Fifty years after the publication of Humanae vitae, the Vatican's official publishing house has released an important book on the history of the encyclical. The author of the almost 300-page book—titled La nascita di un'enciclica. Humanae Vitae alla luce degli Archivi Vaticani (“Birth of an encyclical. Humanae vitae in the light of the Vatican Archives”)—is Gilfredo Marengo, the Italian monsignor who chairs the special commission created by Pope Francis for the study of the newly available Vatican archives. Pierangelo Sequeri, president of the John Paul II Institute and one of the most brilliant Italian theologians in the past fifty years, wrote the preface.
The book has two parts. The first reconstructs the history of the Holy See's involvement with the issue of contraception between 1963 and 1968, the year Humane vitae was published. The second part is a selection of original documents from the Vatican archives made available to the special commission.
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