Wednesday 30 July 2008

Humanae Vitae - after forty years

I have hesitated to post about Humanae Vitae - age wise, I belong to the generation whose active life in the Church came "after HV" and so do not have any direct memories of 1968, and, in terms of marital status, I am single, so cannot speak from experience of trying to live according to this particular teaching of the Church.

My memories of the publication of Humanae Vitae are mediated. We were at primary school at the time, attending the English section of an international school attached to a military headquarters in Holland. Much later in life, mother told us that we came home from school at that time asking "What is this pill that everyone is on about?"

From my early life as an active Catholic, I cannot recall any instance of a clear, firm, well argued presentation of the teaching of Humanae Vitae - not at school, not in the parishes I then attended, not in an episcopal pastoral letter. I sometimes wonder how I would have fared in this regard had I been looking to marry in my mid-20's.

I do recall from around university days that the attitude you adopted to Humanae Vitae was a kind of "test question" that indicated the orthodox Catholic from the liberal. And the first place I encountered a clear, firm, well argued presentation of the teaching of Humanae Vitae was through FAITH Movement, which I encountered at this time. At this time, if I recall correctly, Fr Edward Holloway always seemed to be talking about sex and chastity at their events .... but, with hindsight, I think a lot of pastoral insight and experience lay behind this.

But one of the most interesting experiences I had in this regard was World Youth Day 2005 in Cologne. I only read about some of the activities of dissenting organisations there when I got back home afterwards - they made virtually no impact on the young people taking part, something that I suspect will have been true of the recent events in Sydney. At the catecheses I attended in Cologne, the young people demonstrated a total faithfulness to the Church. At one point, a bishop described television coverage he had watched of Pope Benedict XVI's arrival in Cologne the day before. After an interview with a dissenting theologian from America, the report had returned to an Italian young person in Cologne. Her answer? No, we don't think the Church should change its teaching. We think we should change, so that we become more like Christ. And the young people attending this catechesis applauded the bishop's account of this to the echo.

But returning to Fr Holloway. The teaching of Humanae Vitae in the Church, like any teaching of the Church, has a catechetical dimension and a pastoral dimension. When a couple come to marriage preparation, they should not be hearing the teaching of Humanae Vitae for the first time. Their vocational choice for marriage needs to already include the attempt to live according to the teaching of Humanae Vitae - and it is only going to do that if the couple have received it in earlier catechesis. It needs to be something that the couple themselves bring to the marriage, not something that they experience as being imposed on them by the programme of preparation, as a kind of condition attached to the marriage ceremony. So an effective catechesis in the general life of the Church - parish and school - allows for a proper pastoral presentation at the level of the individual case, a pastoral presentation that is experienced as positive and yet remains faithful to the Church's teaching.

But it is a topic that people do not want to talk about - so the catechesis is omitted. Which is why I think Fr Holloway showed a fundamentally correct insight, both in catechetical and pastoral terms.

A couple of thoughts to finish. A particular pastoral situation - and a very difficult one - arises where one of the partners to a marriage is not a Catholic. If marriage is seen as a vocational choice, should a Catholic partner see a fiance(e)'s unwillingness to live by the Church's teaching on contraception as an indicator that this is not the person they are called to marry? And, whilst priests and bishops clearly have a teaching office in the Church, what of catechists? Should lay people, catechists and others, be more willing to teach Humanae Vitae in their work in parishes and schools?

6 comments:

Rita said...

HV itself says in section 26:

..it is married couples themselves who become apostles and guides to other married couples. This is assuredly amongst so many forms of apostolate, one of those which seem most opportune today.

If only there was more talk about sexual relations in parishes, rather that the backbiting "I bet they contracept...."

Anonymous said...

No matter what the problem is, bad catechesis always seems to be at the very least part of the cause.

I have yet to encounter someone who has received good instruction on the Church teachings on sexuality and disagrees! And nowadays we don't only have Humanae Vitae, but also the Theology of the Body (which is still on my "to learn" list, unfortunately...).

Anonymous said...

Do people really say that about other parishoners?

la mamma said...

Anonymous - not in my experience, but then I'm the mother of four (and counting!).

Joe, I think I've said before - don't hold back in talking about these matters just because you're not married. I used to think the same myself, then thought I couldn't defend NFP as we had no children. Now I am married and, Deo gratias, we do have children, you would call me 'qualified' to talk on these matters but I say I'm no more qualified than you - I simply can affirm from practical experience as well as intellectually and from what I see around me, that HV is tip top and yes, the late Fr. Holloway was, like Paul VI prophetic in those insights. Ah, Fr. Holloway. I wonder what he would think? Sad, I suppose to see 'the state we're in' but what great joy he'd gain from seeing his influence in the formation of so many young lives (and I count myself among them) bearing much fruit now in parish lives as priests, religious and lay... and of course beyond our parishes.

Kate said...

Don't hold back, Joe, the majority of Christians in general and Catholics in particular seem to be ignorant (wilfully or not) of the prophetic teaching contained in this encyclical, perhaps because too many held back......

Anonymous said...

Zero says
On today's (Monday) "Woman's Hour" i caught a bit (i was driving) of a lively discussion about Humanae Vitae because of it's 40th no doubt. Chritina Odone and a lady who i didn't catch her name but was all for natural family planning were very interesting-Jenny Murray almost had to come between them as both were so passionate in their views!
I expect we could all" Listen again" to it . There comes a time when i have to get out of the car and do some work!