Bishops ask Catholics to reflect on 'Humanae Vitae'

Couples called to renew love through 'language of their bodies'

By DEBORAH GYAPONG
Canadian Catholic News
Ottawa

Human sexuality is "a friend, a gift from God," Canada's Catholic bishops say in a letter marking the 40th anniversary of the controversial encyclical Humanae Vitae (On Human Life).

The bishops urge couples who decide "in conscience" to delay a birth for serious reasons because of physical, economic, or psychological conditions, to use natural family planning rather than artificial contraception.

They call couples who use NFP "collaborators in self-discipline" who "recognize and welcome each other in all their dignity as persons, including the gift of their fertility."

The bishops issued the letter Sept. 26 to urge Catholics to rediscover Pope Paul VI's "prophetic" encyclical.

The letter notes how Paul VI anticipated the "troubling evolution" of marriage and the family due to the "contraceptive mentality."

Stating the encyclical is "much more than a 'no' to contraception," the bishops' letter focuses on Humanae Vitae as a "reflection on God's design for human love."

The encyclical provides an "invitation to be open to the grandeur, beauty and dignity of the Creator's call to the vocation of marriage," they said.

"For marriage to reflect the love of Christ, couples are called to a love that is total and without restrictions, faithful, and fruitful."

The bishops' letter equates the promises made during the sacrament of marriage to a "desire to love the other as God loves us."

"Thus, each time that they become 'one flesh' they are called to renew, through the language of their bodies, their marriage commitment to live a free, total, faithful and fruitful love, which is expressed in new lives."

"Abortion, sterilization and contraception are in opposition to the Creator's intention at the heart of sexual intercourse, preventing, if God so desires, the creation of a unique soul for the unique body that the spouses help form."

Like Pope Paul's encyclical, the bishops' letter stresses the importance of never separating the unitive and procreative aspects of what the late pope called "the marital act."

And, also like Humanae Vitae, it emphasizes the importance of the couple's communion.

The letter discusses how Pope John Paul II's 129 Wednesday audience talks from 1979 to 1984 "offer theological and pastoral insights of astonishing depth and inestimable richness that integrate and clarify those already present in Humanae Vitae."

"This is the love to which couples are called in their marriage."

(The letter is available through the CCCB website at www.cccb.ca.)

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