Responsible Parenthood According to Pope Paul VI in the Contemporary Moral Teaching of the Church

Abstract

A range of issues associated with responsible parenthood and presented in Pope Paul VI’s encyclical letter Humanae vitae seems to be an interesting proposal for proclaiming good news about marriage and family to contemporary people. With regard to man's innate drives and emotions, responsible parenthood means that man's reason and will must exert control over them. However, marriage and conjugal love are by their nature ordained not only toward the procreation, but also education of children. This, in turn, is not limited only to life on earth, but also to eternity. Focusing on intrinsic relationship between marital act and procreation can be used in a dialogue with infertile married people. However, it has to be presented in a comprehensible way for young people by resorting to personalistic anthropology and a range of branches of science devoted to mankind so that they could understand that in the procreative faculty the human mind discerns biological laws that apply to the human person. Only then will the teaching of the Church about responsible parenthood become a powerful tool in new evangelization.