IS NOT A MATTER FOR FREE DISCUSSION
AMONG THEOLOGIANS
The Holy Father
received in audience on Friday, 5 June the participants in a study conference
on responsible procreation. The
conference was sponsored by the “Centre for Studies and Research on the Natural
Regulation of Fertility” of the Department of Medicine of the Catholic
University of the Sacred Heart. The Pope
spoke to the group as follows:
Dear
Brothers and Sisters,
1. I greet you most warmly and thank you for your presence, while I
congratulate the “Centre for Studies and Research on the Natural Regulation of
Fertility” of the Department of Medicine of the
Your
commitment enters into and participates in the mission of the Church, due to a
pastoral concern which is among the most urgent and important. It is a question of helping spouses to live
their marriage in a holy way. You have
resolved to assist them in their journey towards holiness, so that they might
completely fulfil their conjugal vocation.
It is
well known that often one of the main anxieties that spouses encounter is
realizing the ethical value of responsible procreation in their conjugal life,
as the Second Vatican Council pointed out (cf. Gaudium et Spes, 51,
1). The Council itself places at the foundation of a just solution to this
problem the truth that there cannot be a real contradiction between the divine
law regarding the transmission of human life and authentic married love (cf. Ibid., 2). To speak
of a “conflict of values or goods” and of the consequent need to “weigh” them,
choosing one and rejecting the other, is not morally correct, and generates
only confusion in the consciences of spouses. Christ's grace gives married couples the real
capacity to fulfil the entire “truth” of their conjugal love. You wish concretely to witness to this
possibility, and thus to provide married couples with a precious form of
help: that of fully having their
conjugal communion. Notwithstanding the
difficulties you may encounter, it is necessary to continue with generous
dedication.
2.
The difficulties you
encounter are of various kinds. The
first, and in a certain sense the most serious, is that even within the
Christian community voices have been heard and are still being heard, which cast
doubt upon the very truth of the Church's teaching. This teaching has been vigorously expressed
by Vatican II, by the Apostolic Exhortation Familiaris Consortio and by the recent Instruction
“The Gift of Life”. 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
second difficulty is constituted by the fact that many think that the Christian
teaching, though true, is yet impracticable, at least in some circumstances. As the Tradition of the Church has constantly
taught, God does not command the impossible, but every commandment also carries
with it a gift of grace which assists human freedom in fulfilling it. However,
there is need for constant prayer, frequent recourse to the sacraments and the
exercise of conjugal chastity. Your efforts must not be limited, then, to the
mere teaching of a method for monitoring human fertility. This information must be inserted into the
context of a complete educational proposal which addresses the person of the
spouses, considered as a whole. Without this anthropological context, your
proposal runs the risk of being misunderstood.
You are well convinced of this, because you have always made a proper
anthropological and ethical reflection the base for your courses.
Today more than in the recent past, man is once again beginning to feel
within himself the need for truth and for right reason in his daily
experience. Be always ready to speak,
without ambiguity, the truth concerning the good and the evil of the individual
and of the family.
With
these sentiments I wish to encourage the important apostolate that you propose
to realize in the dioceses and in centres for family formation. In educating
towards responsible procreation, know how to encourage married couples to
follow the moral principles intrinsic to the natural law and innate in healthy
Christian consciences. Teach men and
women to seek and to love the will of God.
Encourage them to respect and to fulfil the sublime vocation of married
love and of the gift of life.
I gladly bless all of you, your loved ones and your initiatives in the apostolate.