<Humanae Vitae> and Some Principles for Re-Evangelization
Basil Cole, O.P.
This year marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the encyclical
letter of Pope Paul VI, <Humanae Vitae.> An encyclical of an
open-minded Pope overturned and unwittingly insulted the then
collective wisdom of "outstanding" theologians (hundreds signed a
document against its truth _ some of whom had not even read the
text!). The euphoric times of the Second Vatican Council within
the Church slowly had soured the taste of many Catholics as the
cultural, artistic and social "sixties" revolution in the U.S. as
well as other industrial nations of the West soared to the erotic
beat of the sexual revolution. The Holy Father was typically very
clear that the human person is not the master of life but its
minister who must respect God's laws in transmitting this life
(#13). While he did not develop a syllogism linking abortion with
contraception, clearly its relationship was on his mind (#14).
He, like all of his successors, saw that a contra-conception
mindset easily gives birth to a contra-life mentality in the
deeper sense of doing violence not only to offspring but to any
human life that gets in the way of one's personal plans and
goals.1 It did not take too much acumen to see that violence in
the bedroom would lead to greater violence in the hospital or the
rest home. If any quality of life seems to pose burdens, then,
like contraception which does violence to human life in potency,
one can destroy that life.
<The Beginning of the Problem>
From a certain point of view, the unmasking or unraveling of
America as a religious and moral society began with the advent of
the young male's dream in the early 1960's: easy and safe access
to soft pornography as the symbol of dethroning parental and
Church control over one's inner life. Looking at naked women
enabled the young man to leave the tensions of his student or
work-a-day world and find solace in images of erotic beauty.
Today, such materials are easily found throughout society _ in
shopping centers, movie theaters and television programs.
Likewise, the sixties was a time when church officials began to
dither and mute the Church's official stand concerning sex,
fearful on the one hand of alienating even more an already
alienated youth and, on the other hand, appearing to be out of
step with theological peers in a church filled with enthusiasm for
a General Council which urged Christians to read the will of God
in the signs of the times (GS 4). It was not <Humanae Vitae> that
alienated a generation of women; the cool reception of the papal
encyclical was already a sign that many men and women were
alienated from fundamental moral principles of human sexuality.
What was happening in the United States (and Western Europe) was
the dethroning of a religious order and culture based partly upon
the fear of hell, the principal tool (unfortunately) in the pre-
and post-war years for keeping congregations coming to Church (for
Catholics, Mass and especially Confession). To teach sexual
control, one simply appealed to the fires of hell to those who had
sexual thoughts, let alone acted them out. Implore them to think
of their self-respect and appeal to other lesser modes of growing
in purity (a terminology still retained by the new <Catechism of
the Catholic Church>, #2520 seq.), and somehow (it had worked
before), Christian youth would be spared the problems of sexual
deviation. Explain that in marriage, then, all the sex they
wanted was all right and permissible by the loving creator since
an umbrella had been opened by a sacrament or permanent bond which
now made "lewd" conduct (before marriage) no longer a sin. If the
youth of the time were intellectually fortunate, they might have
heard that reasonable sexual intercourse in marriage was even
morally good and meritorious, even if they never knew or cared
why.
A much higher way of life consisted in being a priest, brother or
nun who renounced these earthly pleasures of marriage and family
life to fulfill a higher dream of possessing heavenly pleasures
and powers, even to call down God Himself on the altar, or to
become a bride of Christ, with power to change the world in a
classroom, a mission station or a hospital. The only real
"vocation" (prior to Vatican II) was to be a priest, brother or
sister. Being a married lay man or woman was not a vocation and
one did not expect <them> to become holy since they were involved
in making love, having babies and working at jobs, hardly apt
subjects for growing in holiness, certainly not in the virtue of
chastity. At least they were not breaking the sixth commandment.
Perfect chastity was for priests and religious. For weaker
people, getting married was the normal and right thing to do but
God did not really <call> anyone to marriage.2 It was not
perceived as a "vocation." Happily, it would take the Second
Vatican Council and many documents afterward, culminating in the
<Catechism of the Catholic Church>, to put to rest such nonsense,
provided one took the time to read these documents (GS 48; LG 41;
<CCC>, 1603).
As the sexual revolution quietly continued under the noses of some
of the most sincere churchmen and women in highly placed
ecclesiastical networks, through the philosophy of <Playboy> and
the melodies of the new and exciting rock and roll, the sexually
active girl's and boy's dream was coming true: having deeply
fulfilling sexual fantasies or actual intercourse without the
unwanted by-product called babies who were held at bay through
condoms or "the pill" so long as the boys and girls remembered to
put them on or ingest them. What possibilities could then exist
for a marriage full of sexual fulfillment without the headaches of
a third or fourth baby to feed? There were even some parish
missionaries who taught that after the third child, one could in
"good conscience" use "the pill" since a couple had done their
"duty" to mankind.
As the further delights of "soft" drugs were now becoming wide-
spread, the sexual revolution was giving birth to a new American:
the corrupt pagan for whom "virtue had its own punishment" but who
unlike the old pagans, had no belief in any god except a wimp in
the sky who really did not care what was done in a bedroom or the
back seat of a car.
<Other Deviant Consequences>
Therefore, it is not by accident that we now have a president who
has "vowed" (usually and traditionally a religious act made to
God) to put into the supreme court someone eager to free women to
use their own bodies as they see fit and to kill zygotes or
fetuses at will. When the geneticists thought they knew how to
create in test-tubes, a common misconception began to circulate
that God somehow was no longer the creator of humans. So entered
a new business: surrogate motherhood, selling and buying the
remains of fetuses and their tissue. Nor was it by coincidence
that marriages began to break up at a rate of fifty percent per
year, or that each year the known deliberate abortions went higher
and higher because the playboy gave birth to the abort-boy and -
girl. Sex without responsible commitment either became sex with
preventing a zygote from implanting or aborting its by-product, a
blob (contrary to all scientific findings3) called a fetus. We
will never know the number of abortions of fetuses or zygotes or
concepti which happen through pills. Nor will we ever know the
number of still happening illegal abortions.
It was also rather strange that as the silent screams within the
womb become louder, the usually loud voices of many bishops
signaled different frets _ about war, economics, gay natural and
civil rights, the plight of the poor in central America, Holy Day
obligations. Recently, a rejected vision of feminism, without a
corresponding theology of what it means to be masculine, was
hashed over and turned down. What does all this mean practically?
The subject of chastity seems to have become quiet in the bishops
writings and discussions, as if silence would solve the problem
even though the problems have only gotten worse.
<Economic Results>
Americans recognize more acutely than ever that they are now in a
financial crisis. One does not spend oneself into trillions of
dollars of debt to a future with fewer and fewer children without
a certain span of inner moral blindness about the common good of
the nation and our partners in the world around us. The economic
crisis began long before President Bush came to power, when many
of our top leaders in the field of business and politics no longer
considered it desirable to think of the common good of the nation
or the family but of profit for the sake of profit (think of the
bank scandals we began to learn about in 1988). In the theology
of the Church (from the perspective of St. Thomas Aquinas), greed
and avarice are viewed as the twin bedfellows of lust (<ST>, II-
II, 153, 5 ad 5). Economics (prudent management and sales) is
deeply influenced by assaults on sexual morality because
uncommitted and sexually active persons who care nothing about
marriage or marital chastity are also consumers who want to have
more because they think that thereby will be more, at least in the
eyes of their beholders (pride and vainglory _ <ST>, II-II, 162,
8; 132, 5).
The concept of saving, sacrificing and thinking of long term goals
is inimical to the person of the playboy or girl who wants
satisfaction "right now" _ from winning wars to buying a car or
revving up a sick economy through the quick fixes of government
spending. The life of lust has always been a way that leads one
to thinking more of the immediate to the detriment of long term
personal goals, because physical pleasure is more felt and
understood than the unknown future, which is a spiritual concept _
time which only exists potentially.
<Toward a Solution to Chaste Behavior>
What can be done to save our national soul? Since God is not in
the habit of miraculously intervening to save countries from inner
devastation, but permits certain evils flowing from sin to take
the normal downward course unless a few saints come along, what
can Catholics do to begin a process of restoration in the sphere
of sexual morality which seems to be at an all time low? It is
not by accident that the Holy Father has insisted for many years
(too numerous to cite) that we need to re-evangelize the West.
What does this mean in effect?
To begin with, we need to restore the value of a chaste lifestyle
that is not based upon fear of sex, the body, or a hatred for
one's natural inclination to marriage and family life, or neurotic
responses to sexual stimuli.4 We only need to look at the new
<Catechism of the Catholic Church> to find our way back to sanity
and sanctity, natural and supernatural.
The new <Catechism> teaches very explicitly that sexuality affects
every aspect of what it means to be human (<CCC> 2331). Through
sexuality we create "bonds of communion" with others (ibid.).
Each person must accept his or her "sexual identity" (<CCC> 2333).
Sexual intercourse in marriage imitates God's own "generosity and
fruitfulness" (<CCC> 2335). It is per se ordered to "conjugal
love" (<CCC> 2360). The sexual act is not only a gift of self to
another but also touches the innermost being of the human person
(<CCC> 2361).
It is imperative that theologians and pastors return to a renewed
concept of chastity and sexual purity, based upon positive
principles of reason and faith, which have been taught down the
ages by the Papal magisterium but sometimes forgotten at the lower
levels. It is always easy to point out what is wrong, but the
difficult work comes in justifying and explaining why there are
limits to sexual activity. Once again, the <Catechism of the
Catholic Church> leads the way:
2337. Chastity means the successful integration of sexuality
within the person and his corporeal and spiritual being. While
sexuality clearly expresses our human belonging to the body and
biological world, it becomes personal and truly human only when
integrated within an interpersonal relationship of man and woman
within the total temporal and unlimited gift of each to the other.
Thus the virtue of chastity combines the integrity of the person
and the integral wholeness of the gift [translation mine].
Chastity (the fruit of personal effort and a gift from the Holy
Spirit <CCC> 2345) leads the person to integrity of life and love
(<CCC> 2338) through an apprenticeship of self-control and inner
peace (<CCC> 2339). One does not grow in this immediately (<CCC>
2342) but over a prolonged period of time and trial, marked with
imperfection and often by failure; (<CCC> 2343) chastity as a
virtue needs to be helped along by societal laws and ethical
customs (<CCC> 2344). It blooms into true friendship with the
same sex and opposite sex (<CCC> 2346).
<Marriage, Education and the Common Good>
We will begin to return to common sense and faith when we realize
once again that marriage, to which the virtue of chastity is first
ordered (but not exclusively so), is a one-flesh union of mind and
heart in the service of personal intimacy and human life. It is a
calling from God to become holy and apostolic (AA 11a; LG 35a; CL
40g). Its two essential properties are unity and indissolubility
which rest upon three prominent natural and psychological
foundations: communication, sacrifice and compromise. Where does
one learn these traits of character? Normally from the family,
the school of perfection (<CIC>, can. 226 #2; <Familiaris
Consortio> 39) and the family apostolate contains the seedbed for
changing the world. As St. Thomas taught so beautifully in his
<Summa theologiae> concerning the moral virtues (II-II, 47-170),
there are some moral debts we owe to one another that are
necessary for the maintenance of good relations among families
(justice itself and truthfulness) and some debts that are useful
but not strictly necessary for the development of good relations
(politeness and generosity). We need each other for the good life
of virtue and the way we grow is normally in contact with one
another, building up the common good of our society.5 So, it is
family life that shapes the future of a country (and the
particular church) by enabling the child to speak well, politely,
affably to others, share his and her ideas and toys, time and
presence with others in mutual concord and friendship with good
will. Later on, the little boy and girl will need these strengths
as fathers, mothers, husbands and wives to win others to their
points of view and work with others toward what is best for the
common good of the family and the society around them, be it the
local library, the rest home or a police, fire or power station.
The child must also learn how to flourish psychologically and live
without many things (poverty of spirit) by which he or she learns
to find happiness less through passive entertainment (television,
movies and music) and more through active involvement in reading,
sports and community projects for the common good. Here the child
must begin to realize that God is the real treasure in life, not
clothes or other lovely possessions such as cars, money and
expensive jewelry (ST, II-II, 118, 1-8). If God is not the source
of personal riches, then the person will never learn to thrive
even in prosperity, seeing self-fulfillment as the source of
happiness or worse, seeking self in all relationships and plans
without regard for the common good of those around him.
If happiness consists in <self-transcendence> rather than in
<self-fulfillment>, one learns this art by developing the spirit
of sacrifice (from doing without to learning how to obey one's
parents and the laws of one's land). The child must learn not to
become so attached to personal desire that as a future father or
mother, he or she is unable to bend to the reasonable wishes of
loved ones or to be of service to them.
Such character traits, modestly sketched above, will produce a
person with the ability to compromise later on in life about
things which are not essential, and yet be strong and courageous
about things which are the backbone of authentic life. Knowing
when some principles are not absolute and can be bent or broken is
just as important as knowing when there can be no compromise with
truth, fundamental goodness and the true beauty of life.
<Chastity Education>
Now, when the child begins to awaken sexually, it is important
that parents learn how to train the child in chastity, which is
<the> pro-life virtue <par excellence> (ST, II-II, 151, 1-4; 152,
1-5). The boy and the girl must learn that these physical and
psychological eruptions are good because orientated to the day
when they will give shape to motherhood and fatherhood. But they
must be motivated <now> to master themselves for the future, the
only way they will be able to give themselves unselfishly to their
spouses and offspring. Parents cannot master these impulses for
them, but their children can be taught how to do so. As we teach
in our book,6 chastity is developed by a plan or strategy in
advance of the inner turmoil which arises during certain periods
and times of our lives. Children need to be affirmed and feel
good about themselves from their loving parents or terrible
psychological problems (called being unaffirmed which produces the
frustration neurosis) occur which only intensifies the problems of
chastity.7
Chastity must be seen as the preparation for the vocation of
marriage. It looks to the one-flesh union which integrates the
erotic dynamic with the will to a life long intimate union of two
who normally (but not always) bring new life into the world. If
grace does not destroy nature but elevates and purifies it, then
the sexual impulses are not repressed by grace but purified, even
if never expressed in marriage. Once we return to the concept of
marriage as a call to holiness by the living God, then there will
emerge a new springtime of other vocations to the consecrated and
priestly life. As parents begin to see that their consecration
(as it were) in marriage is ordained for their children's holiness
as well, then their children will become more disposed to listen
to God's call (GS 52; AA 11; see also <Familiaris Consortio>, 38)
a call not only to holiness in general but also to the consecrated
and priestly states of life.
To teach chastity well, children must learn at an early age to
develop the ability to contemplate, both the spirit objects of
faith and the arts of the beautiful and even the conclusions of
science. A regular life of prayer, frequent reception of the
sacraments of the Eucharist <and> reconciliation, speaking frankly
and sincerely with a confessor, will keep them aware of the power
of grace to help them not only overcome the temptations of the
flesh, but other more pressing problems in their lives as well.
Likewise, they need to cultivate good ascetical habits of healthy
mastery over food and drink, imagination and memory, and modesty
in dress and behavior.
Finally they must learn the meaning of true friendship which is
not based upon the senses but upon common interests, goals and
other affinities. Slowly they must discover that love is not a
matter of feeling or words so much as it is a matter of willing or
doing what is best for the other. This perspective requires the
sacrifice of one's own immediate needs for the good of the other.
What this means is that there has to be a great self-mastery at
the heart of all friendship love. Yet, how often today's (and
yesterday's) love songs, the present sacrament of contemporary
youth for at least forty years, shout and scream about "need" love
wanting pleasure, or affection (in some part reflecting a lack of
true parental love). It is easy to recall the many lyrics that
say "I love you because I need you." But if anyone follows the
logic of it all, then the moment I stop needing you, I stop loving
you (so often the fundamental cause of divorces).
How difficult it is today for young teens to find friendship
leading to marriage, when so often they are expected by their
peers and corrupt culture to go off to bed to mate
(euphemistically called "making love" with or without
contraceptives) and share their innermost selves through intimate
bodily contact without having a clue about the other deeper aspect
of themselves which demands faithful, permanent, exclusive
commitments with an openness to a child. In the heat of
unintegrated and unmotivated passion, one cannot think of these
"spiritual things," especially if there is no conscience formation
going on in the family. The senses, the emotions and other
biological urges are abandoned to develop another philosophy from
below which boils down to following a hunger and a thirst for
their specific afternoon "delights." How impossible it will be
<tomorrow> for the young to remain faithful, in a permanent and
exclusive covenant communion with one spouse and open to new life
when sex is such an unintegrated part of their lives <today.>
Physical prowess in a bed without commitment by a solemn promise
called the marriage contract does not necessarily make for true
affection either for a future spouse or one's own children. If
affection is limited to what prepares for and completes
intercourse, then any ordinary manifestation of affection becomes
the harbinger of mere coupling for its own sake. And of course,
if one has engaged sexually with multiple partners before one is
married, how will one have the trust to believe the other will be
faithful and true, since humans tend to project their personal
failures onto others (ST, II-II, 60, 3-4)?
Truly, the restoration of natural and supernatural ideals and
orientation within nominally Catholic and Christian countries will
require some saints for the new re-evangelization spoken by John
Paul II. While the pro-life battle looks as if it is lost within
and outside many particular churches, Christ has triumphed over
sin and death in his way. Re-evangelization will require that the
remaining few who yet believe in the fundamental moral principles
of sexual behavior do their best to grow in chastity, promote the
climate of political and cultural due order, then let God do the
rest when he will and how we will. Anything less is both the sin
of unbelief and despair in the providence of God.
ENDNOTES
1 Perhaps one could reason further and say that the lack of
concern for ecology flows from a misconception that we are masters
of life and therefore of creation itself rather than its stewards
i.e., that all created being is merely fungible at our will.
2 Even today, one has only to look at the outstanding author Hans
urs von Baltazar to find the continuation of such pre-conciliar
thinking. See, his <The Christian State of Life>, trans. by Mary
Frances McCarthy (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1989), p. 421.
3 See Jer�me Lejeune, <The Concentration Can> (San Francisco:
Ignatius Press, 1992), pp. 54-55.
4 For example, if one is tempted, a neurotic way to stop the
temptation is either by giving into it or if tantalized by sex,
deny that it exists by repressing the temptation.
5 There is a link between self-indulgence and social injustice
(<Solicitudo rei socialis> 28); we all hinge upon each other not
by convention but naturally or the moral life is not something
individual but communal as well, or in other words we are social
by nature (GS 25; see also GS 24). Man cannot find himself
without a sincere gift of himself to others (GS 24). Life is not
just avoiding unfairness but entails the whole world around us and
our relation to it (GS 26). Solidarity is the commitment to the
common good which underlies authority. It is not mere sympathy
but true self-giving (<Solicitudo rei socialis> 38-40).
6 Basil Cole, O.P. and Paul Conner, O.P., <Christian Totality:
Theology of the Consecrated Life> (Bombay: St. Paul Publications,
third impression, 1992), pp. 73-79.
7 See the work of Anna Terruwe and Conrad Barrs, <The Love and
Cure of the Neurotic> (New York: Conservative Book Club Press,
1972), pp. 123-180. This book was subsequently split into two
separate volumes published by Alba House.
Rev. Basil Cole, O.P. was educated at the University of San Francisco, St. Albert's
College in Oakland, and le Saul-choir, France.
This article was taken from the Spring 1993 issue of "Faith &
Reason". Subscriptions available from Christendom Press, 2101
Shenandoah Shores Road, Ft. Royal, VA 22630, 703-636-2900, Fax
703-636-1655. Published quarterly at $20.00 per year.
Copyright (c) 1996 EWTN
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