The
radical feminists and the homosexualist
forces constantly rant against Humanae
Vitae, focusing on its objection to
artificial contraception. This is ironic
because Humanae Vitae is precisely about
the dignity of women and how their personal,
familial and societal well-being is
to be attained.
The
radical feminists and gays of course
have no clue about authentic human dignity,
the beauty of marital love, the total
giving of self to the other in marriage,
and self-control. For them, it is precisely
the opposite -- allowing people to give
free reign to their passions and lusts,
thus degrading their dignity; a rejection
of marital fidelity; a culture of selfishness
that only uses others as instruments
of pleasure; total abandonment to hedonism.
Those
who have rejected Humanae Vitae, desiring
to "liberate" women, have
ironically worked to propagate the demeaning
of women and their continued use as
sex objects. The great irony is that
the women themselves, by their rejection
of Humanae Vitae, have deepened their
enslavement.
What
"Humanae Vitae" Is Really About
Polish Priest Notes Its Focus on Human
Dignity
By Karna Swanson
OMAHA,
Nebraska, SEPT. 2, 2010 (Zenit.org).-
The 1968 encyclical
"Humanae Vitae" is about much
more than a prohibition of artificial
contraception, says a Polish
priest and expert on family issues who
addressed today a conference in Omaha.
Rather, it is
a document about the dignity of woman.
Father
Jaroslaw Szymczak, of the faculty for
Studies on the Family of the Cardinal
Stefan Wyszynski University, affirmed
this at an international conference
on the pastoral directives of "Humanae
Vitae." The conference kicks off
the four-day "Celebration of Love
and Life" seminar organized by
the Pope Paul VI Institute to celebrate
its 25th anniversary.
The
Paul VI Institute, founded by Dr. Thomas
Hilgers, is aiming to build a culture
of life in women’s health care.
Among other accomplishments, it has
developed a method of natural family
planning called the Creighton Model
FertilityCare System and NaProTechnology.
In
his address, Father Szymczak gave an
overview of the encyclical written by
Paul VI, which he said is about much
more than just contraception, but rather
about "human dignity, especially
the dignity of woman, and the beauty
of marital love."
"Love
is more than a feeling, but a program
for the full of one's life, and certain
conditions must be met for it to be
possible," the Polish priest affirmed.
Healed
and raised up
Noting
that the essence
of marriage is "a gift of self,"
Father Szymczak reflected on a passage
of the 1965 pastoral constitution on
the Church in the Modern World, "Gaudium
et Spes," which states that "man
... cannot fully find himself except
through a sincere gift of himself."
"'Gaudium
et Spes' reminds us that our love, which
is eros, human affection, is healed,
perfected, and raised up, elevated,
by God, through his love, caritas,"
the priest said.
And
not only is this possible, he added,
but "it is fully necessary if we
are to realize ourselves as persons."
Only
through this gift of self does a man
develop as a man, and a woman develop
as a woman, the priest continued. When
a person becomes a gift of self, he
or she enriches himself or herself.
Additionally, "the one who gives
himself as a gift to another, matures."
Certain
conditions
Father
Szymczak then delineated the conditions
for the gift of self. The first is objectivity:
"A gift requires a free and conscious
act of giving, not just a sense of devotedness."
Other
conditions include that the gift must
be total, exclusive, lifelong, and unconditional.
One must say, the Polish priest explained,
"I give myself, and that's it."
One can't say, "I give myself on
the condition that ... and if you fail
to meet this condition, I'm sorry, I'm
going."
The
last condition, he continued, is that
the gift must be mutual: "Whenever
there is this gift of one person to
another, there is also receptivity to
the gift of the other."
Chastity
Father
Szymczak also pointed to the importance
of self-control
in the gift of self.
"One
important element of giving oneself
is that we can only give that which
we both possess and control," he
explained. "Hence, if one gives
oneself, it is [necessary] that one
possesses oneself, and one is in control
of oneself."
The
priest said one is in possession of
oneself when "feelings and sensuality
are subdued to the intellect and will,
which in turn need to be trained."
The
absence of this "and the weakness
of will are the result of original sin.
Ever since original sin, concupiscence
drives us to turn natural emotion and
sensual yearning into the use of the
other," he observed.
Father
Szymczak went on to explain that the
virtue of chastity "allows us to
see the whole truth about the person."
He said that in
modern society, it seems that people
are looked at in terms of usefulness,
rather than in terms of "their
value as a person."
Chastity
also allows us to integrate "the
values which are in a person with her
or his value as a person," he said.
"Chastity allows us to look at
others with purity, clarity, transparency,
especially those of the opposite sex."
Chastity
alone, he continued, "is the foundation
for a gift that must be at once objective,
total, mutual, exclusive, lifelong and
unconditional."
[Kathleen
Naab contributed to this report]
"For
to me to live is Christ, and to die is
gain." (Phil 1:21)