Spring 2008 Vol. 2, No. 2
HUMANAE VITAE
40th ANNIVERSARY
CELEBRATION
And more
Humanae Vitae (HV) is the Encyclical Letter of Pope Paul VI, subtitled "The Right Order to Be Followed in the Propagation of Human Offspring.” There are four parts to the encyclical: 1. new aspects of a perennial problem; 2. competence of the Church's magisterium to resolve the problem; 3. doctrinal principles to be maintained; and 4. pastoral directives. One of the major issues restated by Paul VI is the Church's right to pass final judgment in moral matters not only where these are formally revealed but also where they "pertain to the natural moral law" (July 25, 1968). (Hardon, TMCD)
It is common knowledge that more than 75% of the clergy and laity do not accept the basic teaching of HV. Of those who accept it, most believe that it is a statement promulgated by the Ordinary Magisterium of the Church, infallible, and a necessary truth for salvation.
We have gathered some positive responses and comments regarding how its disregard has influenced society in the Western World. Also for an additional response to share with friends and relatives see C. Fallace, UNDERSTANDING CONTRACEPTION (CFLM, V. 1, Nos. 6 & 7, June-July 2007).
CONTRACEPTION AND
THE CATHOLIC VISION
By Jeff Mirus, Ph. D.
May 16, 2008
(Dr. Mirus co-founded Christendom College and in 1985 founded Trinity Communications).
On May 10, Pope Benedict XVI called Paul VI’s landmark encyclical On Human Life an act of courage, a church teaching which has “become a sign of contradiction.” He made his remarks at a conference on the fortieth anniversary of the encyclical held at the Pontifical Lateran University. While many Catholics still find Humanae Vitae’s condemnation of contraception difficult to understand and accept, it should be more than evident by now that the Catholic vision of life and love enunciated by Pope Paul VI is one of the great keys to reviving our dying culture.
Rejection of the Encyclical
I take it as a given that the widespread use of contraception among Catholics does not reflect a reasoned response to Church teaching. Rather it arises from the prevailing patterns of our sex-saturated culture and the widespread rejection of Humanae Vitae by the secularized moral theologians who have passed themselves off as Catholic teachers over the past two generations. While it did take some time for the Magisterium and faithful theologians to articulate persuasively the reasons for the immorality of contraception, it has long since become clear that the immediate and prolonged rejection of the Church’s teaching was rooted as much in moral turpitude as in intellectual difficulties. Many in the academy and elsewhere had their own perverse sexual habits to protect.
Essentially, Paul VI articulated the timeless Catholic teaching that there is an inseparable bond between the unitive and procreative aspects of marital love, and that it is always wrong to deliberately frustrate either the unitive or the procreative purpose of the marital act. The core of the teaching, which is a matter of the natural law, is most succinctly summarized in section 12:
“This particular doctrine, often expounded by the magisterium of the Church, is based on the inseparable connection, established by God, which man on his own initiative may not break, between the unitive significance and the procreative significance which are both inherent to the marriage act.” Reading a little further, in section 13, we find the essential moral context, with a strong suggestion of the nobility of adhering to God’s plan:
“Hence to use this divine gift while depriving it, even if only partially, of its meaning and purpose, is equally repugnant to the nature of man and of woman, and is consequently in opposition to the plan of God and His holy will. But to experience the gift of married love while respecting the laws of conception is to acknowledge that one is not the master of the sources of life but rather the minister of the design established by the Creator.”
Unfortunately, the vast majority of Catholic couples have never been presented with a clear outline of the Church’s teaching on this matter, nor of the consequences of ignoring it, nor of the benefits of following it.
Fundamental Vision
In his comments at the anniversary conference, Pope Benedict emphasized that “no mechanical technique can substitute for the act of love that husband and wife exchange as a sign of the greater mystery, in which they are protagonists and co-participants in creation.” Paul VI saw clearly that this “act of love” is not merely a physical act, but a truly marital act of love in all of its dimensions, an act which both recognizes and expresses the dignity of the spouses and their mutual relationship to God, and an act in which the spouses surrender themselves to each other, holding nothing back, yet without ever losing that fundamental discipline of love which puts the other and God above one’s own individual pleasure. In a critical passage in section 21, which is worth quoting at length, Paul VI expresses something of the true and complete dimensions of this act of love:
“The right and lawful ordering of birth demands, first of all, that spouses fully recognize and value the true blessings of family life and that they acquire complete mastery over themselves and their emotions. For if with the aid of reason and of free will they are to control their natural drives, there can be no doubt at all of the need for self-denial. Only then will the expression of love, essential to married life, conform to right order. This is especially clear in the practice of periodic continence. Self-discipline of this kind is a shining witness to the chastity of husband and wife and, far from being a hindrance to their love of one another, transforms it by giving it a more truly human character. And if this self-discipline does demand that they persevere in their purpose and efforts, it has at the same time the salutary effect of enabling husband and wife to develop their personalities and to be enriched with spiritual blessings. For it brings to family life abundant fruits of tranquility and peace. It helps in solving difficulties of other kinds. It fosters in husband and wife thoughtfulness and loving consideration for one another. It helps them to repel inordinate 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. As their children grow up, they develop a right sense of values and achieve a serene and harmonious use of their mental and physical powers.”
Humanae Vitae was prophetic when it was first promulgated because the consequences of breaking the bond between the unitive and the procreative in marital love were not then as clear as they are now. Within twenty years, however, the trends had become very clear indeed: contraception leads to selfishness, the pursuit of sexual pleasure for its own sake, objectification of spouses, pornography, sexual exploitation, divorce, homosexuality, and abortion. These trends are now so obvious that Catholic leaders who do not yet instinctively understand the centrality and importance of the Church’s vision of human life and love are simply incapable of representing the Church and transmitting Christ’s salvific power to society today.
The Contraceptive Mentality
Every age and culture is marked by characteristic vices. Our culture is drowning in sexual selfishness, an insatiable desire for constant gratification without consideration of the conse-quences. Of course, each person is highly complex, and I do not mean to suggest that everyone who uses contraception will inevitably be led into every other sexual vice. But the connections are there. As soon as we start thinking of sex only in terms of pleasure, divorcing it from the power to generate new life, we not only trivialize it but also alter its defining purpose. The clearest example of this is the use of abortion as backup contraception. If the sole purpose of sex is pleasure, then one can only assume that it is perfectly moral to attempt to prevent conception. If the attempt fails, abortion becomes the logical means to retain the original goal of trouble-free sexual pleasure.
Moreover, the connections between contraception and homosexuality (and other forms of sexual perversion) should by now be equally clear. If the purpose of sex is pleasure, then its purpose is properly fulfilled by any use of our sexual faculties that brings pleasure. It is very nearly impossible for someone who approves of contraception to argue against homosexual acts, or even homosexual “marriages” (which arise when marriage is redefined as a close personal union designed to give pleasure). No, the key to that castle has already been given away. But this is also true of every kind of perversion, including the most widespread contemporary form, pornography. For pornography is also a use of our sexual faculties to produce pleasure. When the ends of human sexuality are not understood, pornography is self-justifying.
Yet it is precisely in the worldwide pornography epidemic that we can most easily see the power of ill-defined sexuality to destroy relationships. Since this is more commonly a male problem, I’ll illustrate it in male terms. The husband (or significant other, already a distortion) finds pleasure in certain pornographic images. He becomes dissatisfied with the pleasure “produced” by his wife. He wants her to do things differently. He begins to twist her into a sort of performing object for his own sexual gratification. Still unsatisfied, he begins to look for even more gratification elsewhere. Respect and love vanish. The couple is now on the path to pain, rejection, and divorce. But of course it can start even earlier. A young man more or less habituated to pornography will have a very difficult time forming a whole and deeply personal relationship with any woman. Far less often, but with no less devastation, the pornographic shoe can be on the feminine foot.
Chastity
The purpose of sex is not merely pleasure. Its purpose is the procreation of new life with God in a unifying embrace, which progressively forms a couple into a stable, mature and self-sacrificing union designed for their own sanctification and that of their children. This is what marital love means, and this is what human sexuality is for. Therefore, when couples catch the vision of Paul VI—when they “make love” in a context of self-discipline, deep mutual respect, sacrifice for the other and openness to life, including periodic abstinence, they find that their personalities really do develop. They become more sensitive to each other’s needs, more inclined to communicate in other ways, more capable of working through problems and deficiencies that stand in the way of marital growth.
Chastity, one of the great virtues of self-mastery, is no less needed in marriage than in the single state. The fruits of this virtue are enormous, fruits directly opposing those of the contraceptive mentality, which is the hallmark of our culture’s collective abandonment of chastity. I repeat that Catholic leaders—for example, professors, priests and bishops—who cannot by now see these connections are uniquely unfit to minister to the pressing Christian needs of contemporary civilization. For it is not that the Catholic Church is “hung up” on sex. Rather, it is contemporary culture which is “hung up” on sex-for-pleasure. This is a lethal fixation, a poison that leads only to death, death at every conceivable level. Not surprisingly, the only antidote is to reinvest into sexuality the one thing that it has been missing now for far too long, that is, Life—the life of our spouse, the life of our child, the life of our God.
(Courtesy of:
http://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/articles.cfm?id=247).
WHAT ARE OTHERS SAYING?
Not long after HV was released, a few Bishop Conferences issued a statement refuting some of the conclusions therein. It is most unusual that a conference of bishops twenty-two years later would apologize for their original negative response to HV.
In 1990, the Philippine Bishops issued an apology to the nation's Catholics for having failed to encourage their flock to adhere to Humanae Vitae. They wrote:
"Afflicted with doubts about alternatives to contraceptive technology, we abandoned you to your confused and lonely consciences with a lame excuse: 'follow what your conscience tells you.’ How little we realized that it was our consciences that needed to be formed first.” (LifeSiteNews.com 3-18-2008)
ST. THOMAS AQUINAS
Referring to contraception, the Angelic Doctor declared:
“Hence, after the sin of homicide whereby a human life already in existence is destroyed, this type of sin ap-pears to take next place, for by it the generation of human nature is impeded.” (St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Contra Gentiles, 3, 122).
A REPENTANT PROFESSOR
Dr. William May, a former dissident of HV, writes that the following canon was integrated into the law of the Church in the Decretum Gregorii IX (book 5, title 12, chapter 5) and part of the Church’s canon law from the mid-thirteenth century until the 1917 Code of Canon Law [which was updated in 1983], clearly compared contraception to murder. It declared:
“If anyone (Si aliquis) for the sake of fulfilling sexual desire or with premeditated hatred does something to a man or a woman, or gives something to drink, so that he cannot generate or she cannot conceive or offspring be born, let him be held as a murderer.” (Corpus iuris canonici, eds. A. L. Richter and A. Friedberg (Leipzig: Tauchnitz, 1881), 2, 794).
THE CATECHISM
OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT
(Roman Catechism)
The Catechism of the Council of Trent, which was published by decree of Pope St. Pius V, has been used as an authoritative guide to Church teaching since the end of the sixteenth century. The Roman Catechism states the following about contraception:
“Whoever in marriage artificially prevents conception, or procures an abortion, commits a most serious sin: the sin of premeditated murder.” (The Roman Catechism, Part II, Chap. 7, No. 13, in the translation of Robert Bradley, S.J., and Eugene Kevane, Boston: St. Paul Editions, 1985, p. 332).
Dr. William May notes that Pope Paul VI explicitly referred to the text above [and other magisterial teachings] in footnote number 16 appended to Humanae Vitae, no. 14.
THE CATECHISM
OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH (CCC)
“1652: By its very nature the institution of marriage and married love is ordered to the procreation and education of the offspring and it is in them that it finds its crowning glory."
“Children are the supreme gift of marriage and contribute greatly to the good of the parents themselves. God himself said: ‘It is not good that man should be alone,’ and ‘from the beginning [he] made them male and female’; wishing to associate them in a special way in his own creative work, God blessed man and woman with the words: ‘Be fruitful and multiply.’ Hence, true married love and the whole structure of family life which results from it, without diminishment of the other ends of marriage, are directed to disposing the spouses to cooperate valiantly with the love of the Creator and Savior, who through them will increase and enrich his family from day to day.“ (Vatican Council II, Church in the Modern World #48, #50; Gen 2:18; Mt 19:4; Gen 1:28).
“2366: Fecundity is a gift, an end of marriage, for conjugal love naturally tends to be fruitful. A child does not come from outside as something added on to the mutual love of the spouses, but springs from the very heart of that mutual giving, as its fruit and fulfillment. So the Church, which is ‘on the side of life,"150 ’ teaches that ‘it is necessary that each and every marriage act remain ordered per se to the procreation of human life.’ 151 This particular doctrine, expounded on numerous occasions by the Magisterium, is based on the inseparable connection, established by God, which man on his own initiative may not break, between the unitive significance and the procreative significance which are both inherent to the marriage act."152
2367: Called to give life, spouses share in the creative power and fatherhood of God.153 "Married couples should regard it as their proper mission to transmit human life and to educate their children; they should realize that they are thereby cooperating with the love of God the Creator and are, in a certain sense, its interpreters. They will fulfill this duty with a sense of human and Christian responsibility."154
“2368: A particular aspect of this responsibility concerns the regulation of procreation. For just reasons, spouses may wish to space the births of their children. It is their duty to make certain that their desire is not motivated by selfishness but is in conformity with the generosity appropriate to responsible parenthood. Moreover, they should conform their behavior to the objective criteria of morality:
When it is a question of harmonizing married love with the responsible transmission of life, the morality of the behavior does not depend on sincere intention and evaluation of motives alone; but it must be determined by objective criteria, criteria drawn from the nature of the person and his acts, criteria that respect the total meaning of mutual self-giving and human procreation in the context of true love; this is possible only if the virtue of married chastity is practiced with sincerity of heart.155”
“2369: By safeguarding both these essential aspects, the unitive and the procreative, the conjugal act preserves in its fullness the sense of true mutual love and its orientation toward man's exalted vocation to parenthood156."
“2370: Periodic continence, that is, the methods of birth regulation based on self-observation and the use of infertile periods [NFP] is in conformity with the objective criteria of morality.157 These methods [NFP] respect the bodies of the spouses, encourage tenderness between them, and favor the education of an authentic freedom. In contrast, "every action which, whether in anticipation of the conjugal act, or in its accomplishment, or in the development of its natural consequences, proposes, whether as an end or as a means, to render procreation impossible" is intrinsically evil:158”
Thus the innate language that expresses the total reciprocal self-giving of husband and wife is overlaid, through contraception, by an objectively contradictory language, namely, that of not giving oneself totally to the other. This leads not only to a positive refusal to be open to life but also to a falsification of the inner truth of conjugal love, which is called upon to give itself in personal totality. . . . The difference, both anthropological and moral, between contraception and recourse to the rhythm of the cycle . . . involves in the final analysis two irreconcilable concepts of the human person and of human sexuality.159”
VADEMECUM FOR CONFESSORS
(Official Church Teaching)
"The Church has always taught the intrinsic evil of contraception, that is, of every marital act intentionally rendered unfruitful. This teaching is to be held as definitive and irreformable [infallible].” (Vademecum for Confessors: Concerning Some Aspects of the Morality of Conjugal Life," #4, Vatican Pontifical Council for the Family, March 1, 1997). (Official Church Teaching).
POPE JOHN PAUL II
On June 5, 1987, Pope John Paul II warned clergy and theologians of their grave obligation to transmit faithfully the Church’s teaching on contraception:
“A grave responsibility derives from this: those who place themselves in open conflict with the law of God, authentically taught by the Church, guide spouses along a false path. The Church’s teaching on contraception does not belong to the category of matter open to free discussion among theologians. Teaching the contrary amounts to leading the moral consciences of spouses into error.”
"The Church's teaching on contraception is not a matter for free discussion among theologians,” (L'Osservatore Romano, July 6, 1987, p. 12).On September 17, 1983, Pope John Paul II informed priests in Rome that:
“Contraception is to be judged objectively so profoundly unlawful as never to be, for any reason, justified. To think or to say the contrary is equal to maintaining that, in human life, situations may arise in which it is lawful not to recognize God as God.” (The Catholic Transcript, 1-20-1984).
"In fact, just as man does not have unlimited dominion over his body in general, so also, with particular reason, he has no such dominion over his generative faculties as such, because of their intrinsic ordination towards raising up life, of which God is the principle.
‘Human life is sacred,' Pope John XXIII recalled; 'from its very inception it reveals the creating hand of God.'
CARDINAL DISPELS "HERESY"
THAT CATHOLICS CAN APPROVE
CONTRACEPTION
"IN GOOD CONSCIENCE"
A new book entitled God and Caesar by Cardinal George Pell, the Archbishop of Sydney, is to be published this week. The book deals with a widespread 'heresy' among Catholics which permits approval of contraception and even abortion by way of "primacy of conscience". (LifeSiteNews, October 11, 2007).
BISHOP VASA ON
HUMANAE VITAE
The Most Reverend Bishop Robert F.Vasa, D.D., Baker, CA recently stated that:
“In that disobedience [to Humanae Vitae] tremendous harm has been brought to many women. Tremendous harm to marriage. Tremendous harm to family life. Tremendous harm to society.
The message of “Humanae Vitae” broadly challenged and rejected over the decades is now recognized more and more as a truly prophetic message whose time for deeper study and acceptance has come.” (© Catholic Sentinel. This item 7862 digitally provided courtesy of CatholicCulture).
WHAT IS INFALLIBILITY?
By Father John Trigilio, Jr., Ph.D.
Any dogma is an infallible doctrine, divinely & formally revealed by God as a necessary truth for salvation.
Extraordinary Magisterium is an ex cathedra pronouncement of the Roman Pontiff (Immaculate Conception by Pope Pius IX) or a de fide statement of an Ecumenical Council (Justification by the Council of Trent).
Ordinary Magisterium is the perennial teaching of the Pope and the Bishops in union with him around the world. To say capriciously that only extraordinary magisterial dogmas are infallible is FALSE and heretical. Lumen Gentium #25 and Humani Generis #21, both solemnly teach on the supreme teaching authority of the ordinary magisterium.
Some theologians incorrectly proliferate a notion that only the Extraordinary Magisterium is infallible. Even Raymond Brown has abandoned this notion…
St. Thomas Aquinas On The Pope
"Against the authority of the pope,
neither St. Jerome nor St. Augustine
can assert his own opinion."
(Summa Theologica, II-II, 1. 11, a.2, ad 3).
Pope Pius XII in Humani Generis &
Vatican II in Lumen Gentium #25,
“even non-infallible teachings are to receive the submission of mind and will of the faithful. While not requiring the assent of faith, they cannot be disputed nor rejected publicly and the benefit of the doubt must be given to the one possessing the fullness of teaching authority. “
(Electronic Copyright © 1999 EWTN
All Rights Reserved. Provided Courtesy of:
Eternal Word Television Network
5817 Old Leeds Road, Irondale, AL 35210
www.ewtn.com).
QUESTIONS ON HUMANAE VITAE
Most people have, or have had, questions about birth control, Humanae Vitae, and related issues. Below is a partial list of questions that any reader may ask regarding this topic. Just choose the questions and we will answer them in the next issue with help from a good cardinal. If you should like the answers to all these questions in a booklet form, please send $5 to Family Life Promotion.
1) Why can't a Catholic form his own conscience on the subject of contraception?
2) Does the encyclical Humanae Vitae say contraception is always wrong?
3) How do Catholics know what God wants of them?
4) Won't the next Pope, or the one after him, reverse what Pope Paul has done?
5) Pope Paul wasn't teaching infallibly in Humanae Vitae, his encyclical on birth control, was he?
But suppose the condemnation of contraception isn't infallible. Then it's fallible, isn't it? And if it's fallible, couldn't it be mistaken?
6) If the teaching of Humanae Vitae is not infallible, then we're not bound by it, are we?
7) Isn't it common teaching in the Church that Catholics have a right to dissent from authoritative, non-infallible, papal teachings when there are sufficient reasons?
8) Doesn't the fact that distinguished theologians disagree with the Pope show that this is still an open question?
9) The Church condemned usury. It condemned Galileo. It has been wrong in the past, so how can one be sure it is not wrong now?
10) The Pope gathered the best available experts on his birth control commission. Why shouldn't I accept the commission's conclusions rather than the Pope's?
11) But if the Pope is so sure of his teaching, why did it take him five years to make up his mind?
12) Isn't the Pope really advocating a Victorian standard of sexual conduct?
13) How can a bachelor pope and bachelor bishops presume to tell married people what to do?
14) What right does the Pope have to condemn people to large families they don't want?
15) How can the Pope urge responsible parenthood and take away the most effective means of responsibility?
16) Did the Pope frown on the practice of natural family planning?
17) Doesn't the Pope know that natural family planning doesn't work?
18) Doesn't natural family planning undermine married love by taking the spontaneity out of marital relations?
19) Contraception and natural family planning both aim at the same objective. What difference does it make which you use?
20) Doesn't the Pope know about the population explosion?
21) In Humanae Vitae, the encyclical on birth control, the Pope doesn't offer any solutions along the lines of social and economic development, does he?
22) Did the Pope say that the government should outlaw birth control?
23) When the encyclical came out, many couples said, "We just can't live with it.” What should such couples do?
24) Can a couple who practice contraception continue to receive the sacraments?
25) Suppose a person does not in practice accept the Church's teaching on contraception. What should he do now-leave the Church, stay in and work for a change, or find a confessor who agrees with him?
26) Pope Paul's reaffirmation of the traditional teaching on contraception was intellectually shocking. How can loyal Catholics really hold this doctrine?
27) Didn't Pope Paul decide the question on his own and forget about collegiality? Why didn't he go by the "sense of the faithful?” Didn't Vatican II give them a say?
28) Didn't Vatican II drop the idea that children are the primary end of marriage?
29) Doesn't Pope Paul's encyclical violate the spirit of Vatican II?
30) What reasons does the encyclical give for saying that contraception is wrong?
31) Isn't it true that nobody takes natural law seriously anymore?
32) Doesn't the Pope use an out-of-date theory of natural law in Humanae Vitae?
33) Must a Catholic accept the arguments that Pope Paul gives against contraception?
34) Does Pope Paul's encyclical present a complete philosophical proof that contraception is always wrong?
35) If the immorality of contraception is a matter of natural law, why is it that only some Catholics seem to be able to see it?
36) Isn't the Church's condemnation of contraception an impossible demand for modern married couples-a demand few can possibly fulfill?
37) Is the Church's teaching on birth control a matter of faith?
38) Which pope changed the official teaching of the Church on contraception during his reign?
39) Do you have any of these or other questions? Write to us.
40) How can I reconcile with God and His Church if I have not followed its official teaching?
Answer: Repent, make reparation, and begin a new life by living the Gospel according to the official teaching of the Church (and read MY DREAM below).
HELPFUL HINTS
For a free paper copy of Humanae Vitae, write to Family Life Promotion.
For a free electronic copy, visit:
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/paul_vi/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-vi_enc_25071968_humanae-Vitae_en.html.
FOR FURTHER STUDY OF
HUMANAE VITAE VISIT:
www.cathlolic-pages.com/der/humanae_Vitae.asp.
This website is filled with many (“secret”) Church documents and very informative articles on HV and much more.
WHY PRO-LIFERS
MUST OPPOSE
CONTRACEPTION
By Fr. Frank Pavone
National Director, Priests for Life
There are two basic truths that each person has to admit in this life: 1. There is a God. 2. It isn’t me. To understand these lessons is to understand why abortion is wrong. Only God has absolute dominion over human life. "None of us lives as his own master and none of us dies as his own master" (Rom.14:7).
This is also the reason that contraception is wrong. We know that human life begins at conception. But God’s dominion over human life does not begin at conception. It begins in eternity.
"God chose us in Him before the world began" (Eph.1:4). "Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you" (Jer.1:5). We exist in time because God chose us from eternity. A human decision to prevent our conception is a trespass on God’s dominion over human life.
It is not, of course, the same type of trespass as abortion (unless the so-called "contraceptive" actually is abortifacient). Abortion destroys a human life. Contraception distorts the meaning of human sexuality. Both offend God because they fail to acknowledge Him as Lord of the entire process of human reproduction and life!
It is perfectly legitimate to acknowledge that there are circumstances in which a couple should not have a child. There can be medical, social, financial, psychological, or other reasons for this. To acknowledge God’s dominion does not mean to act imprudently. Methods of natural family planning are legitimate. In planning one’s family, however, one may never destroy the meaning of sexual union on one’s own initiative. In natural family planning, using the body’s cycles of infertile days, God closes the door to life. In contraception, we close the door. We have no authority to do so.
Scripture is clear that children are a blessing. "Happy the man who has filled his quiver with these arrows!” (Psalm 127:5). Scripture is also clear that in being generous with life, we must put all our doubts and fears in God’s hands. "Do not let your hearts be troubled," Christ says. "Trust in God and trust in me" (Jn.14:1). May we trust Him as we build our families in fruitful love! (Courtesy of Priests for Life, www.priestsforlife.org)
MY DREAM
The day before yesterday, on my day off, I slept a little late and woke up in a cold sweat. I realized that, although everything was very real, I dreamt I was a priest wandering in a beautiful area somewhere. After a few minutes of astonishment, I heard a very authoritative voice asking someone else to invite the next priest to come in. Unexpectedly, I realized I was the next priest. Upon entering the most beautiful area imaginable, I noticed that a man wearing a crown seemed very sad as he sighed.
After a few seconds of silence, the king addressed me by my first name and said,
“As you know, We, together with all the angels and saints, are personally opposed to anyone going to Hell. In addition to the many graces We daily offer to all, I did my very best for thirty-three years to do Our Father’s will, instead of mine, and to personally show everyone how to do good and avoid evil. After I returned Home, the Holy Spirit, my Mother, and My Church were always there for you to guide and to help you not to go as-tray to that forsaken place below.”
He then asked me to give reason for all my haughty actions, in what I said, did, or failed to say or do. Even though I could recall with the highest clarity all the arguments I had previously used, many of which I had borrowed word-for-word from world-renowned theologians, nothing seemed appropriate for my defense before the King. What could I say to Him who knew better than I the how and why of everything I had ever done or failed to do? I could not defend, (or rationalize as I did many times before) any of my self-righteous actions. I, one of the most respected priests in the diocese, could not say a word in my defense. I was guilty of lacking faith, humility, of not fearing God, not listening to the Magisterium, ignoring Mary our Mother, and, most of all, of not repenting. I had to be me, express my personal beliefs and feelings, and do things my way -- as much as I could get away with. After waiting some time for my reply, the King said,
“While on earth, those who have freely and consciously chosen not to repent of any sin, have, by their actions, chosen not to be here with Us and with those who have repented. And because We created every human being with the freedom to choose, We, in Our effort to be respectful of others, cannot impose Our personal beliefs on any human.”
Suddenly, that is when I woke up in a cold sweat. I was very disturbed by my dream, and I could not stop thinking about it all day long. During the day, I prayed for all the priests in the world, especially those in my parish.
Yesterday morning I had another dream. I was sitting in the same waiting area fully dressed as a priest when I heard St. Peter kindly ask me to come in. Upon entering, I noticed that Jesus was very happy.
After listening to Jesus talk about all the many beautiful things He had prepared for His true followers -- none of which I had ever imagined -- He said,
“My dear faithful priest and friend, when you chose to love Our Father with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your will, and to love My Church and other people as yourself, and repented when-ever you failed, you really chose to live here with Us.”
He then said, “Is there anything you wish to say?” Without hesitation, I thanked Him for creating me, for the Old Testament, for having suffered on the cross to redeem me, for Mary, for the New Testament, for the Saints who helped me on my way, for giving me the gifts of faith and reason, for giving me free will to choose Him above all else, and, most of all, for giving me the ability to repent -- something He did not give to the angels and archangels.
Suddenly, I woke up and could not stop thinking about the meaning of both dreams. I became very concerned about the priests I know, when they will die and will have to stand before Jesus. Will it be a long time from now? Will it be next year? Will it be today? Could it be a few minutes from now? Will Jesus have a sad face? Last night I continued to pray for priests.
This morning I did not dream, but I did begin to understand how these dreams have helped me to realize the only two real choices priests and the rest of us have. It is crucial for all of us to choose to either continue on the wide and easy road to Hell by following our will and those who are more intelligent, popular, and proud than us, or choose the narrow and humble path to Heaven by following the Magisterium. The choice seems rather simple and only the selfish, fools, or proud could make a mistake by postponing this willful conversion.
Now that I am ready to go to sleep and have had the whole day to think about it, I have decided to follow Jesus and His Church. I have made this choice freely, knowingly, and nothing shall stand in my way. With His help, and the support of the Magisterium and people who truly try to live His ways, I will confess my sins as soon as possible and begin a new life of surrender and obedience to His Divine Will.
When my real time comes, I hope to see His smiling face, all the priests and other people I have ever known, and all the beautiful things He has prepared for those who have done His will in all things.
FIRST CHAT WITH GOD
The day before I was born, I asked God, "They tell me You are sending me to earth tomorrow, but how am I going to live there being so small and helpless?"
God said, "Your angel will be waiting for you and will take care of you."
“But” I said, " here in heaven I don't have to do anything but sing and smile to be happy."
God said, "Your angel will sing for you and will also smile for you. And you will feel your angel's love and be very happy."
Again, I asked, "And how am I going to be able to understand when people talk to me if I don't know the language?"
God said, "Your angel will tell you the most beautiful and sweet words you will ever hear, and with much patience and care, your angel will teach you how to speak."
"And what am I going to do when I want to talk to you?"
God said, "Your angel will place your hands together and will teach you how to pray."
"Who will protect me?"
God said, "While on Earth, your angel will defend you at any cost."
"But I will always be sad because I will not see you anymore."
God said, "Your angel will always talk to you about Me and will teach you the way to come back to Me, even though I will always be next to you."
At that moment, there was much peace in Heaven, but voices from Earth could be heard and I hurriedly asked, "God, if I am to leave now, please tell me my angel's name."
God said, "My child, you will call her Mom."
(Author Unknown).
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
We can never do enough to protect the young from losing their purity. Good work!
God Bless your noble apostolate.
Mitch.
You do good work and it should be supported. I am sending you my contribution.
Email from Mike Ezzo.
THE NEXT ISSUE?
Do you have a document that you should like published in a future CFLM? Let us know. As usual, the next topic will be interesting, truthful, seldom treated by others, but, most of all, it will be in agreement with the official teaching of the Church; if anyone feels that we have failed in this promise at anytime, please let us know and we will publish the correction(s) as soon as possible or sooner.
Of course, you may copy the entire news-letter, or you may request additional hard copies for a free-will offering. Alternatively, you may CANCEL your individual subscription by returning your address label with CANCEL on it. Email recipients who wish to receive paper copies should send us their name and address. You may ask for both, email and paper copy. To view previous issues online, visit familylifepromotion.org, or visit CFLM.blogspot.com (these websites are in need of repair; see c) under CONTRIBUTIONS for more info). It is unbelievable how many choices are available to those who wish to read CFLM.
PREVIOUS ISSUES OF CFLM?
Yes, they are yours for the asking, and we welcome appropriate contributions to cover cost. Below are the topics treated in each issue with the number of pages each; a page is 275-words. The format varies with each issue. VOLUME I, Issue 1: Introduction. (7 pp).; Issue 2: Does Everyone Go to Heaven? Part I (20 pp).; Issue 3: Does Everyone Go to Heaven? Part II. (11 pp).; Issues 4 & 5: Unconditional Love of God, True or False? (27 pp. Note: New Oxford Review, a national Catholic magazine, has published a shortened version of Issue 4 & 5 in their Feb. 2008 issue).; Issues 6 & 7: Understanding Contraception. (17 pp).; Issue 8 & 9: Fatima’s Secret: the Third Part, the Punishment, the Urgency, and the Message (22 pp).; Issues 10 & 11: When, How, and Why We Should Judge Others (21 pp).; Issue 12: Oprah’s Course On Brainwashing (12 pp). VOLUME II, Issue 1: Is It Wrong [Porn]? (32 pp).; Issue 2 : Humanae Vitae 40th Anniversary Celebration (29 pp). Note: V. I, Issues 8 & 9 are by Fr. James Anderson, M.S.A.; Issue 12 is by Tracy Moran and Warren Smith; V. II Issue 2 is by many authors; all other issues are by the editor. As a guide, contributions of $3 per issue should suffice to cover cost, including P. & H. Please make checks payable to: Family Life Promotion and send to address below.
Statement on
‘same-sex marriage’
by New York State bishops
Following is a partial statement by Cardinal Edward Egan and the Catholic bishops of New York State:
“Recently, proposals have been put forth in our state to recognize so-called “same-sex marriage,” a radical step that would remove from marriage its most basic, fundamental characteristic, thereby altering its very essence. Our Governor has ordered recognition of such unions.
But we must state that the most elementary study of history, sociology, biology or theology points to the certain truth that marriage is the union of one man and one woman, which the state should not and must not attempt to alter.
We call on our state government to reject attempts to alter the sacred institution of marriage. We strongly encourage all Catholic New Yorkers and everyone who believes in the sanctity of marriage to make their voices heard on this compelling moral and social issue.”
You can make your views known to Gov. Paterson by going to the New York State Catholic Conference Web site at www.nyscatholic.org. Click on “Take Action Now,” then under “Stand Up for Traditional Marriage,” click “Take Action.” Or you can write to the governor directly at State Capitol, Albany, NY 12224, e-mail www.state.ny.us/governor.
Cardinal Edward Egan
Archbishop of New York
Most Rev. Howard J. Hubbard
Bishop of Albany
Most Rev. Nicholas DiMarzio
Bishop of Brooklyn
Most Rev. Edward U. Kmiec
Bishop of Buffalo
Most Rev. Robert J. Cunningham
Bishop of Ogdensburg
Most Rev. Matthew H. Clark
Bishop of Rochester
Most Rev. William. F. Murphy
Bishop of Rockville Centre
Most Rev. James M. Moynihan
Bishop of Syracuse
CONTRIBUTIONS
After publishing Catholic Family Life Messenger (CFLM) free of charge for over 18 months to about a thousand “subscribers,” we are in need of your contribution. As you know, the publisher of CFLM, Family Life Promotion of N.Y., Inc. (FLP), is a not-for-profit corporation founded in 1971. It has no other support but from people like you; therefore, if you have enjoyed CFLM and found it to be orthodox, informative, original, and politically unafraid, we hope and pray you will help us to continue by contributing in one or more of the ways listed below.
a) Subscribe your friends and relatives by sending us their addresses (Christmas list, full or partial) or email addresses. There is no obligation, and they may cancel at any time as easily as you can. They will be “subscribed,” without obligation, for as long as they wish to receive it. The more names you send us, the greater the chances for contributions in our next appeal. The names and addresses you send us will be kept confidential and will never be rented, sold, or given to anyone.
b) Some friends and relatives have contributed financially, and we hope you may choose this way of contributing. As you know, all contributions are tax deductible as charitable gifts and will be used for the printing and mailing of CFLM as directed by the Board of Directors of FLP and as allowed by the New York State Department of Law for Charitable Organizations. All members of FLP are volunteers, practicing Catholics, and in good standing in their respective parishes.
c) Help is needed with our poorly maintained website and blog. Time and funds are limited. Perhaps someone with more experience is willing to help redesign the website and maintain it for a short while. The pay is the same as for the editor, and the benefits are indescribably heavenly.
d) Last but most important, we pray for all our donors and contributors, and we ask you to keep us in your prayers regularly that we may continue with this newsletter and that it will remain true to the official teaching of the Church.
If we may suggest, whichever way you choose to contribute should be based on our performance for being orthodox, informative, original, humorous, and politically unafraid. Please send names and addresses and contributions to the address below. Regardless, we will continue to send you CFLM until you inform us otherwise. If you have any questions or comments regarding any aspect of CFLM, please contact the editor at:
Family Life Promotion
Catholic Family Life Messenger
P. O. Box 115
Lake Grove, NY 11755-0115
cflm@optonline.net
(631) 588-7495
Subscription to
Catholic Family Life Messenger is free.
Contributions to Family Life Promotion,
a 501 (c) (3) not-for-profit organization,
are tax deductible as charitable gifts
and are deeply appreciated.
Editor: Carmelo Fallace
Copyright © 2008
CLERGY PLEDGE OF ASSENT TO HUMANAE VITAE
(HLI)
Beloved priest sons, by vocation you are the counselors and spiritual guides of individual persons and of families….Your first task—especially in the case of those who teach moral theology—is to expound the Church's teaching on marriage without ambiguity [Pope Paul VI, Humanae Vitae, ¶28-29].
In the face of lamentable clerical dissent and silence from the promulgation of the papal encyc-lical, Humanae Vitae, on July 25, 1968, I, as an ordained Roman Catholic Bishop, Priest, Deacon [or Seminarian preparing for the sacred ministry] pledge to
…humbly acknowledge the divine authority of Jesus Christ, Eternal High Priest, and the teach-ing authority of His Vicar, the Roman Pontiff, and those bishops united with him, especially in the areas of faith and morals;
…wholeheartedly support the sacrament and the institution of holy matrimony, which engend-ers a love between man and woman that is human, total, faithful, exclusive and fruitful [¶9];
…proclaim and affirm that, in Humanae Vitae, Pope Paul VI prophetically predicted that the use of contraceptives would lead to the following:
• Conjugal infidelity and a general lowering of morality;
• Men losing respect for their wives, considering them mere instruments of selfish enjoyment and no longer respected and beloved companions;
• Government imposition of contraception as population control on vulnerable populations; and
• Men claiming limitless dominion over the human body [¶17].
…observe that all of these prophecies have been fulfilled in our modern age, particularly in the Western world;
…condemn the separation of the unitive and the procreative aspects of the conjugal act, facili-tated by sterilization, contraception, abortion, in vitro fertilization, homosexuality and other intrinsically evil acts [¶12,14];
…encourage the use of the natural methods of fertility regulation, where serious reasons (iustae causae)
exist, which are moral, safe and effective, which promote healthy family life, and which facilitate
communication between husband and wife [¶16];
…create an atmosphere favorable to the practice of the most important virtue of “mastery of self” and of chastity for both married and unmarried people [¶21-22]; and
…teach the people entrusted to my pastoral care all that this great encyclical holds as true and holy.
Finally, I pledge support for the principles outlined in Humanae Vitae, not only for the good of the Catholic faithful, but also for the good of families and nations everywhere.
___________________________________ _________________________________________
(Clergy Signature) (Name (Please Print)
Please give to a priest to sign and return to:
Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer, President, Human Life International, 4 Family Life Lane, Front Roy-al, VA 22630
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