Editing Humanae vitae (section)

==Reception==

===Galileo affair comparison===
{{See also|Galileo affair}}
Cardinal [[Leo Joseph Suenens]], a moderator of the ecumenical council, questioned, "whether moral theology took sufficient account of scientific progress, which can help determine, what is according to nature. I beg you my brothers let us avoid another Galileo affair. One is enough for the Church."<ref>Peter Hebblethwaite, Paul VI, Paulist Press New York, 1993, pg. 394</ref> In an interview in {{lang|fr|Informations Catholiques Internationales}} on 15 May 1969, he criticized the Pope's decision again as frustrating the [[Collegiality (Catholic Church)|collegiality]] defined by the council,<ref>Hebblethwaite, Paul VI, Paulist Press New York, 1993, pg. 533</ref> calling it a non-collegial or even an anti-collegial act.<ref>Hebblethwaite, Paul VI, Paulist Press New York, 1993, pg. 528</ref> He was supported by [[Vatican II]] theologians such as [[Karl Rahner]], [[Hans Küng]], several [[Episcopal conference]]s, e.g. the [[Episcopal Conference of Austria]], [[Episcopal Conference of Germany|Germany]], and [[Episcopal Conference of Switzerland|Switzerland]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://stephanscom.at/edw/predigten/0/articles/2008/10/16/a15468/ |title=Drei Mal "Nein" zum Leben |last=Schönborn |first=Christoph |author-link=Christoph Schönborn |date=March 27, 2008 |publisher=Radio Stephansdom |location=Vienna |language=de |trans-title=Three Times "No" to Life |type=sermon |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090130113326/http://stephanscom.at/edw/predigten/0/articles/2008/10/16/a15468/ |archive-date=2009-01-30 |access-date=2018-06-26}}</ref> as well as several bishops, including [[Christopher Butler (bishop)|Christopher Butler]], who called it one of the most important contributions to contemporary discussion in the Church.<ref>Peter Hebblethwaite, Paul VI, Paulist Press New York, 1993, pg. 533</ref>

===Open dissent===
The publication of the encyclical marks the first time in the twentieth century that open dissent from the laity about teachings of the Church was voiced widely and publicly. The teaching has been criticized by development organizations and others who claim that it limits the methods available to fight worldwide population growth and struggle against [[HIV/AIDS]]. Within two days of the encyclical's release, a group of dissident theologians, led by Rev. [[Charles Curran (theologian)|Charles Curran]], then [[Catholic University of America]], issued a statement stating, "spouses may responsibly decide according to their conscience that artificial contraception in some circumstances is permissible and indeed necessary to preserve and foster the value and sacredness of marriage."<ref>{{cite news| url=http://americamagazine.org/node/148840 | work=America | title=Humanae Vitae 25 Years Later | date=7 July 1993 | access-date=11 November 2013 | first1=Richard | last1=McCormick}}</ref>

===Canadian bishops===
Two months later, the controversial [[Winnipeg Statement]] issued by the [[Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops]] stated that those who cannot accept the teaching should not be considered shut off from the Catholic Church, and that individuals can in good conscience use contraception as long as they have first made an honest attempt to accept the difficult directives of the encyclical.

===Dutch Catechism===
The [[Dutch Catechism]] of 1966, based on the Dutch bishops' interpretation of the just completed Vatican Council, and the first post-Council comprehensive Catholic catechism, noted the lack of mention of artificial contraception in the council. "As everyone can ascertain nowadays, there are several methods of regulating births. The Second Vatican Council did not speak of any of these concrete methods{{nbsp}}[...] This is a different standpoint than that taken under Pius XI some thirty years ago which was also maintained by his successor{{nbsp}}[...] we can sense here a clear development in the Church, a development, which is also going on outside the Church."<ref>''A New Catechism'', pg. 402</ref>

===Soviet Union===
In the [[Soviet Union]], ''[[Literaturnaya Gazeta]]'', a publication of Soviet intellectuals, included an editorial and statement by Russian physicians against the encyclical.<ref>HK 1968, pg. 548</ref>

===Ecumenical reactions===
Ecumenical reactions were mixed. Liberal and Moderate [[Lutheran]]s and the [[World Council of Churches]] were disappointed. [[Eugene Carson Blake]] criticised the concepts of nature and [[natural law]], which, in his view, still dominated Catholic theology, as outdated. This concern dominated several articles in Catholic and non-Catholic journals at the time.<ref>''La Croix'', 31 July 1968; 13 August 1968</ref><ref>''Sontagsblatt'', 11 November 1968</ref><ref>''Reforme'', 10 August 1968</ref> [[Patriarch Athenagoras I]] stated his full agreement with [[Pope Paul VI]]: "He could not have spoken in any other way."<ref>''Herder Korrespondenz'', Orbis Catholicus, Freiburg, 1968, pg. 404</ref>

===Latin America===
In [[Latin America]], much support developed for the Pope and his encyclical. As [[World Bank]] President [[Robert McNamara]] declared at the 1968 [[Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group|Annual Meeting of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group]] that countries permitting [[birth control]] practices will get preferential access to resources, doctors in [[La Paz, Bolivia]], called it insulting that money should be exchanged for the conscience of a Catholic nation. In [[Colombia]], Cardinal [[Aníbal Muñoz Duque]] declared, "if [[United States|American]] conditionality undermines Papal teachings, we prefer not to receive one cent".<ref name="HerderKorrespondenz">''Herder Korrespondenz'', Orbis Catholicus, Freiburg, 1968, pg. 549</ref> The Senate of Bolivia passed a [[Resolution (law)|resolution]], stating that {{lang|la|Humanae vitae}} can be discussed in its implications on individual consciences, but is of greatest significance because it defends the rights of developing nations to determine their own population policies.<ref name="HerderKorrespondenz" /> The Jesuit Journal ''Sic'' dedicated one edition to the encyclical with supportive contributions.<ref>''Sic'', 31, pg. 308, October 1968, pgs. 359-79</ref> However, against eighteen insubordinate priests, professors of theology at [[Pontifical Catholic University of Chile]], and the ensuing conspiracy of silence practiced by the Chilean [[Episcopate]], which had to be censured by the [[Nuncio]] in Santiago at the behest of Cardinal [[Gabriel-Marie Garrone]], prefect of the [[Congregation for Catholic Education]], triggering eventually a media conflict with {{ill|El Diario Ilustrado|es}}, [[Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira]] expressed his affliction with the [[lamentations]] of [[Jeremiah]]: "O ye all that pass through the way…" (Lamentations 1:12, [[King James Bible]]).<ref>{{Bibleverse|Lamentations|1:12|KJV}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url= https://www.pliniocorreadeoliveira.info/FSP%2069-03-05%20O%20vos.htm |title=Ó vós todos que passais pelo caminho… |date=1969-03-05 |access-date=2018-08-25 |language=pt}}</ref>

===Cardinal Martini===
In the book "Nighttime conversations in Jerusalem. On the risk of faith.", well-known liberal Cardinal [[Carlo Maria Martini]] {{Post-nominals|list=[[Society of Jesus|SJ]]}} accused Paul VI of deliberately concealing the truth, leaving it to theologians and pastors to fix things by adapting precepts to practice: "I knew Paul VI well. With the encyclical, he wanted to express consideration for human life. He explained his intention to some of his friends by using a comparison: although one must not lie, sometimes it is not possible to do otherwise; it may be necessary to conceal the truth, or it may be unavoidable to tell a lie. It is up to the moralists to explain where sin begins, especially in the cases in which there is a higher duty than the transmission of life."<ref>[http://chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it/articolo/209045?eng=y Sandro Magister-s blog]</ref>

=== [[Pope John Paul II|Karol Wojtyła]] ===
The future [[Pope John Paul II]] (at the time [[Archdiocese of Krakow|Archbishop of Krakow]] [[Karol Wojtyla|Karol Wojtyła]]) asked Paul VI to apply [[Papal infallibility]] ''in docendo'' (in teaching) to the encyclical, equating it with the authority of a [[dogma]]. Paul VI and John XXIII did not. Wojtyła himself declared the encyclical part of the ordinary and universal [[Magisterium]] of the Roman Catholic Church.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.thebostonpilot.com/AMP/amp_article.php?ID=192963|title=Reacting to pontifical academy, theologian says teaching of Humanae vitae can't change|date=9 August 2022|author=ACI Prensa}}</ref>

===Response of Pope Paul VI===
Pope Paul VI was troubled by the encyclical's reception in the West. Acknowledging the controversy, Paul VI in a letter to the Congress of German Catholics (30 August 1968), stated: "May the lively debate aroused by our encyclical lead to a better knowledge of God's will."<ref name="'Humanae Vitae' 25 Years Later">{{cite news | url=http://www.americamagazine.org/content/article.cfm?article_id=10960 | work=America Magazine | title='Humanae Vitae' 25 Years Later | date=17 July 1993 | access-date=19 January 2011 | first1=Richard | last1=McCormick | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110715024855/http://www.americamagazine.org/content/article.cfm?article_id=10960 | archive-date=15 July 2011 | url-status=dead }}</ref> In March 1969, he had a meeting with one of the main critics of {{lang|la|Humanae vitae}}, Cardinal [[Leo Joseph Suenens]]. Paul heard him out and said merely, "Yes, pray for me; because of my weaknesses, the Church is badly governed."<ref>Peter Hebblethwaite, Paul VI, Paulist Press New York, 1993, pg. 532</ref> To jog the memory of his critics, he also put in their minds the experience of no less a figure than [[Saint Peter|Peter]]: "[n]ow I understand St Peter: he came to Rome twice, the second time to be crucified",<ref name="paulvi">{{cite magazine |url=http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/commentandblogs/2014/09/12/the-future-blessed-pope-paul-vi-was-a-great-champion-of-family-life/ |title=The future Blessed Pope Paul VI was a great champion of family life |last=Phillips |first=Francis |date=Sep 12, 2014 |magazine=[[The Catholic Herald]] |access-date=2018-08-16}}</ref> – herewith directing their attention to his rejoicing in glorifying the Lord.<ref>[[Martyrdom of Peter]] ([[Codex Vercellensis]], chapters 33–41): "And Peter came to himself: and having beheld the Lord ascending up into heaven, he returned to Rome, rejoicing, and glorifying the Lord, for that he said: I am being crucified: the which was about to befall Peter." (ch. 35) "But I, so long as the Lord will that I be in the flesh, resist not; and again if he take me to him I rejoice and am glad." (ch. 36)</ref> Increasingly convinced, that "the smoke of Satan entered the temple of God from some fissure",<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.vatican.va/content/paul-vi/it/homilies/1972/documents/hf_p-vi_hom_19720629.html |title=29 giugno 1972: Santa Messa per il IX anniversario dell'incoronazione di Sua Santità nella solennità dei Santi Apostoli Pietro e Paolo &#124; Omelia di Paolo VI |publisher=[[Santa Sede|La Santa Sede]] |date=1972-06-29 |access-date=2018-08-26 |language=it |quote=Riferendosi alla situazione della Chiesa di oggi, il Santo Padre afferma di avere la sensazione che «da qualche fessura sia entrato il fumo di Satana nel tempio di Dio».}}</ref> Paul VI reaffirmed, on 23 June 1978, weeks before his death, in an address to the [[College of Cardinals]], his {{lang|la|Humanae vitae}}: "following the confirmations of serious science", and which sought to affirm the principle of respect for the laws of nature and of "a conscious and ethically responsible paternity".<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.zenit.org/article-23333?l=english |title=''L'Osservatore'': Paul VI Never Looked Back: Vatican Paper Remembers "Humanae Vitae", 25 July 2008 |access-date=28 July 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080727164454/http://www.zenit.org/article-23333?l=english |archive-date=27 July 2008 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

=== Padre Pio ===
In his last letter to Pope Paul VI, Christian mystic and canonized saint [[Padre Pio]] called {{lang|la|Humanae vitae}} "clear and decisive words".<ref>{{cite web | url=https://beyondthesestonewalls.com/blog/gordon-macrae/padre-pios-letter-pope-paul-vi-humanae-vitae | title=Padre Pio's letter to Pope Paul VI on Humanae Vitae }}</ref>