One of the most interesting things about Pope Francis’ pontificate is that there always seems to be a news story about what he said on the flight back from wherever he was to Rome.
On the return from his Asia trip to Sri Lanka and the Philippines, the news story is his comment that Catholics don’t need to “breed like rabbits” and should be responsible parents. (Full transcript of his press conference here) This is a follow-up to his comment when he was in Manila affirming the Catholic Church’s view against contraception and support for his predecessor Blessed Pope Paul VI’s encyclical Humanae Vitae.
Francis was just backing up Paul VI
While the media was reacting to this like it was new information, Francis was really just confirming something that has been Church teaching for a long time and is even outlined in Humanae Vitae:
Responsible Parenthood
10. Married love, therefore, requires of husband and wife the full awareness of their obligations in the matter of responsible parenthood, which today, rightly enough, is much insisted upon, but which at the same time should be rightly understood. Thus, we do well to consider responsible parenthood in the light of its varied legitimate and interrelated aspects.
With regard to the biological processes, responsible parenthood means an awareness of, and respect for, their proper functions. In the procreative faculty the human mind discerns biological laws that apply to the human person. (9)
With regard to man’s innate drives and emotions, responsible parenthood means that man’s reason and will must exert control over them.
With regard to physical, economic, psychological and social conditions, responsible parenthood is exercised by those who prudently and generously decide to have more children, and by those who, for serious reasons and with due respect to moral precepts, decide not to have additional children for either a certain or an indefinite period of time.
Responsible parenthood, as we use the term here, has one further essential aspect of paramount importance. It concerns the objective moral order which was established by God, and of which a right conscience is the true interpreter. In a word, the exercise of responsible parenthood requires that husband and wife, keeping a right order of priorities, recognize their own duties toward God, themselves, their families and human society.
From this it follows that they are not free to act as they choose in the service of transmitting life, as if it were wholly up to them to decide what is the right course to follow. On the contrary, they are bound to ensure that what they do corresponds to the will of God the Creator. The very nature of marriage and its use makes His will clear, while the constant teaching of the Church spells it out. (10)
Positives over negatives
However, Pope Francis’ comments are likely to have a more positive impact than those of Blessed Pope Paul VI because he emphasized the positive of allowing parents to practice responsibility and not entering into having children blindly while still being open to life. This will go over better with the wider public than the previous message that was being aired — at least in the media — that faithful Catholics should avoid contraception.
It’s a message that Catholics who aren’t sure they can handle a large family are able to swallow. At the same time with his affirmation of Humanae Vitae, Pope Francis is telling traditional Catholics that Church teaching is not changing. It’s a tight balancing act but one that Pope Francis shows he is able to walk.
It will be interesting to see what the positive reactions are from the public. Right now they appear to be a bit mixed.
Reaching Out to the Peripheries 