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GENERAL AUDIENCE OF WEDNESDAY, 5 SEPTEMBER [1984]
At the 5 September general audience held in St Peter's Square,
Pope John Paul continued the Church's teaching on birth regulation
according to "Humanae Vitae" and "Familiaris Consortio".
"The Lord was witness to the covenant between you and the wife of
your youth.... Has not the one God made and sustained for us the spirit
of life? What does he desire? Godly offspring. So take heed to
yourselves and let none be faithless to the wife of his youth" (Mal
2:14-15).
1. We have previously spoken of the right and lawful regulation of
fertility according to the doctrine contained in the Encyclical
Humanae Vitae (HV 19), and in the Exhortation Familiaris
Consortio. The description of "natural," attributed to the morally
correct regulation of fertility (following the natural rhythms, cf. HV
16), is explained by the fact that that manner of conduct corresponds to
the truth of the person and therefore to his dignity. This dignity by
"nature" belongs to man as a rational and free being. As a rational free
being, man can and must reread with discernment that biological rhythm
which belongs to the natural order. He can and must conform to it so as
to exercise that responsible parenthood, which, according to the
Creator's design, is inscribed in the natural order of human fecundity.
The concept of a morally correct regulation of fertility is nothing
other than the rereading of the language of the body in truth. The
"natural rhythms immanent in the generative functions" pertain to the
objective truth of that language, which the persons concerned should
reread in its full objective content. It is necessary to bear in mind
that the body speaks not merely with the whole external expression of
masculinity and femininity, but also with the internal structures of the
organism, of the somatic and psychosomatic reaction. All this should
find its appropriate place in that language in which husband and wife
dialogue with each other, as persons called to the communion of the
union of the body.
At the cost of a precise self-denial
2. All efforts directed to an ever more precise knowledge of those
natural rhythms which are manifested in relation to human procreation,
all efforts of family counselors and indeed of the couple themselves,
are not aimed at making the language of the body merely biological (at
reducing ethics to biology, as some have mistakenly held). But they are
aimed exclusively at ensuring the integral truth of that language
of the body in which husband and wife should express themselves in a
mature way before the demands of responsible parenthood.
The Encyclical Humanae Vitae stresses several times that
responsible parenthood is connected with a continual effort and
commitment, and that it is put into effect at the cost of a precise
self-denial (cf. HV 21). All these and other similar expressions show
that in the case of responsible parenthood, or of a morally correct
regulation of fertility, it is a question of the real good of human
persons and of what corresponds to the true dignity of the person.
Right conscience is true interpreter
3. The use of the infertile periods for conjugal union can be an
abuse if the couple, for unworthy reasons, seeks in this way to avoid
having children, thus lowering the number of births in their family
below the morally correct level. This morally correct level must be
established by taking into account not only the good of one's own
family, and even the state of health and the means of the couple
themselves, but also the good of the society to which they belong, of
the Church, and even of all mankind.
The Encyclical Humanae Vitae presents responsible parenthood as
an expression of a high ethical value. In no way is it exclusively
directed to limiting, much less excluding, children. It means also
the willingness to accept a larger family. Above all, according to
Humanae Vitae, responsible parenthood implies "a deeper relationship
with the objective moral order instituted by God—the
order of which a right conscience is the true interpreter" (HV 10).
Moral maturity
4. The truth of responsible parenthood and its implementation is
linked with the moral maturity of the person. Here, the divergence is
very frequently revealed between what the encyclical explicitly regards
as of primary importance and the general viewpoint on the subject.
The Encyclical places in relief the ethical dimension of the problem,
by underlining the role of the virtue of temperance correctly
understood. Within the scope of this dimension there is also an
adequate method for acting. In the common viewpoint it often happens
that the method, separated from the ethical dimension proper to it, is
put into effect in a merely functional and even utilitarian way. By
separating the natural method from the ethical dimension, one no longer
sees the difference between it and the other methods (artificial means).
One comes to the point of speaking of it as if it were only a different
form of contraception.
5. From the point of view of the true doctrine expressed by the
Encyclical Humanae Vitae, it is therefore important to present
this method correctly, and the encyclical refers to this (cf. HV 16).
Above all it is important to examine in depth the ethical dimension.
For it is in reference to this that the method, as natural, acquires its
significance as a morally correct, upright method. Therefore within the
framework of the present analysis, it is fitting that we should turn our
attention principally to what the encyclical states on the subject of
self-mastery and on continence. Without a searching
interpretation of that subject we shall not arrive either at the heart
of the moral truth, or at the heart of the anthropological truth of the
problem. It was already pointed out that the roots of this problem lie
deep in the theology of the body. When it becomes, as it ought to, the
pedagogy of the body, this constitutes in reality the morally right and
lawful method of the regulation of births, understood in its deepest and
fullest sense.
Lawful regulation
6. Later when describing the specifically moral values of the natural
regulation of fertility (that is, lawful or morally right), the author
of Humanae Vitae writes as follows: "This
self-discipline...brings to family life abundant fruits of tranquillity
and peace. It helps in solving difficulties of other kinds. It fosters
in husband and wife thoughtfulness and loving consideration for each
other. It helps them to repel the excessive self-love which is the
opposite of charity. It arouses in them a consciousness of their
responsibilities. And finally, it confers upon parents a deeper and more
effective influence in the education of their children. For these
latter, both in childhood and in youth, as years go by, develop a right
sense of values as regards the true blessings of life and achieve a
serene and harmonious use of their mental and physical powers" (HV 21).
7. The passage cited completes the picture of what the Encyclical
Humanae Vitae means by "the right and lawful ordering of the
births of children" (HV 21). As can be seen, this is not merely a mode
of behavior in a specific field. It is an attitude which is based on
the integral moral maturity of the persons and at the same time
completes it.
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