Bishop Barron on Contraception and Social Change

[Music] well this coming July we celebrate the 50th anniversary of Pope Paul the sixth famous and controversial encyclical letter humanity vitae I won't bore you with all the details of the battles and the conflicts that ensued over humanity vitae suffice it to say that it was a major point of contention between what emerge really is as liberal and conservative camps within the Catholic Church the central argument of humanity vitae is fairly easy to to lay out namely that the integrity of the sexual act is a function of the coming together of its unitive and procreative dimensions so when the sexual act expresses love between the marry partners and remains open to the conception of a child it has this integral quality when through a conscious choice a couple introduces an artificial block to procreation they're doing something which violates this integrity and thereby stands opposed to to God's will so there's the the central argument of Humana vitae now again I'm not gonna in this video look at all the you know arguments pro and con you can read those in many other places what I am interested in and and find really fascinating as I reread you mighty vitae with this anniversary coming up is section 17 so we'd go online or you have a copy of this text go right to section 17 because in that section Pope Paul plays the Prophet and he you know clearly holds at the that artificial contraception is bad in itself but he also sees all kinds of societal ramifications that if this thing it becomes a widely accepted lots of other bad things will ensue and that section of the in so cool I will confess to you jumped out at me as I reread it because I thought wow 1968 but this man was looking very clearly into into our time so I'm gonna give you just some examples of this here's here's a first prophetic citation from the section 17 the Pope says let them consider how easily this course of action so artificial contraception would open wide the way for marital infidelity and a general lowering of moral standards not much experience is needed to be fully aware of human weakness and to understand that human beings especially the young are so exposed to temptation that they need incentives to keep the moral law and it's an evil thing to make it easy for them to break that law well here's the thing I mean would anyone doubt that in the last 50 years the years since Humana vitae that we've seen a weakening of the institution of marriage would anyone doubt that we've seen a rather remarkable rise in the rates of infidelity within marriage can anyone sincerely doubt that we've seen a lowering a coarsening of moral standards now it's not to lay everything at the feet of artificial contraception and the Pope isn't suggesting that either there are multiple causes of this however I do think he was intuitive something of extraordinary importance namely when we begin on our own terms to redefine the sexual acts we have placed ourselves on a steep and very slippery slope toward a complete volunteerism by which I mean we by an act of the will define what things mean we define what they ought to be the minute we start that process by interrupting the unitive and procreative dimensions then we're on that slippery slope toward well we can define the sexual act any way we want what might have seemed even a little bit paranoid back in 1968 or a little exaggerated I don't know look around the scene today I think you find a good deal of complete volunteerism when it comes to the definition of the sexual act here's a second bit of prophecy from section 17 Pope says another effect that gives cause for alarm is that a man who grows accustomed to the use of contraceptive methods may forget the reverence due to a woman and disregarding her physical and emotional equilibrium reduce her to being 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 well I don't know about you but as I read that now in the immediate wake of the Harvey Weinstein business and I record these words were going through this this extraordinary cleansing if you want in our culture as people are realizing there's been enormous amount of the deep mistreatment of women a deep disrespect toward women and you know it's now everyday in the news some new celebrity is accused and precisely this kind of behavior now see again the entire society is rightly outraged at this but I wonder how many have drawn the connection as Pope Paul prophetically did between this casual separation of the unitive and procreative dimensions and the treatment of women as objects for the mere satisfaction of men if the sexual act as God designed it involves indeed pleasure and unity and love but also procreation when you divide those things very easily the sexual act slides into being simply a means for a man to find sexual pleasure and the woman to become simply an object of his manipulation you know say what you want about the Church's teaching oh it's oppressive oh it's puritanical I don't know I think what we're seeing especially today is if people had followed the church's intuition women would be a lot more respected than they are in the current secular scene today here's now a third bit of prophecy from section 17 Pope Paul says finally careful consideration should be given to the danger of this power passing into the hands of those public authorities who care little for the precepts of the moral law who will blame a government which in its attempt to resolve the problems affecting an entire country resorts to the same measures as a regarded as lawful by married people in the solution of a particular family difficulty who will prevent public authorities from favoring those contraceptive methods which they consider more effective should they regard this as necessary they may even impose their use on everyone okay again I think someone reading at 1968 might have said oh I don't know Pope Paul come on aren't you being a little exaggerated even a little bit paranoid about the government taking over this business I don't know I think he was pretty prophetic you look around us today in light in our country of the HHS mandate which was doing what precisely mandating that even Catholic institutions yes even the Little Sisters of the Poor would have to include in their insurance plans coverage for abortifacients and for contraception again should they regard this the government as necessary they may even impose their use on everyone paranoid I don't think so this this aggressiveness on the part of the government Pope Paul the sixth sought 50 years ago as a shadow as an aftereffect of what was going on in 1968 just one more observation our current Pope Pope Francis is a great admirer of Paul the sixth and you've seen a lot of different ways you see it certainly in in his focus on evangelization his own text evangelii gaudium the joy of the gospel is meant to echo Avon jelly noon see on day of Pope Paul 6 which is a master text in the tradition of evangelization however I'd say this too he also admires Paulus for this great text of humanity vitae look by the way in amoris Laetitia Pope Francis texts on marriage and family life where humanity vitae is reaffirmed the the coming together of the procreative and unitive elements of the sexual act is reaffirmed and moreover Pope Francis who on numerous occasions has bemoaned what he calls ideological colonization meaning the West imposing its sexual ideology on the rest of the world often making their economic aid contingent upon the acceptance of certain ET law ideological presuppositions that fathers Pope Francis as much as it bothered Pope Paul the sixth so anyway I think now in the course of this year this 50th anniversary year a lot of us will be rereading humanity vitae good can I suggest a great place to start section 17 [Music]

Channel: Bishop Robert Barron

Views: 111,077

Rating: 4.8094525 out of 5

Keywords: Catholic, Contraception, Catholicism, Bishop Barron, Sex, Pornography, Abortion

Id: JWyWgNTf9ec

Length: 10min 2sec (602 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 11 2018