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1 NATIONAL REPORTER CATHOLIC THE INDEPENDENT NEWS SOURCE HUMANAE at50 50 VITAE at The maturing of church teaching An in-depth look at the birth control teaching and its impact on generations of Catholics National Catholic Reporter Publishing Company NCRonline.org

2 Introduction Decisive moments in history shape the lives of individuals and institutions, for good or ill, writes psychologist Sidney Callahan in the foreword to Robert McClory s 1995 book Turning Point: The Inside Story of the Papal Birth Control Commission, and How Humanae Vitae Changed the Life of Patty Crowley and the Future of the Church. For good or ill. On whichever side one falls on that question, few would dispute the assertion by Callahan and McClory, a longtime NCR correspondent who died in 2015, that Pope Paul VI s issuing of Humanae Vitae in July 1968 was a history-shaping moment. This multipart series by NCR contributors maps the influence of Humanae Vitae, the impact this teaching on birth control has had in the Catholic community and where it might be pointing us in the future. Dennis Coday NCR Editor The end of the affair? Humanae Vitae at 50 Document further fueled the post-world War II culture wars over the meaning of sexuality BY MICHAEL G. LAWLER, TODD A. SALZMAN MAY 21, 2018 On July 29, 1968, Pope Paul VI published his encyclical on the regulation of birth, introducing what we call here the Humanae Vitae affair. Now approaching its golden jubilee, the encyclical was published at a time of twofold crisis, one theological, the other cultural. Paul s theological teaching, each and every marital act must of necessity retain its intrinsic relationship to the procreation of human life (11), had never been taught before in the Catholic tradition and further fueled the post-vatican II theological wars in the church. Humanae Vitae ( Of Human Life ) itself further fueled the post-world War II culture wars over the meaning of sexuality. The scars from both these wars are still evident. They have inserted themselves into the papacy of Pope Francis, oblivious to the fact that he has moved away from the Catholic obsession with sex and birth control toward the beauty of a virtuous, just and loving marriage. His focus is on the complexity of human experience and relationships, which Humanae Vitae failed to adequately consider. Experience as a source of ethical knowledge Catholic theological ethics accepts a quadrilateral of sources of ethical knowledge, the so-called Wesleyan Quadrilateral: Scripture, tradition, reason and experience. Any Catholic moral theology seeking to be normative has to prioritize, interpret and coordinate these four sources into a comprehensible moral theory. In this essay, given space restrictions, we focus on only one element in the quadrilateral, namely, human experience, which Gaudium et Spes lauds as opening new roads to truth (44). The Catholic natural law tradition has always taught the relevance of experience for formulating ethical criteria to judge the rightness or wrongness of an act. To deny that relevance is to embrace a reductionist 2 NATIONAL CATHOLIC REPORTER

3 Natural family planning paraphernalia, circa 1983 (NCR photo/arthur Jones) methodology in which the only legitimate human experience is that which conforms to, and confirms, already established doctrinal norms. It was such a methodology that allowed the magisterium s approbation of slavery until Pope Leo XIII s rejection of it in 1890, and the denial of religious freedom until the Second Vatican Council s approbation of it in We argue that a sustained reflection on, and integration of, human experience into Catholic ethical method will lead to the revision of some absolute sexual norms, among them the norm prohibiting artificial contraception. We must first define what we mean by experience and explain its role in reaching normative conclusions. Human experience defined The experience we speak of in this essay is welldefined by George Schner as active participation in specific events the undergoing of life and the accumulation of knowledge thereby. We hasten to underscore that human experience is never a standalone source of theological ethics, and that my experience alone is never a source at all. Ethical authority is granted only to our experience, to communal experience in constructive conversation with the three other sources of ethical theology. Such experience, as actively participated in and consciously apprehended by humans is never neutral, unadulterated experience. It is always experience construed by the interpretation of individuals and communities in specific socio-historical contexts. It may, therefore, be differently construed by me, by us and by them. In a church that is a communion of believers, the resolution of different construals of experience to attain ethical truth requires, we suggest, the honest and respectful dialogue of charity lauded by Pope John Paul II. Such dialogue, we are convinced, will reveal patterns of experiential meaning and value that are shaped by the Christian tradition but are not yet fully integrated into that tradition. We inquire here about patterns of tradition-shaped meaning that are reflected in the lived experiences of married couples who, for ethically legitimate reasons, use contraceptives to regulate fertility and practice responsible parenthood. But, first, an important caveat. A common misuse of human experience and statistical analysis is to confuse causation and correlation. Causation results from a cause and effect relationship between two variables; it can be determined only by research that strictly controls for all the experiential variables that could be possible causes of the effect. Correlation, on the other hand, is easily determined by observation and claims only that one variable follows another. Confusing correlation and causation leads to inaccurate conclusions and the citing of false evidence to support a position. NCRonline.org 3

4 We find correlation posing as causation in Humanae Vitae s defense of its teaching against contraception. It notes that people need to consider how easily this course of action [artificial contraception] could open wide the way for marital infidelity and a general lowering of moral standards. What is the relationship between contraception and marital infidelity? Does contraception cause infidelity or is there merely a correlation between them? No causal relationship between contraception and infidelity has ever been demonstrated, and so we ask, is there any correlation between them that suggests an ethical norm on contraception? Or is there any correlation that militates against Humanae Vitae s teaching, especially within a just, responsible and loving marital relationship? Humanae Vitae s apologists sometimes confuse causation and correlation when citing data to defend its teaching. In their defense of natural family planning or NFP, the only ethically acceptable form of birth control in Catholic teaching, Jesuit Frs. Kevin Flannery and Joseph Koterski adduce a causal connection between Catholic sexual teaching and marital stability: Every study shows, they assert, without referencing a single study, that marriage goes better for couples who practice what the church teaches about sexuality. Their divorce rate is less than 5 percent while the rate for Catholic couples in general is over 40 percent. This is a too-sweeping assertion that makes no mention of other variables known to contribute to marital stability and makes no effort to isolate any valid causal relationship. After some spouses used NFP, their marriages were found to be stable; therefore, NFP caused their marriages to be stable. It takes a study much more statistically sophisticated than any they cite to establish a causal relationship. There are many other variables statistically demonstrated to be correlated with marital stability: having parents who have not divorced, level of education, mature age at marriage, level of religiosity, to name only a few. These variables would have to be all factored with NFP and all of them would have to be carefully controlled in relation to each other before any valid conclusion about causation could be made. It is much more likely that there is no more than correlation between marital stability and NFP, and that already convinced observers have jumped to a preferred but false conclusion. Census studies at the time of Humanae Vitae s publication indicate a lowered divorce rate for those who attend church regularly and an even lower divorce rate for those who both attend church and pray privately at home. It might be that church attendance and prayer life are more directly related to marital stability than NFP. Cultural experience and contraception One type of experience that provides a basis for reflection leading to the formulation of ethical norms is cultural experience. Gaudium et Spes teaches that thanks to the experience of past ages and the treasures hidden in the various forms of human culture the nature of man himself is more clearly revealed and new roads to truth are opened. It adds that from the beginning of [the church s] history, she has learned to express the message of Christ with the help of the ideas and terminology of various philosophers (44). It is true that the church is called on occasion to be countercultural, to confront cultural theories and actions that do not lead to human flourishing, for example, the rabid individualism rampant in United States culture. It is equally true that reflection on cultural experience has led and can continue to lead to insight into ethical truth and the communication of that truth from that culture to others. The pastoral letters of the U.S. bishops conference on the economy and nuclear war are examples of the dialectic between culture and the development of ethical norms. The letters draw on the traditional Catholic principles of justice and fairness, and articulate them in light of the specific cultural experience to which they respond. There is a serious disconnect between the universal teaching prohibiting artificial contraception and particular cultural experiences. We briefly explore two of those issues. The bishops of Canada note the following in their statement preceding the 1994 U.N. Conference on Population and Development in Cairo: We are convinced that unchecked growth in population is a function of poverty. There is substantial evidence indicating a strong correlation, if not a cause, in developing countries between population growth and extreme poverty leading to disease and early death. There is also evidence that family planning policies that include the use of contraceptives have reduced this unchecked growth in many developing countries by more than half. People in these countries are least able to provide adequate nutrition, care and basic needs for children born into poverty, and it is arguable that not using artificial birth control in these countries is irresponsible and is contra-life. More than 20,000 people die every day because of extreme poverty. Artificial contraception 4 NATIONAL CATHOLIC REPORTER

5 could enable for them the good of life, such an important value in African culture, not attack it as some traditionalist theologians claim. Given the strong directional correlation between fertility and poverty, the Canadian bishops proposal seems eminently reasonable and reflects the principle of responsible parenthood: We recognize that a couple s responsibility to decide the number and spacing of their children must take into account a number of factors: the family s own limits in regards to health as well as their material resources; the demographic reality of the country where the couple lives, and also the world s demographic context. This discernment will be based on the couple s own ethical and religious convictions, as well as the moral implications of the family planning methods being considered. This method of allowing human experience to inform, if not the formulation of the ethical norm guiding marital fertility, at least its application is in stark contrast to the universalist, acultural, ethical method grounding the absolute norm prohibiting contraception in Humanae Vitae. There is a second disconnect between the Catholic teaching prohibiting artificial contraception and diverse cultural contexts. The church s only approved method of birth regulation, NFP, presumes mutual love and decision making between the spouses within the marital relationship. This is a splendid ideal for a marital relationship, but it does not reflect the cultural and relational reality of couples throughout the world whose relationships exist within, and are shaped by, patriarchal cultures. In these cultures, the husband is the unquestioned authority in the marriage, and the fundamental equality required to practice NFP is absent. In these experiential contexts, it can be oppressive for the church to prescribe an approach to regulating birth that is countercultural and creates an undue burden for women. Given the varied cultural and experiential contexts of marital relationships throughout the world, neither social nor sexual norms can be one size fits all. Responsible parenthood must be adapted to specific cultural contexts. It is irresponsible and oppressive to teach an absolute ethical norm that can actually damage human dignity within marital relationships, especially the dignity of women. Scientific experience and contraception Pope Paul VI (CNS/Catholic Press/Giancarlo Giuliani) Another facet of human experience is scientific experience. New discoveries and new technologies challenge traditional ethical answers based on inaccurate or incomplete scientific knowledge and raise new ethical questions that require new answers. Some answers will be drawn from traditional ethical principles, but in a new, nuanced way that may lead to the revision of an ethical norm. Recent papacies have consistently taught the need to integrate the discoveries of the human sciences in formulating ethical truth, but they have also been selective in actualizing that teaching. This selectivity is exemplified in three distinct ways: first, when the magisterium ignores what the sciences have to contribute to the discernment of ethical truth when such a contribution would challenge a pre-established norm; second, when it allows science, defined in a narrowly biological sense, to disproportionately inform norms; third, when it misrepresents or falsifies scientific evidence. We consider each case in turn. First, in the case of fertility rates and poverty, the logical implications of science are not always embraced and allowed to transform the established ethical norm on contraception. Scientific studies indicating the correlation between high fertility rates, NCRonline.org 5

6 A critic of Pope Paul s encyclical banning contraception draws an overflow crowd of 9,000 at a meeting held during the annual Catholic Day Congress at Essen, West Germany, in (RNS) poverty and early death, and the strength and directionality of this correlation, were not as numerous in As this data has become more readily accessible and recognized by the magisterium, we would expect it to be incorporated into the reformulation of the church s ethical norms. In the case of the norm prohibiting contraception as a means for facilitating responsible and safe parenthood, however, scientific insights seem to be ignored. Second, a major concern the church s official teaching on contraception does not adequately consider is the reality of HIV/AIDS, especially in Africa. Ignoring the common African tradition of the importance of life, not only individual but also communal life, it continues to discourage the use of condoms to prevent HIV, thereby threatening that soimportant human and communal life. The late Cardinal Alfonso López Trujillo, president of the Pontifical Council for the Family, claimed publicly that the HIV virus can penetrate a condom and that promoting condom use leads to sexual promiscuity. The first claim is blatantly false; when used properly, latex condoms do prevent the spread of the HIV virus. The second claim elevates what is no more than a correlation to a causal relationship, though there is no scientifically demonstrated causal connection between contraception and sexual promiscuity. Condom use alone is never going to be the solution to the AIDS crisis; it does not respond to the root of the crisis. It can, however, within the established Catholic ethical tradition, serve as one way to contain its spread. The context is one in which thousands of human lives hang in the balance. Third, there is an already-established magisterial approval for the use of artificial contraception to treat a female physical disease. If contraception can be used to treat a woman s physical disease, why can it not also be used to treat the affective strain an unplanned pregnancy places on women at the prospect of a child being born into poverty and early death? Why can it not be used to prevent the spread of AIDS among women for whom, for physical, cultural or familial reasons, the use of NFP is not possible? Women account for some 50 percent of AIDS infection throughout the world and for some 60 percent of new infections in sub-saharan Africa. The refusal to adequately address this issue through a revised moral norm results from the type of reasoning that 6 NATIONAL CATHOLIC REPORTER

7 ignores experience and has warranted the accusation of physicalism against magisterial teaching. Theological experience and contraception There is a third type of experience that unites theology and human experience and provides insight into the teaching on contraception. Theological experience describes here the interconnected theological realities known as sensus fidei and reception. Sensus fidei is a theological concept that denotes both the instinctive capacity of believers to recognize the truth toward which the Spirit of God is leading them and their spontaneous judgment that such truth has theological weight. Sensus fidei is a charism of discernment, possessed by the whole church, laity, theologians and bishops together, which knows and receives a teaching as truth and, therefore, to be believed (see Lumen Gentium, 12). It derives from the lived experience of Catholic believers and the accumulation of experiential knowledge. Reception is an ecclesial process by which virtually the whole church assents to a teaching, thereby assimilating it into the life of the whole church. Reception does not make the teaching true. It is, rather, a prudential judgment from experiential data that the teaching is good for the whole church and is in agreement with the apostolic tradition on which the church is built. It is important to be clear that reception is a judgment, not about the truth of a teaching but about its usefulness in the life of the church. A non-received teaching is not necessarily false; it is simply judged by virtually all believers to be irrelevant to both their own lives and the life of the church. As culture, time and place inevitably enculturated the good news of what God has done in Jesus the Christ, so, too, do they also enculturate every ethical teaching and every reception of that teaching. The act of reception, however, cannot and does not receive the tradition of the past unchanged; the past is always re-received in the cultures of the present. There are many examples in Catholic history of both reception and non-reception. The social sciences provide substantial evidence of non-reception of the magisterial teaching on contraception among the faithful, theologians, and many bishops and clergy both at the time Humanae Vitae was promulgated and in its aftermath. The vast majority of Catholic couples worldwide, some 85 percent of them in a recent Univision survey, use a form of contraception prohibited by Catholic teaching. This use reflects radically changed attitudes toward contraception over the last 50 years. In 1963, over 50 percent of American Catholics accepted church teaching on contraception; in 1987, that number dropped to 18 percent; in 1993, it dropped further to only 13 percent. This overwhelming non-reception indicates that the universal sensus fidei does not assent to the church s teaching on contraception. Surveys indicate further that the majority of Catholics now look to themselves rather than to church leaders as the proper locus of ethical authority on contraception and other sexual issues. Sadly, the magisterium s loss of credibility, due to not only its absolute stance on sexual norms, but also its toleration of widespread clerical sexual abuse, has effectively obscured the real content of Humanae Vitae, which is a beautiful reflection on conjugal love and the unitive meaning of sexual intercourse. Its non-reception by Catholic faithful does not prove that the church s teaching on contraception is false. It proves only that it is irrelevant to the vast majority of married couples and their theological experience. Jesuit Bernard Lonergan s commentary immediately following the publication of Humanae Vitae in 1968 remains apposite today. He pointed out the biologically obvious, namely, that the connection between sexual intercourse and conception is not the relation of a per se cause to a per se effect but rather a statistical relationship relating a sufficiently long and random series of inseminations with some conceptions. He goes on to assert that marital intercourse of itself is an expression and sustainer of love with only a statistical relationship to conception. While there is not always a conception following sexual intercourse, there is always between loving spouses a causal relationship between intercourse and conjugal love. That is enough to argue for not only the separability, but also the natural separation of what the magisterium calls the procreative and unitive meanings of the conjugal act. Phrases like each and every marital act must of necessity retain its intrinsic relationship to the procreation of human life (Humanae Vitae, 11), Lonergan argues, make no sense. They derive from the old, discredited Aristotelian biology and not from modern biology. The issue, we argue, is not whether or not people have to have reasons for accepting Paul VI s decision on contraception. The issue is that, when there is no valid reason for accepting his precept, that precept ought never to be an ethical norm. We further argue that 50 years of Humanae Vitae s growing non-reception is a more than sufficient reason to consider a revision of its contraceptive norm. NCRonline.org 7

8 Pope Francis greets retired Pope Benedict XVI at the beatification Mass of Blessed Paul VI in St. Peter s Square at the Vatican Oct. 19, (CNS/Paul Haring) Pope Francis and contraception Does Pope Francis has anything to contribute to this discussion? He suggests an answer in two places in his apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia. First, he notes that the development of bio-technology has also had a major influence on the birth rate. He strongly condemns forced State intervention in favor of contraception, sterilization, and even abortion, and strongly affirms the upright consciences of spouses who for sufficiently serious reasons limit the number of their children (42). Second, he embraces the Second Vatican Council s strong statement on the authority and inviolability of conscience (Dignitatis Humanae, 3) and declares that, while Paul VI s Humanae Vitae and John Paul II s Familiaris Consortio ought to be taken up anew and the use of methods based on the laws of nature and the incidence of fertility (Humanae Vitae, 11) are to be promoted, it is the parents themselves and no one else [who] should ultimately make this judgment in the sight of God (Amoris Laetitia 222, quoting Gaudium et Spes, 50). Francis complains that we find it hard to make room for the consciences of the faithful, who very often respond as best they can to the Gospel amid their limitations, and are capable of carrying out their own discernment in complex situations, adding the trenchant judgment that we have been called to form consciences, not to replace them (37). He declares that individual conscience needs to be better incorporated into the Church s praxis in certain situations which do not objectively embody our understanding of marriage, for conscience can also recognize with sincerity and honesty what for now is the most generous response which can be given to God, and come to see with a certain moral security that it is what God himself is asking amid the concrete complexity of one s limits, while not yet fully the objective ideal (303). He is speaking in this latter passage about divorce and remarriage without annulment, but he is articulating a traditional Catholic principle that applies to all moral judgments, including the judgment about whether to use or not to use artificial contraception: Circumstances and context are factors in every ethical judgment. The church has no comprehensive competence, and therefore no unquestionable authority, for evaluating human experience. It must then fall back on conscientious human judgments and the human sciences. In conclusion, the affair Humanae Vitae introduced into the Catholic marital, ethical tradition in 1968 that each and every marital act must of necessity retain its intrinsic relationship to the procreation of human life, has ended in 2018 with the conscientious and clear judgment of the people of God, instructed and validated by Pope Francis. The theological and cultural warriors can sheath their swords. This essay is adapted from a journal article Experience and Moral Theology: Reflections on Humanae Vitae forty years later, INTAMS Review 14 (2008). [Todd A. Salzman is the Amelia and Emil Graff Professor of Catholic Theology at Creighton University. Michael G. Lawler is the emeritus Amelia and Emil Graff Professor of Catholic Theology at Creighton University. They are the co-authors of The Sexual Person (Georgetown University Press).] 8 NATIONAL CATHOLIC REPORTER

9 Overwriting tradition: Humanae Vitae replaced real church teaching BY JOSEPH SELLING MAY 29, 2018 Marking the 50th anniversary of Humanae Vitae ( Of Human Life ), the encyclical on the regulation of birth, a number of people are going to be celebrating the work of Pope Paul VI, whom they believe resolutely defended and preserved the traditional teaching of the church. As most people who have studied the unfolding of the Humanae Vitae event know, the commission that Pope John XXIII called into being, and that Paul VI supported and expanded with experts and laypersons, advised that the teaching on birth control be allowed to evolve, and that the church accept that the use of some forms of family planning, namely contraception, could be justified. In Paragraph 6 of Humanae Vitae, Paul VI rejected the findings of his commission on the grounds that certain criteria of solutions had emerged which departed from the moral teaching on marriage proposed with constant firmness by the teaching authority of the Church. As a professor of moral theology, I have spent upward of four decades searching for that constant teaching, only to find that, like many other moral teachings of the church, such as those about usury, slavery, and religious freedom, it has been in a continuous state of evolution. If there ever was a clearly definable position on birth control in official teaching, there was an equally clear perception that it needed to be revised, if not completely replaced. The existence of the papal commission on birth control ( ), the fact that Gaudium et Spes (the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, 47-52) indicated that the issues needed to be studied (see Part II, Chapter 1, Note 14), and the general sphere of anticipation throughout the church before the promulgation of the encyclical, demonstrated that the classical arguments with regard to birth control were no longer functional. Paul VI therefore introduced a new argument in his approach, claiming, This teaching, often set forth by the magisterium, is founded upon the inseparable connection, willed by God and unable to be broken by man on his own initiative, between the two meanings of the conjugal act: the unitive meaning and the procreative meaning (Humanae Vitae, 12). In the literature that followed this teaching, it A couple gets married in Stockholm in this 2013 file photo. (CNS/EPA/Fredrik Sandberg) came to be labeled the inseparability principle. As a researcher and professor of a course on sexual and conjugal ethics, it was incumbent upon me to try to locate where this teaching had been often set forth by the magisterium. If one follows the preference of the Vatican for (only) the last 150 years, one would presume that official teaching emanates primarily, if not exclusively, from the papal office. Accepting that premise, historical study reveals that no pope had even remotely approached the subject of marriage until Pope Leo XIII promulgated his encyclical Arcanum Divinae Sapientiae in This first papal description of marriage doesn t include a single word about any meanings of marriage or the marriage act. There is nothing about contraception or even a hint about sexual or conjugal morality, other than the idea that marriage is characterized by unity and perpetuity. Sex isn t even mentioned in the entire document. In the first half of the 20th century, the first concrete words about marriage promulgated by papal authority had nothing to do with pastoral or theological teaching. They grew out of the process of codifying canon law and described the legal understanding of marriage as having a primary purpose procreation and education of children and a secondary purpose mutual support and an aid for dealing with NCRonline.org 9

10 concupiscence (sexual desire). There are no meanings here and certainly no inseparable connections, for there was nothing to be connected. The secondary ends of marriage were neither attached to the primary end nor were they insisted upon or even necessary to establish the validity of a marriage. When Pope Pius XI promulgated Casti Connubii in 1930, he condemned the use of contraception because he thought, or at least strongly insinuated, that the Anglican Communion had endorsed the idea carte blanche at its Lambeth Conference of the same year. No one investigated that presumption at the time because the report of that conference was immediately put on the Index of Forbidden Books. Even theologians needed explicit permission from their bishop to study the Anglican teaching, and that permission was hard to come by. Pius XI s understanding of marriage was dependent upon two things, the ideas of St. Augustine and canon law. The former taught that there were three reasons why Christians (as opposed to the doctrine of the Manicheans, who condemned marriage) considered marriage to be a good thing: because it produced children, because it supported fidelity within the relationship and because it was a mystery that symbolized the relationship between Christ and the church. Canon law taught that there was a primary and a secondary end (in Latin, finis) of marriage. Note that these were ends of marriage and not ends of sexual intercourse. Nor was there anything inseparable about the two ends. It was Pius XI who introduced into papal teaching the notion that contraception which he understood exclusively as the interference with the act of intercourse was intrinsically against nature (intrinsece contra naturam). At the same time, because new theories about being able to predict (in)fertility had just become available, he taught that a couple who knew that a particular act of intercourse performed with the knowledge that it could not result in conception were allowed to engage in this activity because that act also served the secondary ends of marriage. In other words, this was an act that had nothing to do with the primary end of marriage, procreation. This was also the very first time that any official teaching drew a connection between sexual intercourse and cultivating mutual love (Casti Connubii, 59). It is remarkable that the first mention of sex and love together took place precisely as a manner of justifying intercourse known to be infertile. Contrary to popular opinion, Pius XI did not give approval to the practice that came to be known as periodic continence. In fact, there was a significant amount of controversy about whether a couple could restrict their engagement in sexual intercourse to those periods known to be infertile. In general, European moral theologians and canonists favored the admission of the practice, while North American moral theologians and canonists fought against it because they believed it contradicted the primary purpose of marriage. It was Pius XII who opined that periodic continence was justifiable as long as the couple had a serious reason to avoid having children. In his Address to the Italian Midwives in 1951, he named those serious reasons as medical, eugenic, economic or social. Thus, the intention to avoid having children, even for the duration of the marriage, was acknowledged and became part of the official teaching about marriage. This does not mean that Pius XII in any way lessened the exclusive primacy of procreation as the end of marriage. Nor did he consider that the unity of the couple was some kind of inseparable end or meaning of sexual intercourse. As he wrote, The other ends of marriage, although part of nature s plan, are not of the same importance as the first. Still less are they superior. On the contrary, they are essentially subordinate to [the primary end]. Pius XII repeated his position several times during his papacy. But the fact that papal teaching had approved of a legitimate intention to avoid conception, even for the duration of the marriage, inevitably led to questions about the ban on contraception. When it became possible simply to suppress ovulation with the birth control pill, it appeared that a solution had been found that had nothing to do with individual acts of sexual intercourse. Although Gaudium et Spes did not directly address the question of regulating fertility it did: Reduce the status of the teaching on the ends of marriage to a historical reference; Put forth a theological understanding of the sacrament of marriage based on the model of covenant (in contrast to the notion of a contract in canon law); Present its understanding of marriage to be based upon conjugal love (49) and separately developed its understanding of the fruitfulness of marriage along the lines of responsible parenthood (50); Clearly state (51) that whatever approach would be used to deal with the regulation of fertility needed to be based not upon a biological norm or natural law, but rather upon an understanding of the human person integrally and adequately considered (Expensio Modorum, 104). 10 NATIONAL CATHOLIC REPORTER

11 A banner referencing Humanae Vitae, the 1968 encyclical of Blessed Paul VI, is seen in the crowd at the conclusion of the beatification Mass of Blessed Paul celebrated by Pope Francis in St. Peter s Square at the Vatican Oct. 19, (CNS/Paul Haring) Gaudium et Spes contains nothing even resembling the inseparable meanings of sexual intercourse. This was not surprising since no such idea had ever been put forth in the official teaching of the church. When Humanae Vitae introduced the idea about an inseparable connection of meanings in the marriage act, few people noticed that it was something that had never been stated before. During the papacy of John Paul II, the new teaching became enshrined as a new orthodoxy (Familiaris Consortio, 32, and the Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2366). After the 2005 death of John Paul II, the posthumous attention given to his works included several translations of his early writings that had previously been available primarily, and in some cases only, in Polish. Combing through this literature with freelance researcher Michael Barberi, we located newly available material that shed light on the former Archbishop Karol Wojtyla s work, including a commission he called together in Krakow in 1966 to study the findings of the so-called Birth Control Commission. Combining an analysis of what came to be called the Krakow Memorandum with a closer look at Wojtyla s early work, such as Love and Responsibility, originally published in Polish in 1960, we found that key ideas in Humanae Vitae are nearly verbatim repetitions of Wojtyla s thought. It was no secret that Paul VI and Wojtyla were friends and that the archbishop shared the Krakow Memorandum with the pope before the encyclical was published. Both this and some ideas already present in Love and Responsibility are nearly literally represented in Humanae Vitae, including the inseparability principle. This discovery sheds light on the effort that John Paul II put into two of his most important works on marriage and on morality, Familiaris Consortio and Veritatis Splendor. The development of his theology of the body follows the same pattern as his early works, using pre- Vatican II ideas to construct his teaching on sexual and conjugal morality. The crisis visited upon conjugal morality after Humanae Vitae, and the failed renewal of moral theology after Vatican II, was not caused by any lack of attention to traditional teaching on the part of some theologians (Veritatis Splendor, 75). It was brought about by the introduction of nontraditional, inventive ideas as a substitute for the classical natural law approach, which had lost its ability to address issues in sexual morality. Clearly some people like these innovative ideas, introduced to shore up the weakened arguments of traditional sexual morality. The ideas popularity even strengthens the observation that the traditional approaches to the subject needed to be upgraded, changed and, in some way or other, revised. If the truth be known, and it is easily available to anyone who is willing to study the actual, traditional teachings, what was being put forth to save the traditional conclusions is anything but traditional reasoning. The real traditional teaching had been overwritten. The experience of the past 50 years seriously questions the success of that effort. At this point, what is important to realize is that if the teaching of Humanae Vitae is set aside, no damage whatsoever will have been done to the real traditional teaching. If the current occupant of the papal office takes that step, he will have confirmed that the purpose of tradition itself is to move forward, not backward. [Joseph Selling is emeritus professor of theological ethics at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, in Belgium. He is the author of Reframing Catholic Theological Ethics and maintains the website www. christian-ethics.be.] NCRonline.org 11

12 What do we know about how Catholics inform their consciences? BY MICHELE DILLON JUNE 18, 2018 Attendees listen to Catholic scholars release a statement reaffirming Blessed Paul VI s 1968 Humanae Vitae encyclical on human sexuality at the Catholic University of America in Washington in (CNS/ Tyler Orsburn) Fifty years ago, Pope Paul VI used the teaching authority of the church to bar Catholics from using artificial birth control. His encyclical Humanae Vitae unintentionally transformed Catholics relationship to church authority, so that today two-thirds (66 percent) of American Catholics say that individuals should rely on their own authority in making decisions about contraception. Almost nine in 10 say that one can be a good Catholic without adhering to church teaching on contraception. A relatively similar pattern of autonomy is evident, too, in regard to nonmarital and same-sex relationships, such that today two in three Catholics, for example, support same-sex marriage. Pope Francis has refocused Catholic attention on the importance of conscience in decision-making through the two Synod of Bishops on the family he convened in 2014 and 2015 and Amoris Laetitia, his exhortation in response to the bishops deliberations. He revisited this idea in January during his annual address to members of the Roman Rota, the tribunal that evaluates appeals in marriage annulment cases, by reiterating that a well-formed conscience has a decisive role in complicated marital situations. He called then for renewed pastoral efforts dedicated to helping people develop an enlightened and faith-infused conscience. Despite the attention conscience has received since 1968 and the accumulation of more than 40 years of well-regarded survey data tracking Catholics attitudes on sexual morality and their construal of church authority, we know surprisingly little about how Catholics inform their conscience. 12 NATIONAL CATHOLIC REPORTER

13 Moral decision-making Newly available data from the Sixth National Survey of American Catholics (gathered in April 2017) illuminates Catholics moral decision-making process. The question asked: When you have an important moral decision to make, which, if any, of the following activities or sources do you use usually look to for guidance? Irrespective of what specific moral decisions respondents may have had in mind when answering the question, the overall pattern of responses underscores the significance of private prayer and friends and family rather than official church sources (see Figure 1). Forty percent of Catholics say that they always pray or meditate in making an important moral decision, 37 percent talk to close family members and 28 percent talk to trusted friends. By contrast, only 6 percent always talk to their local priest or read the catechism, and even fewer consult papal statements (3 percent) or their diocesan or the U.S. bishops website (3 percent). One in 20 say that in such situations they always use Catholic news media. While additional numbers of Catholics use all of these sources sometimes, it is nonetheless striking that three in four rarely or never talk to their local priest on such matters or read the catechism. And over 80 percent rarely or never turn to papal encyclicals for guidance, or to diocesan or U.S. bishops websites. Weekly Mass-goers are twice as likely as others to consult with a priest (17 percent) and read the catechism (15 percent) and in general to turn to official Catholic sources. Yet even for such highly committed Catholics, these sources do not eclipse the significance of prayer and of family and friends (see Figure 2). Prayer, in particular, stands out as the most routine way in which weekly Mass-goers reflect on their moral decisions, with the category always used by twothirds (67 percent) of them. Gender differences It s well established that women are more conscientious than men and that they bring this greater conscientiousness to their religious engagement. Catholic women s comparatively greater conscientiousness when it comes to making moral decisions is evident in the large proportions of them who always turn to prayer and family and friends. However, they are not any more likely than men are to draw guidance from official church sources. As Figure 3 shows, there are essentially no gender differences in the small proportion who always consult a priest or who use the catechism, papal encyclicals or diocesan/bishops websites. Generational differences There are few generational differences in the sources used for moral guidance. As Figure 4 shows, older Catholics, the pre-vatican II generation who came of age prior to 1960 and who are currently in their 70s and 80s, are always or sometimes* more likely than others to pray, to talk with their local priest, to consult Catholic media and to read the catechism and papal state- NCRonline.org 13

14 ments. It is also noteworthy that millennial Catholics (those born since 1979) show a comparatively greater tendency to turn to family and friends rather than prayer when making moral decisions. Not surprisingly, given this generation s digital competence, they are also slightly more likely than older Catholics to look at diocesan/bishops websites (see Figure 4). Catholics under age 40 (millennials) are composed of almost equal numbers of Hispanics and non-hispanics. Despite their different socioeconomic and political characteristics, there is little variation in how they go about making moral decisions. (See Figure 5.) Though they are the most routine sources always* used by both groups, a larger proportion of non-hispanics than Hispanics turn to family (47 percent: 42 percent) and friends (41 percent: 31 percent) for moral guidance; and Hispanics (7 percent) are slightly more likely than their age peers (3 percent) to seek guidance from their local priest (7 percent: 3 percent) and consult Catholic media (6 percent: 3 percent). The fact that Catholics typically turn to prayer and meditation in discerning important moral decisions points to the enduring relevance of faith in their negotiation of complex moral circumstances. Amid a societal decline in religious affiliation, a decline in the church and sacramental participation habits of those who remain Catholic, and against the backdrop of Catholics disagreement with various elements of official church teaching on sexual morality, it is important to recognize that faith engagement still matters. With lived experience a well-recognized source of legitimate authority in Catholic moral theology, it also makes sense that Catholics would trust close family members and friends for guidance in their moral decision-making. Reflective conversation with others can help broaden the individual s perspective on their particular situation and nudge them to consider courses of action they might not otherwise have entertained, or by the same token, modify or refrain from what they were initially planning to do. 14 NATIONAL CATHOLIC REPORTER

15 Although Catholics tend to appreciate their local priests (e.g., 35 percent are very satisfied with the leadership of their parish priest), they do not appear to consider them as theological or moral sounding boards in the context of their personal lives. That even so few regular Mass-goers talk to their priest about personally important decisions suggests that priests functionality in Catholic lives is relatively circumscribed. This situation itself may be related to priests being over-burdened with administrative and liturgical duties such that there is less opportunity to develop personal connections and the trust that can facilitate joint engagement in the process of moral discernment. Further, in a time when searching the web has become second nature even for older people, the highly accessible and comprehensive website of the U.S. bishops conference, for example, facilitates the dissemination of church teaching. Yet, this and other resources, such as the catechism and papal encyclicals (despite the latter s doctrinal richness and sociological breadth), are all underused. The underutilization of official church sources does not mean that Catholics conscience-formation is necessarily impoverished. The Catholic tradition is imbibed by Catholics in other ways, especially by Mass attendance and participation in the sacraments. Yet with fewer Catholics regularly attending Mass, the grounding of their consciences in Catholic ideas, and indeed in their contested argumentation, may be further diluted. Moreover, millennial Catholics are part of the most secular generation, and thus their relatively greater reliance on family and peers many of whom are likely to be religiously unaffiliated may further secularize the content of their moral guidance as they progress through the life course. In any event, as church officials openly broach the more inclusive integration of an ever-growing number of irregular Catholics, it may be timely both for Catholics to take stock of the breadth of resources available for moral discernment, and for church officials to creatively revisit how to make the church s resources more heavily accessed. Church resources underused The theological relevance of prayer and interpersonal dialogue in conscience formation notwithstanding, it is striking, nevertheless, that Catholics make so little recourse to other important resources in Catholicism. [Michele Dillon is professor of sociology at the University of New Hampshire and the author most recently of Postsecular Catholicism: Relevance and Renewal. The data for this article comes from the American Catholics Project, a collaborative research project that has spanned 30 years.] NCRonline.org 15

16 Humanae Vitae and the sensus fidelium On moral issues, the church must learn from the experiences of baptized people Pope Paul VI s encyclical Humanae Vitae was publicly released on Monday, July 29, It reiterated the condemnation of artificial contraception for spouses. Many in the Catholic world had been hoping for a change in the papal teaching based on the newer approaches of the Second Vatican Council ( ) and the call to change the teaching that was in the Majority Report of the papal commission studying the issue, which had been leaked the year before. But rumors began circulating in the spring of 1968 that the pope was going to issue an encyclical reaffirming the contraception ban. Humanae Vitae raised two different issues the teaching on contraception and sexuality, and how BY CHARLES E. CURRAN JUNE 25, 2018 the church goes about its authoritative teaching role. The second issue is more extensive and important and is the subject matter of this essay. The authoritative teaching on contraception, as explained at the Vatican press conference releasing the encyclical, involves authoritative, noninfallible church teaching. Defenders of dissent from such teaching, including myself, proposed three basic reasons to justify such dissent. (The day after Humanae Vitae was released, I was the spokesperson and leader of a group of theologians who issued a public statement saying that Catholics could dissent in theory and in practice from the teaching of Humanae Vitae on artificial contraception and still consider themselves to be loyal Roman Catholics. More than 600 Catholic scholars ultimately signed this statement.) First, history shows that the church has changed its teaching on a number of significant moral teachings over the years, such as slavery, the right of the defendant to remain silent, democracy, human rights, religious liberty, and the role of love and pleasure in Determination of the sensus fidelium involves a true discernment that cannot just be reduced to numbers or majority rule. (Unsplash/Kazuend) 16 NATIONAL CATHOLIC REPORTER

17 marital sexual relations. Second, noninfallible teaching by its very nature is fallible. Noninfallible is a subterfuge to avoid using the word fallible. Third, the primary teacher in the church is the Holy Spirit. Yes, the Spirit speaks through the hierarchical magisterium, but the role of the Spirit is broader than the role of the hierarchical magisterium. Through baptism all Christians share in the teaching and prophetic role of Jesus. The strongest argument against the legitimacy of such dissent insists that the Holy Spirit guides the church and would never allow church teaching to be wrong in a matter affecting so many people in their daily lives. Instead of helping people live the Christian life, would the Spirit allow the Church to lead them astray? The strongest rebuttal is that slavery was a much more significant and important issue than contraception for spouses. Immediately following Humanae Vitae, a firestorm of debate arose over dissent and its legitimacy, but as time went on, the debate has greatly subsided. Catholic spouses are fundamentally no different from Protestant spouses in their use of artificial contraception in marriage. The vast majority of Catholic theologians, but by no means all of them, recognize the legitimacy of dissent in the case of contraception. Popes and bishops have continued to strenuously support the teaching opposing contraception, have never explicitly recognized the legitimacy of dissent and have punished some theologians defending such dissent, but they have not disturbed the consciences of those spouses using contraception. Fifty years after Humanae Vitae, there is little or no discussion about this issue. Catholic couples long ago have made up their conscience on the issue of contraception. Priests and confessors have overwhelmingly accepted in practice the legitimacy of such dissent. Today, one could maintain that the present situation in the total church has justified the Blessed Paul VI is pictured on copies of the Vatican s L Osservatore Romano newspaper prior to his beatification Mass celebrated by Pope Francis in St. Peter s Square at the Vatican Oct. 19, Paul, who served as pope from , is most remembered for his 1968 encyclical, Humanae Vitae, which affirmed the church s teaching against artificial contraception. (CNS/Paul Haring) legitimacy of such dissent. But there are problems with this present solution. Fr. Andrew Greeley, the premiere Catholic sociologist in the United States, pointed out in 1976 that the issuance of Humanae Vitae caused a great exodus from the Catholic Church in this country. It is safe to say that, as time went on, contraception has not been a reason for people leaving the church as they have made up their own minds to stay in the church and to practice contraception. However, many have left the church for other reasons. The present situation rests on a significant difference between the official hierarchical teaching and the position of Catholics. The total church should be primarily concerned about moral truth, but the contemporary situation prescinds from this important issue of moral truth. In addition, the present situation contributes to the growing lack of credibility with regard to the teaching office of the church. Even those who have remained in the church often recognize that its teaching office has lost much credibility. Such a situation is not for the good of the church. The sense of the faithful Up to this point I have discussed Humanae Vitae and contraception in light of the lens of dissent, which was the primary ecclesial issue raised in the NCRonline.org 17

18 discussions following the publication of this encyclical. But now I think there is a better lens to use in discussing contraception and Humanae Vitae the concept of the sensus fidelium and its role in church teaching. The term sensus fidelium literally means the sense of the faithful or the doctrinal intuition of believers. The concept has roots in Scripture and has been developed throughout the tradition, but especially in the 19th century, to explain the development of doctrine. After the First Vatican Council, however, the distinction between the teaching church and the learning church relegated the idea of the sensus fidelium to the margins. Vatican II, with its understanding of the church as the people of God, rejected the whole understanding of the distinction between the teaching church and the learning church and recognized the important role of the sensus fidelium, even maintaining that it is infallible. Of course, the council did not get into the intricate realities of determining exactly what is the sensus fidelium and how it is determined and understood. At the very minimum, all should agree with Cardinal John Henry Newman on the importance of consulting the faithful in matters of doctrine. In the last decade or so, theologians have emphasized the role of the sensus fidelium with regard to morality and not just beliefs. Morality by its very nature is quite different from beliefs, since morality deals with concrete actions that, in this instance, take place in the world. There is no doubt that beliefs can develop and even change over time. But morality is much more open to change because it occurs in changing historical circumstances. Thus in questions of morality, the experience of the baptized in their daily lives forms an important part of the sensus fidelium. The determination of the sensus fidelium involves a true discernment. History shows that believing people have often done wrong actions. Also, discernment cannot just be reduced to numbers or majority rule. Discernment strives to discern the true action of the Holy Spirit that involves the experience of people in their daily lives, but also many other aspects as well. What the laity do in their daily lives must always be compared with the various ways in which the Holy Spirit operates in the church. The bottom line, however, remains that the church can and has learned from the experience of baptized people in their secular endeavors and daily lives. A reflection of how church teaching on moral issues has changed indicates the important role that has been played by the experience of Christian people. A number of examples come to mind. For a very long time, Catholic teaching gave no role to pleasure and love in marital sexual relations. This changed, especially in the 20th century when the role of pleasure and love began to be highlighted. Popes, bishops and theologians have learned from the lived experience of married couples in this matter. After all, the popes, bishops and theologians (except very recently) were not married. A good example of how theologians changed their positions based on the experience of Christian married people is illustrated in the work of Jesuit Fr. Josef Fuchs, as a member of the so-called papal birth control commission. In 1964, Fuchs, recognized as one of the leading Catholic moral theologians in the world and teaching at the Gregorian University in Rome, strongly supported the existing teaching on contraception. In the fourth meeting in 1965, he surprised the other members of the commission by recognizing that the teaching was reformable, but he still thought it retained its validity. At the fifth session, Fuchs changed his mind on the issue of contraception. He was greatly impressed by the testimony of the lay couples on the commission. The experience of committed Catholic married couples led him to change a position that he had taught for many years (I had been one of his students) and defended in his published works on sexuality and chastity. An earlier instance of change occurred in the 16th century in the teaching on taking interest on a loan. Three authentic papal teaching documents in that century reiterated the traditional condemnation of the divine law of taking interest on a loan. Theologians, however, based on the experience of Christian people involved in commerce, proposed the legitimacy of interest on loans. John T. Noonan Jr., who wrote extensively on this question, concludes that the acts of papal authority isolated from theological support and contrary to the convictions of the laity involved in commerce could not prevail, however accurately they reflected the teaching of an earlier age. The experience and judgment of the laity contributed greatly to the change in moral teaching even though the papal documents were still in place. Without doubt the greatest change that occurred in moral and social teaching in the 20th century was the change at Vatican II accepting religious freedom. Pope Leo XIII at the end of the 19th century strongly 18 NATIONAL CATHOLIC REPORTER

19 German Cardinal Walter Brandmuller and Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, former apostolic nuncio to the United States, attend a conference on Blessed Paul VI s 1968 encyclical, Humanae Vitae, in Rome Oct. 28. (CNS/Paul Haring) condemned religious liberty in a number of encyclicals. Twentieth-century popes followed in these footsteps. The discussions of Vatican II on religious liberty gave primary attention to the justification of such a dramatic change. How could something be true in the late 19th century and the opposite be true in the 1960s? The first paragraph of the Declaration on Religious Freedom is most illuminating. A sense of the dignity of the human person has been expressing itself more and more on the consciousness of contemporary people with the recognition of the need for responsible freedom of action. The demand is also made that constitutional limits be set on the powers of government to respect the free exercise of religion in human society. This council takes careful note of these desires and declares them to be greatly in accord with truth and justice. Two aspects stand out in this opening paragraph. First, the hierarchical church learned from the desires and experiences of Christian people. Second, the teaching itself was already true even before the council recognized it to be so. There can be no clearer illustration of the need to consult and learn from the experience of committed Christian people in matters of morality. Note the emphasis on the changing circumstances that occur in the political and moral world. The sensus fidelium heavily recognizing the experiences and desires of contemporary committed people had arrived at the truth of religious liberty before the hierarchical teaching of the church. Present and future In light of the understanding of the sensus fidelium, the significant role of committed baptized people in their daily lives in the secular world and the examples of change discussed above, a strong case can be made that the Catholic Church today has changed its teaching and accepted the morality of artificial contraception for spouses. In the immediate aftermath of Humanae Vitae, the primary ecclesiological issue concerned dissent and its legitimacy. Today, it seems more appropriate to use the lens of the sensus fidelium in attempting to understand and interpret the church s approach to the issues raised by Humanae Vitae. The question then arises: What about the future? The church s teaching on sexuality in general has lost much credibility. In the future, the church needs to recognize the importance of the experiences of Christian people in contributing to the understanding of moral teaching. This is a daunting challenge. All recognize there is some vagueness about the sensus fidelium in theory. An even more difficult step is the practical one of ascertaining and determining what the sensus fidelium is on particular issues. An even more problematic aspect involves the practical structures of how to incorporate the experiences of Christian people into church teaching. All I can do here is to point out the problem and show the need for the church to better carry out its teaching role on moral issues. [Fr. Charles E. Curran is the Elizabeth Scurlock University Professor of Human Values at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.] NCRonline.org 19

20 Humanae Vitae s ban on contraception causes suffering BY JAMIE MANSON JULY 6, 2018 CNS/Catholic Relief Services/Jen Hardy. Sunita Prajapati, right, an accredited social health activist, counsels village women on maternal health at her village in Uttar Pradesh, India. It s a strange church that would see the anniversary of its ban on contraceptives as a cause for celebration. But in perhaps one of the more curious displays of Catholic exceptional-ism, Catholic institutions and organizations around the world are presenting Masses, symposiums, documentary films and other kinds of jamborees to fete the 50 years that have passed since the publication of Humanae Vitae, Pope Paul VI s encyclical that forbade the use of artificial contraception. Reactions to Humanae Vitae, it often seems, can be categorized in two extremes: the natural family planning fanatics who extol the document as prophetic and courageous; and the vast majority of lay Catholics who have rejected the teaching, finding it so unreasonable that it isn t worth another thought. A 2016 Pew Research Center study reported that 89 percent of American Catholics believe that contraception is either morally acceptable or not a moral issue at all, making an almost irrefutable case that Humanae Vitae s descent into irrelevance has only deepened with time. But what gets lost in the Catholic laity s dismissal of the church s directives on contraception is the fact that for countless people around the world, the doctrine has been profoundly consequential. Those who believe that that church s ban on artificial contraceptives does not matter need to hear this wake-up call: Untold numbers of women and children have died, will die and are dying right now as a direct consequence of Humanae Vitae. According to a 2016 report by the United Nations Population Fund titled Religion, Women s Health 20 NATIONAL CATHOLIC REPORTER