Pope’s Anti-TLM Theologian Shows His Pro-Contraception Cards

Pope Francis is fond of saying “everything is connected.” Traditionalists have been saying the same thing for the past six decades. We have long emphasized that those who transformed the Catholic liturgy on paper and in practice were also entertaining doctrinal novelties, oddities, and, at times, even heresies. Conversely, a radically changed liturgy has led to the weakening, and occasioned the loss of faith in, any number of central doctrines of Catholicism, or that the loss of reverence for God is bound up with moral drift in every sphere of life. It is not hard, after all, to see that the lex orandi, the lex credendi, and the lex vivendi stand and fall together.

Humanæ Vitæ at 50 - II Yes, it was prophetic: "The truth expressed in Humanæ Vitæ does not change."

Exactly 50 years ago, Pope Paul VI signed his last and most relevant encyclical letter, Humanæ Vitæ. Last, even though he would still have ten years of pontificate ahead, certainly because he was in shock over the worldwide rejection by many Catholics of what was merely the reaffirmation of the permanent doctrine of the Church since Apostolic times.

Paul VI had only himself to blame for the hurricane: "For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind" (Hosea 8:7). He had presided over the imprudent Council called by his predecessor and had allowed it to be driven in a decidedly "Northern European", liberal, direction. He had been forced to intervene at the last moment several times to limit the damage (the most famous one having been the Nota Praevia to Lumen Gentium), including by having kept the Pontifical Commission on Birth Control established by his predecessor and preventing the Conciliar Fathers from making a specific conciliar pronouncement on the matter, other than the generic statements mentioned in Gaudium et Spes. Paul VI's general imprudence on many matters would never be as evident as in the attempt of wholesale destruction of the Traditional Liturgy of the Latin Church, whose greatest step would be taken in the following year, with the introduction of the revolutionary and completely unprecedented Novus Ordo of the mass.

It should therefore be no surprise to Paul VI that, having sown strong winds himself, the whirlwind would engulf him, as the reaction to Humanæ Vitæ would show.

Yet, a Catholic cannot but be in awe of the protection given by the Holy Ghost to the Petrine Office: amidst a world dominated by the first and strong waves of the "sexual revolution", Peter stood alone and Peter stood strong. And not only did Paul VI reaffirm the historical and Apostolic Doctrine of the Church, he was also immensely prophetic. Did not the following passages of the encyclical foresee exactly what took place?

"A man who grows accustomed to the use of contraceptive methods may forget the reverence due to a woman, ... a mere instrument for the satisfaction of his own desires, no longer considering her as his partner whom he should surround with care and affection."

"Human beings—and especially the young, who are so exposed to temptation—need incentives to keep the moral law, and it is an evil thing to make it easy for them to break that law."

On this day, we thank the Father Almighty for his protection over the Doctrine of the Church in the revolutionary days of 1968. He is always Faithful, even when so much of the hierarchy of His Church is not. As Pope Benedict XVI said at the time of the 40th anniversary, 10 long years ago, "What was true yesterday is true also today. The truth expressed in Humanæ Vitæ does not change":

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In the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, Gaudium et Spes, the Second Vatican Council was already addressing scientists, urging them to join forces to achieve unity in knowledge and a consolidated certainty on the conditions that can favour "the proper regulation of births" (n. 52). My Predecessor of venerable memory, the Servant of God Paul VI, published his Encyclical Letter Humanae Vitae on 25 July 1968.

Humanæ Vitæ at 50 - I "never lawful"

Salomon de Bray (1597 - 1664) was a Dutch painter. He was also an architect, urban planner, poet, and designer of silverware. He was, above all, a Catholic father of ten children, three of whom also became successful painters (Jan, Joseph, and Dirck).

The tenderness with which S. de Bray pictures (see our special masthead) his nephew's twin babies, Clara and Aelbert de Bray, is remarkable: how much love De Bray must have dedicated to his large family in the city of Haarlem, amidst the generally harsh conditions imposed upon Catholics in the newly-independent United Provinces.

A strong Catholic identity, a love for life and family in a hostile environment: as most Catholics of most ages, De Brey probably understood intimately what Popes of the twentieth century would have to write explicitly - that "it is never lawful, even for the gravest reasons, to do evil that good may come of it" (Humanæ Vitæ, 14).

Pope Paul VI is described by most historians as a kind of tragic figure, trying to control the whirlwind of events surrounding him, but unable to do much. It is probably because of this, because it seemed that Montini often bent to the opinions of the world, because it seemed that he frequently accepted the fabricated notions and texts which committees of false sages delivered to him (with very small modifications), that the moments in which he did not bend shine so clearly with the simple brightness of Peter. The Nota Prævia to Lumen Gentium, the vigorous defense of the traditional Eucharistic doctrines (in Mysterium Fidei) and of the teachings on Indulgences (in Indulgentiarum Doctrina), the Credo of the People of God are pillars which remain standing in a crumbling edifice, signs of supernatural protection.

Amidst the moral collapse of the 1960s, and against the commission set up by his predecessor to reexamine the matter, Peter spoke though Paul in Humanæ Vitæ: "it is never lawful, even for the gravest reasons, to do evil that good may come of it."

It is thus never lawful "to intend directly something which of its very nature contradicts the moral order, and which must therefore be judged unworthy of man, even though the intention is to protect or promote the welfare of an individual, of a family or of society in general." NUMQUAM - never. Therefore, "it is a serious error to think that a whole married life of otherwise normal relations can justify sexual intercourse which is deliberately contraceptive and so intrinsically wrong."

Op-Ed - The President of the Catholic University of America is totally wrongheaded in his comparison of Humanae Vitae and Pope Francis

by Fr. Richard G. Cipolla, PhD, DPhil (Oxon)

CUA campus in Washington, D.C.

It is indeed a good thing when a president of a Catholic University takes the time to write an Op-Ed piece for a Catholic news agency.  John Garvey, President of the Catholic University of America is the author of such a piece, his monthly column for Catholic News Service, that was recently published in the Arlington Catholic Herald, among other diocesan paper.  The Op-Ed piece is titled “One, holy, Catholic”.  In this editorial he expresses his deep concern over what he sees as division in the Church between those he calls “progressives” and “traditionalists”.   I share Garvey’s concern over the divisions in the Church, but I believe that the lens through which he sees the problem distorts and makes impossible to understand what the real conflict in the Church is about. 

Garvey reminds us that this summer marks the fiftieth anniversary of Humanae Vitae and the statement of dissent by a significant group of theologians, all from the United States.  Garvey claims that the Pope Paul VI’s upholding the Traditional teaching of the Catholic Church against those theologians who wanted that teaching changed provoked “an unprecedented crisis of authority in the American Catholic Church.”  I would ask Garvey to remember in the first place that there is no American Catholic Church.  There is the Catholic Church in America, or much better still, in the United States.  He summarizes what has happened in the past fifty years in this way:

Abortion and sterilization are commonplace. Artificial birth control has opened “wide the way for marital infidelity and a general lowering of moral standards”. Governments favor “those contraceptive methods which they consider more effective…(and) may even impose their use on everyone”.

Garvey then says: “In 1968 the pope’s critics envisioned a different future”.  What was that future that the dissident theologians envisioned?  What did they think the future of marriage and sexual morality would be like once the sexual intercourse was cut off from both the natural biological purpose of the act and the basic understanding of sexual intercourse in a Catholic marriage, when that act was cut off from the possibility of new life, that possibility that prevents that intimate act from being merely an act of closed-in selfishness?

In a somewhat curious defense of the dissidents, Garvey tells us that the statement of dissent  “generously” (!) acknowledged that the pope had a “distinct role” in the Church. This sounds like what Anglicans believe about the Archbishop of Canterbury, a primus inter pares, someone who comes last in the procession, but with no doctrinal authority at all.  The “distinct role” of the Pope in matters of doctrine is clearly defined by both the First and Second Vatican Councils. 

De Mattei: Rereading Humanae Vitae in the light of Casti connubii

Roberto  de Mattei

Corrispondenza Romana

 July 5, 2018

Over the last few decades the West has experienced an “anti-family” Revolution without precedent in history. One of the tenets of this process in the disintegration of the institution of the family was the separation of the two primary purposes of marriage, the procreative and the unitive. The procreative purpose, separated from conjugal union, has brought about in-vitro fertilization and the surrogate womb. The unitive purpose, emancipated from procreation, has lead to the glorification of free love, both heterosexual and homosexual.  One of the results of these aberrations is the recourse of homosexual couples to the practice of the surrogate womb in order to actualize a grotesque caricature of the natural family. 

Bishops defend Church teaching on birth control

It is sad when the above headline is news.  Yet, it is almost impossible to find bishops (or priests) -- outside of traditional Latin Mass circles -- talking about this subject.  We commend the Kazakh bishops for issuing the following reaffirmation of Church teaching:

Pastoral letter on the occasion of the 50^th anniversary of the encyclical Humanae vitae

Praised be Our Lord Jesus Christ! Dear brothers and sisters in Christ! The current year is marked by the memorable event of the 50^th anniversary of the encyclical Humanae vitae, in which Blessed Paul VI confirmed the teaching of the constant Magisterium of the Church regarding the transmission of human life. The Bishops and Ordinaries of Kazakhstan want to take this favorable occasion in order to honor the memory and the enduring importance of this encyclical.

During the last meeting of all our priests and religious sisters in Almaty, there were thorough discussions on the theme of the preparation of young people to the sacrament of marriage. There was made the proposal to transmit to young people the main truths of the Magisterium of the Church with regard to the Christian marriage and the sanctity of human life from the moment of its conception.   

We proclaim with the voice of the Magisterium of the Church as we can learn it in the encyclical Humanae vitae and in the documents of other Roman Pontiffs the following demanding truths of Christ’s “sweet yoke and light burden” (Math. 11:30):

De Mattei: The Plan Of “Reinterpretation” For Humanæ Vitæ

 Roberto de Mattei

Corrispondenza Romana

June 14, 2017

It will be Monsignor Gilfredo Marengo, Professor at John Paul II Pontifical Institute, the coordinator of the commission nominated by Pope Francis to “re-interpret” the encyclical Humanæ Vitæ by Paul VI, in the light of Amoris laetitia, on the occasion of  the fiftieth anniversary of the former’s promulgation, which  falls next year. The initial rumors of the existence of this commission, still secret, reported by Vatican reporter Marco Tosatti, were of a sound source.

We can confirm that there is a commission, made up of Monsignor Pierangelo Sequeri, Head of the John Paul II Pontifical Institute, Professor Philippe Chenaux, Lecturer in Church History at the Lateran Pontifical University and Monsignor Angel Maffeis, Head of the Paul VI Institute in Brescia. The coordinator is Monsignor Gilfredo Marengo, Lecturer in Theological Anthropology at the John Paul II Institute and member of the Steering Committee of the review CVII-Centro Vaticano II Studi e ricerche. 

"Dear Pope Francis" - A parish priest writes to the Pope following the confusion caused by his recent interview

Dear Pope Francis:

I write this letter to you as a priest to the Bishop of Rome and as a son to a father.  I write with a heavy heart, and I know that heaviness of heart is shared by many of my Catholic brethren both clergy and laity.  

For the record: "Clearer in Manila" as Pope Francis defends Church teachings on human life and sexuality during Philippine visit

The most important passages in bold. All texts are as published on the Vatican website. The speech in the Mall of Asia arena, as actually delivered, was a mix of the English prepared text with off-the-cuff remarks in English and (mostly) in Spanish, while an on-the-spot translation was provided by Msgr. Mark Miles. The Vatican website however provides a fresh translation of the Spanish-language interpolations.

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Here I would like to say a special word to the young priests, religious and seminarians among us. I ask you to share the joy and enthusiasm of your love for Christ and the Church with everyone, but especially with your peers. Be present to young people who may be confused and despondent, yet continue to see the Church as their friend on the journey and a source of hope. Be present to those who, living in the midst of a society burdened by poverty and corruption, are broken in spirit, tempted to give up, to leave school and to live on the streets. Proclaim the beauty and truth of the Christian message to a society which is tempted by confusing presentations of sexuality, marriage and the family. As you know, these realities are increasingly under attack from powerful forces which threaten to disfigure God’s plan for creation and betray the very values which have inspired and shaped all that is best in your culture.

- Homily at Manila Cathedral, January 16, 2015

(Video)

Albenga-Imperia: Bp. Oliveri responds to Italian media-Plus: Oliveri-hatred by liberals comes from 1980

Several different Italian (and non-Italian) papers have reported on an upcoming intervention that would impair the governance of Bp. Mario Oliveri, of Albenga-Imperia, generally considered a conservative and friend of Traditional practices.

The Synod Will Be a Farce - if the Kasper Legion's Attempt to Muzzle It Goes According To Plan

"With Annoying Paragraph 1650 Removed !"