Human Life is Sacred

by John O'Connell

    Thirty years ago Pope Paul VI issued his magnificent Encyclical Humanae Vitae, reaffirming the traditional teaching of the Roman Catholic Church prohibiting contraception. Humanae Vitae met a maelstrom of opposition and ridicule both from within and outside of the Church.  For the past thirty years the wise teaching of Humanae Vitae has been vigorously rejected and widely ignored.

    Looking back we can see the damage wrought by this rebellion against the Natural Law.  Once people severed the procreative and unitive ends of marital relations it unleashed a legion of evils that plague society and the Church.  The marriage bond weakened; non-marital sexual relations of every sort became tolerated (creating an epidemic of sexual disease); and the right to life was no longer considered inviolable.

    Human life is sacred because God created us in His "image and likeness."  Human life is sacred because God directly infuses a soul into each new human being.   Human life is sacred because we are called to be partakers in the Divine Nature through grace.

    Consequently, only God is the Master of human life. He has forbidden us to kill innocent human life.  He has reserved sexual relations to married couples.   And He has inextricably bound together the unitive and procreative ends of marital love.

    For centuries the influence of Christ and Catholic teaching has gradually waned in the West with murderous consequences in our times.  So often moderns think of themselves as living in sophisticated, enlightened times.  When in fact for all our scientific and technological knowledge--we live in a barbarous age.   The cultural moral capital built up by Christianity in the West over the centuries has been rapidly spent until now we live in a morally bankrupt society.

    As the gloom gathers about us, let us turn to Our Lady.  Those who love God will ever be able to discern the Star of the Sea.  She will guide us through the darkness of neo-paganism to the safe harbor of Christ. Stella Maris, ora pro nobis.

©Copyright 1998 Inter Mirifica