"Prophecies of Humanae Vitae"
Archives
March 23rd, 2010
Steven Mosher
Only a few days before he died, Father Paul Marx returned to the topic that had so often [pre]occupied him during his long decades as a pro-life missionary, namely, the great encyclical Humanae Vitae. He sent me this short article, in which he underlines the accuracy of Pope Paul VI’s predictions about what would happen if [contra]conception became prevalent in society. We send it out now both because it contains timeless truths, and also to honor our Founder and long-time Chairman, Fr. Marx, who has gone to be with the Father.
Steven W. Mosher
"Prophecies of Humanae Vitae" by Fr. Paul Marx, OSB
On July 25, 1968, Pope Paul VI’s Humanae Vitae re-affirmed the Catholic teaching on life, love and human sexuality. In that document, he listed the consequences of life lived outside Catholic teaching.
He predicted that:
1. Contraception would lead to conjugal infidelity.
2. Contraceptive practice would lead to a “general lowering of morality.”
3. Contraception would lead men to cease respecting woman in their totality and would cause them to treat women as “mere instruments of selfish enjoyment” rather than as cherished partners.
4. And finally, widespread acceptance of contraception by couples would lead to a massive imposition of contraception by unscrupulous governments.
In other words, Pope Paul VI predicted that contraception would evolve from “a lifestyle choice” into a weapon of mass destruction. How dreadfully his prophecy has been vindicated by population control and coercive sterilization programs, fertility reduction quotas and the promotion of abortion literally everywhere in the world.
Contraception’s destruction of the integrity of the marital act—as unitive and procreative—has dire consequences for society and for our souls. Contraception, in other words, is a rejection of God’s view of reality. It is a wedge driven into the most intimate sphere of communion known to man outside of the Holy Sacrament of the Mass. It is a degrading poison that withers life and love both in marriage and in society.
By breaking the natural and divinely ordained connection between sex and procreation, women and men—but especially men—would focus on the hedonistic possibilities of sex. People would cease seeing sex as something that was intrinsically linked to new life and to the sacrament of marriage.
Does anyone doubt that this is where we find ourselves today?
A prophetic warning made in 1943 (many years before the FDA approval of the birth control pill) in 1960...
In 1943, Fr. Edgar Schmiedeler, OSB, Ph.D., former director of the Family Life Bureau at the National Catholic Welfare Conference, forerunner to today's U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, wrote a masterpiece titled "25 Years of Un-control". Therein, he wrote the following warning concerning the effects of contraception upon society's morals:
"Teach artificial birth control and, have no doubt about it, you will have an increase in the hideous practice of murdering the unborn child. That is plain as day in our own country. It is no less plain in other countries....Have birth control and you will have sterilization, one of the means of birth control. Have these things and you will multiply divorce, for they strike at the powerful natural bond of marriage, the child; they multiply childless and near-childless marriages. As has been repeatedly noted, 72 percent of the divorces in the United States are granted to childless couples." (31)
Saint Thomas Aquinas (13th century) - Referring to contraception, the Angelic Doctor declared:
“Hence, after the sin of homicide whereby a human life already in existence is destroyed, this type of sin appears to take next place, for by it the generation of human nature is impeded.”[1]
The “Si Aliquis” Canon - Dr. William May writes that this canon, integrated into the law of the Church in the Decretum Gregorii IX (book 5, title 12, chapter 5) and part of the Church’s canon law from the mid-thirteenth century until the 1917 Code of Canon Law, clearly compared contraception to murder. It declared:
“If anyone (Si aliquis) for the sake of fulfilling sexual desire or with premeditated hatred does something to a man or a woman, or gives something to drink, so that he cannot generate or she cannot conceive or offspring be born, let him be held as a murderer.”[2]
The Roman Catechism (Catechism of the Council of Trent)
The Roman Catechism, which was published by decree of Pope Saint Pius V, has been used as an authoritative guide to Church teaching since the end of the sixteenth century. The Roman Catechism states the following about contraception:
“Whoever in marriage artificially prevents conception, or procures an abortion, commits a most serious sin: the sin of premeditated murder.”[3]
Dr. William May notes that Pope Paul VI explicitly referred to this text in footnote number 16 appended to Humanae vitae, no. 14.
Fr. John McHugh, O.P., and Fr. Charles Callan, O.P.
“The perpetuation of the human race is endangered as soon as marriage is abused as to its natural end. Hence, after the crime of homicide which destroys human life already in existence, contraception seems to rank next in enormity, since it prevents human life from coming into existence.”[4]
[1] St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa contra gentiles, 3, 122. [2] Text in Corpus iuris canonici, eds. A. L. Richter and A. Friedberg (Leipzig: Tauchnitz, 1881), 2, 794. [3] The Roman Catechism, Part II, Chap. 7, No. 13, in the translation of Robert Bradley, S.J., and Eugene Kevane (Boston: St. Paul Editions, 1985), p. 332. [4] Fr. John A. McHugh, O.P., and Fr. Charles J. Callan, O.P., Moral Theology: A Complete Course, Vol. II, #2620.
More information...
On June 5, 1987, Pope John Paul II warned clergy and theologians of their grave obligation to faithfully transmit the Church’s teaching on contraception:
“A grave responsibility derives from this: those who place themselves in open conflict with the law of God, authentically taught by the Church, guide spouses along a false path. The Church’s teaching on contraception does not belong to the category of matter open to free discussion among theologians. Teaching the contrary amounts to leading the moral consciences of spouses into error.” ("The Church's teaching on contraception is not a matter for free discussion among theologians," L'Osservatore Romano. July 6, 1987, 12.)
In 1997, the Vatican Pontifical Council for the taught the following truth that no Catholic is permitted to reject...
"The Church has always taught the intrinsic evil of contraception, that is, of every marital act intentionally rendered unfruitful. This teaching is to be held as definitive and irreformable." ~"Vademecum for Confessors: Concerning Some Aspects of the Morality of Conjugal Life," #4, Vatican Pontifical Council for the Family, March 1, 1997.
As a Theologian, I recognize the use of two key words in the aforementioned quote, "definitive" and "irreformable", to mean that the Vatican is saying that the Church's teaching on contraception is infallible
http://www.therealpresence.org/dictionary/idict.htm and, therefore, dissent from this teaching is never permitted. If a Catholic commits this sin then it is actual sin and mortal sin and it can only be absolved through the Sacrament of Confession done with contrition and a firm purpose of amendment to no longer commit this grave sin against God whom we must always obey with much love, fidelity and humility.
A Prophecy Fulfilled By Father Dick Cremins, S.J. 2006 (v16, n6) November/December...
Fr. Stanislas de Lestapis, a French Jesuit, died in 1999 at the age of 94. He had been a member of the Papal Commission on Birth Control and was one of the signatories of its minority report. He had published a book, Birth Control, of which the third edition appeared in 1962, before Humanae Vitae (1968).
Prophecies Made:
Casti Connubii - ENCYCLICAL OF POPE PIUS XI
ON CHRISTIAN MARRIAGE (A.D. 1930)
The encyclical addresses the grave issues of contraception, divorce, and eugenics.
Evils opposed to each good of marriage
1. Contraception (53-62)
53. And now, Venerable Brethren, we shall explain in detail the evils opposed to each of the benefits of matrimony. First consideration is due to the offspring, which many have the boldness to call the disagreeable burden of matrimony and which they say is to be carefully avoided by married people not through virtuous continence (which Christian law permits in matrimony when both parties consent) but by frustrating the marriage act. Some justify this criminal abuse on the ground that they are weary of children and wish to gratify their desires without their consequent burden. Others say that they cannot on the one hand remain continent nor on the other can they have children because of the difficulties whether on the part of the mother or on the part of family circumstances.
54. But no reason, however grave, may be put forward by which anything intrinsically against nature may become conformable to nature and morally good. Since, therefore, the conjugal act is destined primarily by nature for the begetting of children, those who in exercising it deliberately frustrate its natural power and purpose sin against nature and commit a deed which is shameful and intrinsically vicious.
55. Small wonder, therefore, if Holy Writ bears witness that the Divine Majesty regards with greatest detestation this horrible crime and at times has punished it with death. As St. Augustine notes, "Intercourse even with one's legitimate wife is unlawful and wicked where the conception of the offspring is prevented. Onan, the son of Juda, did this and the Lord killed him for it."[45]
56. Since, therefore, openly departing from the uninterrupted Christian tradition some recently have judged it possible solemnly to declare another doctrine regarding this question, the Catholic Church, to whom God has entrusted the defense of the integrity and purity of morals, standing erect in the midst of the moral ruin which surrounds her, in order that she may preserve the chastity of the nuptial union from being defiled by this foul stain, raises her voice in token of her divine ambassadorship and through Our mouth proclaims anew: any use whatsoever of matrimony exercised in such a way that the act is deliberately frustrated in its natural power to generate life is an offense against the law of God and of nature, and those who indulge in such are branded with the guilt of a grave sin.
57. We admonish, therefore, priests who hear confessions and others who have the care of souls, in virtue of Our supreme authority and in Our solicitude for the salvation of souls, not to allow the faithful entrusted to them to err regarding this most grave law of God; much more, that they keep themselves immune from such false opinions, in no way conniving in them. If any confessor or pastor of souls, which may God forbid, lead the faithful entrusted to him into these errors or should at least confirm them by approval or by guilty silence, let him be mindful of the fact that he must render a strict account to God, the Supreme Judge, for the betrayal of his sacred trust, and let him take to himself the words of Christ: "They are blind and leaders of the blind: and if the blind lead the blind, both fall into the pit.[46]
58. As regards the evil use of matrimony, to pass over the arguments which are shameful, not infrequently others that are false and exaggerated are put forward. Holy Mother Church very well understands and clearly appreciates all that is said regarding the health of the mother and the danger to her life. And who would not grieve to think of these things? Who is not filled with the greatest admiration when he sees a mother risking her life with heroic fortitude, that she may preserve the life of the offspring which she has conceived? God alone, all bountiful and all merciful as He is, can reward her for the fulfillment of the office allotted to her by nature, and will assuredly repay her in a measure full to overflowing.[47]
59. Holy Church knows well that not infrequently one of the parties is sinned against rather than sinning, when for a grave cause he or she reluctantly allows the perversion of the right order. In such a case, there is no sin, provided that, mindful of the law of charity, he or she does not neglect to seek to dissuade and to deter the partner from sin. Nor are those considered as acting against nature who in the married state use their right in the proper manner although on account of natural reasons either of time or of certain defects, new life cannot be brought forth. For in matrimony as well as in the use of the matrimonial rights there are also secondary ends, such as mutual aid, the cultivating of mutual love, and the quieting of concupiscence which husband and wife are not forbidden to consider so long as they are subordinated to the primary end and so long as the intrinsic nature of the act is preserved.
60. We are deeply touched by the sufferings of those parents who, in extreme want, experience great difficulty in rearing their children.
61. However, they should take care lest the calamitous state of their external affairs should be the occasion for a much more calamitous error. No difficulty can arise that justifies the putting aside of the law of God which forbids all acts intrinsically evil. There is no possible circumstance in which husband and wife cannot, strengthened by the grace of God, fulfill faithfully their duties and preserve in wedlock their chastity unspotted. This truth of Christian Faith is expressed by the teaching of the Council of Trent. "Let no one be so rash as to assert that which the Fathers of the Council have placed under anathema, namely, that there are precepts of God impossible for the just to observe. God does not ask the impossible, but by His commands, instructs you to do what you are able, to pray for what you are not able that He may help you."[48]
62. This same doctrine was again solemnly repeated and confirmed by the Church in the condemnation of the Jansenist heresy which dared to utter this blasphemy against the goodness of God: "Some precepts of God are, when one considers the powers which man possesses, impossible of fulfillment even to the just who wish to keep the law and strive to do so; grace is lacking whereby these laws could be fulfilled."[49]
Additional Resources of Information:
IV. "The Facts of Life: An Authoritative Guide to Life and Family Issues" by Brian Clowes, Ph..D.
