The Teaching of Pope Paul VI

Pope Paul VI gave a great gift to the Catholic Church and humanity in 1968 when he articulated in "Humanae Vitae" the Church's timeless teaching against artificial means of birth control. In this teaching letter, not only did he affirm and defend the sacrament of marriage, but he showed how acceptance of birth control and other forms of contraception ultimately lead to a lowering respect for women and opens the door for abortion; birth contol history has certainly proved that to be true.

Pope VI first affirmed that marriage is both about mutual love, and the loving accepting chidren from God:

"The fundamental nature of the marriage act, while uniting husband and wife in the closest intimacy, also renders them capable of generating new life—and this as a result of laws written into the actual nature of man and of woman."

Humanae Vitae is more than a papal encyclical - it's also a meditation on the great gift of marriage to mankind. In his meditation, Pope Paul VI reminds us that birth control has severed the age-old connection between sexuality and procreation. Since the beginning of time, human beings have always engaged in sexuality knowing that children where a likely consequence - until now.

Pope Paul VI understood that by seperating the sexual act from procreation, women would be reduced to sexual objexts by some men; he states in Humanae Vitae:

"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."

And it is this radical seperation of sexuality and procreation, which paved the way for the so-called "Sexual Revolution," where sex was permissable for people outside of marriage. And once sex becomes common outside of marriage, it often becomes a selfish pursuit of pleasure, with no connection to brininging forth new life. It's clear that this distortion of sexuality of marriage has opened up the floodgates for same-sex marriage initiatives.

Find out how birth control creates marriage problems.