John Paul II on Humanae Vitae and the Priority of Ethics over Technology
Abstract
We examine how John Paul II’s lifelong work on the issues surrounding family and human life as expressed in Pope Paul VI’s Humanae Vitae (1968) are an exemplification of his principles for cultural renewal as stated in Redemptor Hominis (1979). The triad of principles, the primacy of persons over things, the priority of ethics over technology, and the superiority of spirit over matter provide a set of interlocking principles for discerning the true progress of modern culture. Contrary to the dominant view that artificial contraception represents an opportunity for great progress for women and for society, we argue that the ambivalent character of modern technology as established by Yves René Simon and Clive Staples Lewis points to a large downside of artificial contraception, namely, a real opportunity for the degradation of the marriage bond and the full flourishing of the human person. The substitution of technology as a way to regulate birth for personal choice and habit or virtue inverts the principle of ethics over technology and opens the door for the manipulation of women as predicted by Pope Paul VI which is a clear failure to place the primacy of the person over things. The fundamental error lies in the materialistic philosophy of life which refuses to acknowledge the superiority of spirit over matter. The battle over the issues at the heart of Humane Vitae constitutes a battle over the ultimate meaning of human existence as theistic or anti-theistic, Gospel or anti-Gospel, and thus it will always stand as a “sign of contradiction.”
Keywords
Pope John Paul II; Pope Paul VI; ethics; Humanae Vitae; NFP; artificial contraception; technology; Redemptor Hominis; C. S. Lewis; Y. R. Simon; Sign of Contradiction
References
Aeschliman, Michael D. The Restitution of Man: C. S. Lewis and the Case against Scientism. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1983.
Augustine. “On the Spirit and the Letter.” In Basic Writings of St Augustine, edited by Whitney J. Oates, 461–521. New York: Random House, 1948.
Augustine. The Confessions. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2012.
Brown, Peter. Augustine of Hippo: A Biography. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1969.
Crosby, John. “The Personalism of John Paul II as the Basis of His Approach to Teaching of Humanae Vitae.” In Why Humance Vitae Was Right. Città Nuova Editrice, 1989.
Descartes, Rene. Discourse on Method. Translated by Donald A. Cress. Indianapolis: Hackett, 1985.
Grygiel, Lumiła, Stanisław Grygiel, and Przemysław Kwiatkowski (Eds.). Belleza e spiritualità dell’amore coniugale. Siena: Edizione Cantagalli, 2009.
Hilgers, Thomas, W. MD. The NaProTechnology Revolution: Unleashing the Power in a Woman’s Cycle. New York: Beaufort Books, 2010.
Hittinger, John. Liberty, Wisdom, and Grace: Thomism and Democratic Political Theory. Applications of Political Theory. Lanham: Lexington Books, 2002.
Hittinger, John P. “Meekness, Piety and Reconciliation.” Doctor Communis Le beatitudini, programmma di Cristo per l’evangelizzazione in ogni tempo e cultura / The Beatitudes, Christ’s Programme for Evangelisation for all Time and for Every Culture (2015).
Hittinger, John P. “Ethos, Person and Spirit—Principles of Social and Cultural Renewal.” Człowiek w Kulturze: Pismo Poświęcone Filozofii i Kulturze 26 (2016): 161–172.
Hittinger, John P. “The Springs of Religious Freedom: Conscience and the Search for Truth.” Journal of Disciplinary Studies 29.1/2 (2017): 4–24.
Hittinger, John P. “On the Catholic Audience of Leo Strauss.” Leo Strauss and His Catholic Readers, edited by Geoffrey M. Vaughn, 167–189. Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 2018.
Hittinger, John P. “Alienation.” In New Catholic Encyclopedia Supplement 2012–2013, edited by Robert Fastiggi, 55–56. Vol. 1. Washington, D.C.: Gale Cengage Learning, 2013.
John Paul II, and Michael Waldstein. Man and Woman He Created Them: A Theology of the Body. Boston: Pauline Books & Media, 2006.
John Paul II and Michael Miller. The Encyclicals of John Paul II. Huntington, IN: Our Sunday Visitor, 1996.
John Paul II and Vittorio Messori. Crossing the Threshold of Hope. New York: Knopf, 1994.
John Paul II. Memory and Identity: Conversations at the Dawn of a Millennium. New York: Rizzoli, 2005.
John Paul II. Love and Responsibility (Rev. ed.). San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1981.
John Paul II. The Jeweler’s Shop: A Meditation on the Sacrament of Matrimony Passing on Occasion into a Drama. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1992.
John Paul II. Person and Community: Selected Essays. Catholic Thought from Lublin. New York: Peter Lang, 1993.
John Paul II. Familiaris Consortio: The Role of the Christian Family in the Modern World. Boston: Daughters of St. Paul, 1981.
John Paul II. Post-synodal Apostolic Exhortation of His Holiness Pope John Paul II on Reconciliation and Penance in the Mission of the Church Today: Reconciliatio et Paenitentia. Boston: Pauline Books & Media, 1984.
John Paul II. The Holy Spirit in the Life of the Church and the World: Dominum et Vivificantem: Encyclical Letter of John Paul II. Boston: Pauline Books & Media, 1986.
Kennington, Richard. “Descartes and the Mastery of Nature,” in Organism, Medicine, and Metaphysics, edited by S. F. Spicker. Dordrecht, Holland: D. Reidel, 1978, 201–223. Reprinted in Richard Kenningon, Modern Origins, edited by Frank Hunt and Pamela Krauss, 198–203. Lexington Books, 2004.
Kupczak, Jarosaw. Gift and Communion: John Paul II’s Theology of the Body. Washington, D.C.: Catholic University Press, 2014.
Lewis, C. S. The Abolition of Man. New York: Macmillan, 1947.
Miller, J. Michael. The Encyclicals of John Paul II. Huntington, IN: Our Sunday Visitor, 1979.
Paul VI. On the Development of Peoples. Washington D.C.: U.S. Catholic Bishops, 1967.
Paul VI. On Human Life in Our Day. Washington D.C.: U.S. Catholic Bishops, 1968.
Renkiewicz, Frank. For God, Country and Polonia: One Hundred Years of Orchard Lake Schools. Center for Polish Studies and Culture: Orchard Lake, MI, 1985.
Simon, Yves R. Philosophy of Democratic Government. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1951.
Simon, Yves R. The Tradition of Natural Law. New York: Fordham University Press, 1967.
Simon, Yves R. The Definition of Moral Virtue, edited by Vukan Kuic. New York: Fordham University Press, 1986.
Simon, Yves R. Practical Knowledge, edited by Robert Mulvaney. New York: Fordham University Press, 1991.
Smith, Janet E. Why Humanae Vitae Was Right: A Reader. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1993.
Swastek, Joseph. The Formative Years of the Polish Seminary in the United States. Center for Polish Studies and Culture: Orchard Lake, MI, 1985.
Taylor, Charles. Hegel and Modern Society. Modern European Philosophy. Cambridge, UK, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1979.
Weigel, George. Witness to Hope: The Biography of Pope John Paul II Harper Perennial, 2004
Wojtyla, Karol. “Crisis in Morality.” In Crisis in Morality: The Vatican Speaks Out, 1–8. Washington, D.C.: United States Catholic Conference, 1969.
Wojtyła, Karol. “The Family as a Community of Persons.” Translated by Theresa Sandok, OSM. Person and Community: Selected Essays, edited by Theresa Sandok, OSM. Vol. 4. Catholic Thought from Lublin, 315–327. New York: Peter Lang, 1993.
Wojtyła, Karol. “The Teaching of the Encyclical Humanae Vitae on Love: An Analysis of the Text.” Translated by Theresa Sandok, OSM. Person and Community: Selected Essays, edited by Theresa Sandok, OSM. Vol. 4. Catholic Thought from Lublin, 301–314. New York: Peter Lang, 1993.
Wojtyła, Karol. “Participation or Alienation?” Translated by Theresa Sandok, OSM. Person and Community: Selected Essays, edited by Theresa Sandok, OSM. Vol. 4. Catholic Thought from Lublin, 197–207. New York: Peter Lang, 1993.
Wojtyła, Karol. “Parenthood as a Community of Persons.” Translated by Theresa Sandok, OSM. Person and Community: Selected Essays, edited by Theresa Sandok, OSM. Vol. 4. Catholic Thought from Lublin, 329–342. New York: Peter Lang, 1993.
Wojtyła, Karol. Fruitful and Responsible Love. New York: Seabury Press, 1979.
Wojtyła, Karol. Sign of Contradiction. New York: Seabury, 1980.
Wojtyła, Karol. Sources of Renewal: The Implementation of the Second Vatican Council. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1980.
University of St Thomas, Houston United States
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0660-9653
The Copyright Owners of the submitted texts grant the Reader the right to use the pdf documents under the provisions of the Creative Commons 4.0 International License: Attribution-Share-Alike (CC BY-SA). The user can copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose.
1. License
The University of Silesia Press provides immediate open access to journal’s content under the Creative Commons BY-SA 4.0 license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Authors who publish with this journal retain all copyrights and agree to the terms of the above-mentioned CC BY-SA 4.0 license.
2. Author’s Warranties
The author warrants that the article is original, written by stated author/s, has not been published before, contains no unlawful statements, does not infringe the rights of others, is subject to copyright that is vested exclusively in the author and free of any third party rights, and that any necessary written permissions to quote from other sources have been obtained by the author/s.
If the article contains illustrative material (drawings, photos, graphs, maps), the author declares that the said works are of his authorship, they do not infringe the rights of the third party (including personal rights, i.a. the authorization to reproduce physical likeness) and the author holds exclusive proprietary copyrights. The author publishes the above works as part of the article under the licence "Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International".
ATTENTION! When the legal situation of the illustrative material has not been determined and the necessary consent has not been granted by the proprietary copyrights holders, the submitted material will not be accepted for editorial process. At the same time the author takes full responsibility for providing false data (this also regards covering the costs incurred by the University of Silesia Press and financial claims of the third party).
3. User Rights
Under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license, the users are free to share (copy, distribute and transmit the contribution) and adapt (remix, transform, and build upon the material) the article for any purpose, provided they attribute the contribution in the manner specified by the author or licensor.
4. Co-Authorship
If the article was prepared jointly with other authors, the signatory of this form warrants that he/she has been authorized by all co-authors to sign this agreement on their behalf, and agrees to inform his/her co-authors of the terms of this agreement.
I hereby declare that in the event of withdrawal of the text from the publishing process or submitting it to another publisher without agreement from the editorial office, I agree to cover all costs incurred by the University of Silesia in connection with my application.