Rome, Italy, Jul 25, 2008 / 18:26 pm
The director of the L’Osservatore Romano, Giovanni Maria Vian, devoted his latest editorial to the importance of Paul VI’s encyclical Humanae Vitae, which was published 40 years ago and which he called a “sign of contradiction” for today’s world and for the time in which it was published.
In his column, Vian recalled that “forty years ago, on July 25, 1968, Paul VI signed Humane Vitae, the encyclical that condemned contraception with artificial methods, hedonism and family planning policies frequently imposed on poor countries by richer ones.”
“Soon after its publication on July 29, the letter generated an unprecedented opposition inside the Catholic Church.” “Rarely in the recent history of the Magisterium—Cardinal Ratzinger wrote in 1995--has a text become such a sign of contradiction as this encyclical written by Paul VI after a very painful decision,” Vian recalled.
He pointed out that on this “crucial issue, Pope Montini did not change his mind,” and the encyclical “is consistent with the developments of the Council in the understanding of marriage.”