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Senior Curial Cardinal says Humanae Vitae Was a "Defence of the Dignity of Women"

By Hilary White

ROME, June 20, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) -  Pope Paul VI's reassertion of Catholic doctrine on artificial contraception, the encyclical Humanae Vitae, was a "defence of the dignity of woman" said a senior curial cardinal.

"The encyclical is not simply a 'no' to contraception but also a defence of the dignity of woman against whatever might degrade her greatness as a person, wife and mother, reducing her to an object of pleasure," said Giovanni Cardinal Re, speaking to a meeting in Rome of the American Academy of Fertility Care Professionals. The conference theme was this year's 40th anniversary of Humanae Vitae, CNS, the news service of the US Bishops' conference, reports.

Cardinal Re has been a member of the Roman Curia since 1963 and currently serves as Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, one of the most important positions in the Catholic Church. He said that the encyclical defended the value and sacred character of human love against a dehumanising modernistic technological approach to sexuality.

When it was published in 1968, the encyclical was in many cases indignantly rejected and ultimately ignored, even by some Catholic bishops. In the same year, the bishops of Canada laid the template for other national episcopal reactions when they rejected it at their meeting at Winnipeg in the now-infamous "Winnipeg Statement". Since then, while abortion, sexually transmitted diseases and divorce rates continue to soar, Canadian Catholics hear little about the social, moral and physical dangers of artificial contraception from the pulpit.

Cardinal Re said that pastoral experience has shown that "the encyclical, which at first appeared to be restrictive, in reality has actually safeguarded the unity and fullness of conjugal love."

Cardinal Re's has not been the only voice that has decried the abuse of women that was greatly aided by freely available contraception.

Pro-family opponents of artificial contraception point out that while there were a number of reasons for the general breakdown of marriage after the 1960s, the hormonal contraceptive pill significantly contributed. The pill, they maintain, turns premarital sex into a recreational activity like any other, creating a mentality in which couples enter marriage with a consumerist mentality that effectively makes a commodity of the spouse. The pill has removed the "problem" of pregnancy, which has also allowed ever younger girls to be exploited by older men, a result that is often carried over into the abortion industry when contraceptive devices or chemicals fail.

Until 1930, not only did every Christian denomination teach that contraception is a grave moral wrong, but even the mainstream media and politicians disapproved. The US had laws in every state forbidding selling birth control devices. Through the early part of the 20th century, efforts to legalise contraception, pioneered in the US by Planned Parenthood foundress and racial eugenicist Margaret Sanger, were met with stony disapproval from the public.

However, with the Anglican Church's guarded approval of contraception at the 1930 Lambeth Conference, a process of widespread acceptance of contraception was initiated, with numerous other denominations and churches following suit. Paul VI's 1968 encylical, Humanae Vitae, came as a shock to many in the Catholic Church, who had expected the Church to give its blessing to artificial contraception. Instead the Holy Father issued an uncompromising condemnation of all artificial contraception.   

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