Pope St. Paul VI—Humanae Vitae (Of Human Life)
By James T. Majewski ( bio - articles - email ) | Sep 19, 2024 | In Catholic Culture Audiobooks (Podcast)
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“But to experience the gift of married love while respecting the laws of conception is to acknowledge that one is not the master of the sources of life but rather the minister of the design established by the Creator. Just as man does not have unlimited dominion over his body in general, so also, and with more particular reason, he has no such dominion over his specifically sexual faculties, for these are concerned by their very nature with the generation of life, of which God is the source.”
Issued in 1968, Humanae Vitae is the final encyclical letter of Pope Paul VI. In it, he rejects the conclusions of the 1966 majority report of the Pontifical Commission on Birth Control, and instead reaffirms the Church’s longstanding opposition to artificial contraception while promoting natural family planning as a moral alternative. The document remains a significant source text for Church teaching on responsible parenthood, marital love, and the sanctity of life.
Links
Humanae Vitae full text: https://www.vatican.va/content/paul-vi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-vi_enc_25071968_humanae-vitae.html
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James T. Majewski is Director of Customer Relations for CatholicCulture.org, the “voice” of Catholic Culture Audiobooks, and co-host of Criteria: The Catholic Film Podcast. Based in New York City, he holds both a BA in Philosophy and an MFA in Acting. See full bio.
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