. Because our bodies will not be subject to any laws of material nature, nothing will stand in our way. The prime example of subtlety in Scripture is John 20:19 when Jesus walks through the walls of a locked room to get to the disciples. By the gift of subtlety, our bodies shall be able to freely penetrate other bodies (walk through walls). Interestingly, our bodies will even be subtle with respect to one another. Totally sharable, we will be able to completely communicate, through our bodies, our joys to our neighbor. Though I do not know of one that has been done, a further study on the connection to the gift of Beatific subtlety and the sexual urge to share a body in this life would be worthwhile.

Thirdly, you bodies will have what St. Thomas calls agility. (“It is sown in weakness, it shall rise in power…”). This is a good one. Because, in Heaven, your body will be so unified and obedient to your soul, it will do whatever you can think of. Think about how incredible this is: if you can think it, your body can do it. Yes, I will be able to dunk. This actually explains why every human longs to do things like fly and have super speed. God gave us an appetite for these actions because we are actually meant to be able to do them. And we do see agility, in its seminal form, in the natural order. Isn’t it true that everything we see well trained athletes doing on ESPN’s Top Ten Plays of the Week is due to nothing more than a body which is well trained and habitually obedient to the rational soul of the athlete? So the Blessed, with their agile bodies will be able to fly, float, have super strength and be able to move faster than a speeding bullet.

Lastly, our resurrected bodies will possess the gift of clarity. (“It is sown in dishonor, it rises in glory…”). This clarity, or “brightness,” will be the glory of the blessed soul which overflows through the head and the rest of the body. It is the light of glory which Jesus gives us a glimpse of at the transfiguration. We will possess the very intellectual light of God (lumen gloreae) by which we will see him in his light that is otherwise unapproachable. As crystalline, the heavenly glory of our bodies will present to all; their very organization and internal structure will be immediately visible. And yes, we will actually have halos - these will be a sign of our kingly reign with Christ. The means by which our glory was accomplished will also be visible to all. The doctors will have the crowns of doctors and the martyrs that of martyrs. The particular means will also be evident: John the Baptist might have some sort of scar around his neck. The statues of the apostles in Rome usually portray them holding the instrument of their martyrdom – this is not just a good means of catechesis, but an insight into the nature of their to-be glorified state. Our crosses, everything painful in this life, will be, one day, transformed into something glorious. There is a story St. Augustine tells of a man who was burdened by uncontrollable flatulence - in Heaven, he was blessed with the gift of wondrous musicality. 

A few words of my own to end this:

Let’s do everything we need to ensure we get to heaven by living and dying in a state of grace.  What glories await us!