Editing Humanae vitae (section)

===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>