Episode Details

Fr. Eamonn McCarthy and Matthias Conroy begin Humanae Vitae, the 1968 encyclical letter of Pope Saint Paul VI on the regulation of births — one of the most controversial documents of the modern church, and one that effectively ended Paul VI’s writing of encyclicals. Fr. Eamonn sets the historical stage: the widespread expectation, including among bishops, that the church would follow the Anglican communion in permitting artificial contraception; the papal commission that produced a majority report recommending change; and why Paul VI went with the minority instead.

The first paragraphs are read closely, including the document’s frank acknowledgement of the “new questions” raised by demography, women’s dignity and technological mastery over nature. Matthias drills into the key philosophical distinction between contraception and natural family planning, arguing it is not about purity of intention but the nature of the act itself; and both presenters note that many of the document’s warnings — about demographic collapse, about the instrumentalisation of sexuality, about the slide toward artificial reproductive technologies — are more obviously prophetic now than they did in 1968. More to come next week.

L'articolo Beginning the Contraception Controversy – Humanae Vitae – Church Wisdom with Fr Eamonn McCarthy & Matthias Conroy proviene da Radio Maria.