Today, Pope Francis beatified Pope Paul VI, who served the Catholic Church as the bishop of Rome 1963-1978. (â??Beatificationâ? is one step below being canonized a saint.) Paul VI had a jam-packed papacy, including finishing the Second Vatican Council, traveling to all six inhabited continents (a first for popes), and historic ecumenical break-throughs. But today heâ??s probably most remembered for his 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae, which confirmed the Catholic Churchâ??s long-standing teaching against contraception, abortion, and sterilization.
Outside of the Catholic Church (and, unfortunately, by a large number of people within the Church as well), the teaching of Humanae Vitae is considered absurd, if not gravely immoral and even dangerous for the world. Womenâ??s liberation, population control, the war on poverty â?? donâ??t all of these causes need contraception, abortion, and sterilization?
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