Legacy of Humanae Vitae

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The Drew Mariani Show.

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On relevant radio.

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Our creator has gifted us, and so beautifully he's made man for woman.
And the very physiology is made for each other. It's an undeniable fact. And so that when these two do approach each other, in conjugal love, that there is always the possibility that the fruit of this act is another human being. And so to do anything to the contrary changes the very nature and the very purpose they need each other. By introducing something artificial to the very nature of marital love, the very nature of man and woman, we are changing the nature, the purpose.

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It's The Drew Mariani Show on Relevant Radio.

**Drew Mariani** (1:02)
Now, that was the president of Human Life International speaking about God's design for human sexuality as Father Shana Boquet. And Nick was just telling me, I said, hey, what date is Humanae Vitae? July 25th, so that is coming right up. And it's actually tomorrow. And I thought I'd give you a sneak peek at not just this document, but I'm gonna be joined by a physician coming up. Have you had your tubes tied? Have you had a vasectomy, gentleman? Are you thinking about either of those things? We're gonna dive into that. I'm gonna tell you about the physiological impact of that. We can take a look, of course, at the spiritual, the moral aspects of some of this stuff, too. And we can talk about reversals, what you can do, a whole litany of things. But let me take you back to an encyclical that is short, that is simple to read. I think every Catholic should read this. And Dr. Kevin Miller's gonna be coming by. He can take us through maybe some of what has been prophesied in this by Paul VI back in July of 1968, because it is quite a prescient document.
Just give you a quick snapshot of where we were. And this is perhaps one of the most controversial papal documents of the last century. And the Pope wasn't simply writing about contraception. That's what a lot of people think. He was actually speaking about, I think, one of the greatest cultural revolutions the world had ever seen. So, you know me, I'm a big fan of history. Let's go back in time and just take a look at what was happening at that moment. The birth control pill had only been on the market for a short time. I think it was only nearly a decade at this point in time. And what did we see? Sexual revolutions in full swing. We had Woodstock, that's right around the corner. Traditional morality is suddenly being swept aside. You're out of the 50s into the 60s. Marriage is being redefined.
Authority was being questioned everywhere, whether it was the government, or whether it was parents, or even the church herself. And a lot of people assumed, well, the church is gonna change at the times, right? They gotta come along. Everybody's waking up now.
So there was a papal commission that spent years literally studying the issue. And then news of his discussion leaked to the press. And a lot of people thought, oh, Paul VI, who's the pope at the time, he's gonna approve artificial contraception. Yeah, he's gonna approve this. And we can use artificial contraception. And all these expectations were super high. And he reaffirmed the church's constant teaching instead of changing it, right? And the reaction was explosive. The opposition didn't just come from secular newspapers. Unfortunately, it also came from within the church. There were priests that publicly disagreed. Theologians signed statements rejecting the encyclical. Some bishops hesitated to even defend it. And Catholics were left in the store, right? They were confused. So Paul VI, he said he felt like he was standing almost alone.
And just imagine the weight that he carried.
He knew the criticism was going to come. He knew he'd be misunderstood.
And yet, and thank God for him. He believed he could not change what God had established for both natural law and divine revelation. And one of the people who immediately recognized what he was doing was St. Padre Pio. And right before Pio died, shortly before his own death, he wrote Paul VI a very moving letter, thanking him for his clear and very decisive words, and short of his prayers and his complete obedience. And that's such a remarkable moment. Here you got one saint encouraging a future saint in one of the darkest moments of this Pope's pontificate, right? Critical inflection point for the 20th century and for really the human race.