| Written by Deborah Gyapong, Canadian Catholic News,
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 CORNWALL, Ont.- Canada’s Catholic bishops have issued a pastoral letter inviting the faithful to rediscover Pope Paul VI’s “prophetic” encyclical Humanae Vitae.
Marking the 40th anniversary of the controversial 1968 document, the letter notes how Paul VI anticipated the “troubling evolution” of marriage and the family due to the “contraceptive mentality.”
“This is not to imply that there is no legitimate concern for natural family planning and spacing births in a couple’s experience,” said the letter, released during the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops’ plenary in Cornwall Sept. 22-26.
Stating the encyclical is “much more than a ‘no to contraception,’ ” the letter focuses on Humanae Vitae as a “reflection on God’s design for human love” that provides an “invitation to be open to the grandeur, beauty and dignity of the Creator’s call to the vocation of marriage.”
The letter discusses how Pope John Paul II’s 129 Wednesday catecheses from 1979-1984 now called the Theology of the Body “offers theological and pastoral insights of astonishing depth and inestimable richness that integrate and clarify those already present in Humanae Vitae.”
“Reflecting on the Cross and the Eucharist enables us to grasp all the qualities and demands of the love that gives itself ‘to the end,' ” the letter says. “This is the love to which couples are called in their marriage.
“For marriage to reflect the love of Christ, couples are called to a love that is total and without restrictions, faithful and fruitful.”
The bishops’ letter equates the promises made during the sacrament of Marriage to a “desire to love the other as God loves us.”
“Thus, each time that they become ‘one flesh’ they are called to renew, through the language of their bodies, their marriage commitment to live a free, total, faithful and fruitful love, which is expressed in new lives.
“Abortion, sterilization and contraception are in opposition to the Creator’s intention at the heart of sexual intercourse, preventing, if God so desires, the creation of a unique soul for the unique body that the spouses help form.”
Like Pope Paul VI’s encyclical, the bishops’ letter stresses the importance of never separating the unitive and procreative aspects of what the late pope called "the marital act," but emphasizes the importance of the couple’s communion.
“If in conscience they deem that they should delay a birth for serious reasons because of physical, economic or psychological conditions, natural planning methods will allow them to manage their fertility,” the letter says.
“Collaborators in self-discipline, spouses who choose natural family planning recognize and welcome each other in all their dignity as persons, including the gift of their fertility,” the letter says.
The letter describes sexuality as “a friend, a gift from God.”
“The theology of the body has been compared to a revolution that would have positive effects throughout the 21st century,” the bishops say. “We invited the faithful to be the first to experience its liberating potential.”
The letter is available through the CCCB web site at www.cccb.ca.
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Deborah Gyapong, Canadian Catholic News |
| About the author: |
| Deborah Waters Gyapong has been a journalist and novelist for more than 20 years. She has worked in print, radio and television, including 12 years as a producer for CBC TV's news and current affairs programming. She currently covers religion and politics primarily for Catholic and Evangelical newspapers.
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