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What is the main message of Humanae vitae? ›

The Pope's Encyclical

In the papal encyclical entitled Humanae Vitae ("Of Human Life"), Pope Paul VI ended the speculation over oral contraceptives and birth control once and for all. He reaffirmed the Church's traditional teachings and classified the Pill as an artificial method of birth control.

Pope Saint Paul VI surprised the world on July 25, 1968, issuing his encyclical Humanae vitae, which condemned the use of hormonal contraception, other forms of birth control, sterilization, and abortion and promoted the use of natural birth regulation.

Pope Paul VI signed Humanae vitae on 25 July 1968. Mainly because of its restatement of the Church's opposition to artificial contraception, the encyclical was politically controversial. It affirmed traditional Church moral teaching on the sanctity of life and the procreative and unitive nature of conjugal relations.

Perhaps his most important encyclical was called Humanae Vitae. It discusses married love, responsible parenthood, and rejection of most forms of birth control. Ignatius Press recently released this encyclical, On Human Life, in paperback format.

Humanae Vitae 25 years ago "prophesied" that marriages and society would suffer if the use of contraception became widespread. Now the vast majority of spouses, as well as those who are unmarried, use some form of contraception.

John Paul II's Theology of the Body (hereafter, TOB) was inspired by something Paul VI had said in Humanae Vitae: he had observed that, in order to understand Christian teaching on sex and procreation, we must look “beyond partial perspectives” to a “total vision of man and of his vocation.” This is what John Paul II ...

In Humanae vitae, Pope Paul VI predicted conjugal infidelity and a loss of respect for women as grave societal consequences through severing the once-connected unitive and procreative goods of conjugal love by using artificial birth control.

With regard to physical, economic, psychological and social conditions, responsible parenthood is exercised by those who prudently and generously decide to have more children, and by those who, for serious reasons and with due respect to moral precepts, decide not to have additional children for either a certain or an ...

The Roman Catholic church forbids contraceptive use because it is a sin against nature. Some Protestant denominations have allowed contraceptive use.

For decades, the Roman Catholic Church opposed use of condoms to prevent spread of sexually transmitted infections (STI) because of their contraceptive effect. In 2009, Pope Benedict XVI said that widespread use of condoms could worsen the situation, a position rejected as 'unscientific'.

What is the Vatican position on condoms? ›

The Catholic Church's opposition to contraception includes a prohibition on condoms.

The Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services (5th edition) promulgated by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops state that “Catholic health institutions may not promote or condone contraceptive practices but should provide, for married couples and the medical staff who counsel them, ...

Francis, 87, has long been a fierce opponent of the arms industry. He has also reaffirmed the Catholic Church's longstanding ban on artificial birth control, though he supports natural ways of avoiding pregnancy.

Since church teaching says Catholics who use artificial means of contraception, such as birth control pills, are in grave sin, they cannot be absolved during confession unless they discontinue the sin. In other words, no absolution, no Communion.

A Mortal Sin

According to Church doctrine, tampering with the "male seed" was tantamount to murder. A common admonition on the subject at the time was "so many conceptions prevented, so many homicides." To interfere with God's will was a mortal sin and grounds for excommunication.

The prophetic papal encyclical Evangelium vitae (The Gospel of Life) was written by Pope St. John Paul II in 1995 to reaffirm the value and inviolability of every human life and to appeal to all people to respect, protect, love, and serve every human life.

It means that we are to be free from coercion. The state is not an all-powerful institution that can force people to act against their consciences. The right to be free from coercion limits the power of the state.

“Evangelium Vitae” was written to address the value of human life and maintains that societies and individuals, especially Christians, should do everything in their power to preserve this life.