The Feast of the Immaculate Conception is the perfect day to remember and
celebrate Humanae Vitae which will be 50 years old next summer. Most readers probably know I'm referring to Pope Paul's encyclical on the sanctity of human life and marriage that reiterated the Catholic doctrine that a couple, in exercising their marital privilege, must never attack the act by deliberately rendering it sterile. The gift God gave married couples in "knowing" each other and becoming almost literally "one flesh" must respect both of God's purposes -- to unite the couple in love and to be open to the blessing of a child to the union if it be God's will.
In Humanae Vitae Pope Paul VI warned of the dangers of setting aside God's purpose for married love and all the horrors he described have come to pass: abortion, loss of respect for women, government coercion, etc.
As we honor Mary today, I want to share a bit from a talk by Malcolm Muggeridge on Humane Vitae which he gave in 1979. Even then, the disasters of contraception already loomed clearly on the horizon:
