Pia de Solenni, SThD: Pope Paul VI and His Vision for Humanity

Pope Paul VI authored the controversial encyclical Humanae Vitae in 1968. Within the Catholic Church, this led to a tremendous lack of confidence in papal authority, resulting in a majority of Catholics rejecting the Catholic Church’s teaching on contraception. While the ensuing debate has been about contraception and fertility awareness, these topics were only part of the encyclical. In promoting these teachings, Paul VI was underscoring a deeper reality about the human person, which deserves further consideration, particularly during the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the encyclical when we can survey the concrete consequences of rejecting this specific teaching.