After May 1968 let us celebrate July 1968, Paul VI’s encyclical Humanae Vitae (July 25, 1968), by which he glorified the natural transmission of human life, rejecting contraception.
Let the saviors of May '68 protest against the dictatorship of the US & Brussels
We had the May '68 celebrations again. Already for the fiftieth time. For many, it was a protest against the bourgeoisie and clericalism, to seek the emancipation of the citizen and a better world. For others, it was a break from the fundamental values of our society: to enjoy personal misconduct and vandalism, and to blame "structures" or "others". But right now we see the trampling down of both international law and the admirable Charter UN concerning the sovereignty of peoples. The media ensures that victims are portrayed as criminals and criminals as victims to encourage wars. Dozens of countries are disrupted and hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians who are being murdered for oil, raw materials, money or power. And all our knowledge, energy and money go to the arms industry. Russia must be fought as the biggest enemy while NATO - after the dissolution of the Warsaw pact already more than 25 years out of date! – builds up to become the biggest destruction machine of all time. We must get more combat planes, weapons and especially new nuclear weapons all in violation of our constitution. And the whole European Union runs along. What happened to all those revolutionaries from May '68 who should protest against the dictatorship of Washington and Brussels? We have lived through the dirty war of the West fighting against Syria, upsetting its harmonious living and its beautiful country, the cradle of civilization. That's enough!
Contraception, the greatest discovery of modern times?
People ought to refuse not only the current trend of inhuman geopolitics, but also the war on the family organized on a world scale. Great moral decadence has grown big from something small. Everyone knew it. Fifty years ago, contraception posed itself as the greatest discovery of modern times. The Bulgarian American chemist Carl Djerassi (1951) and especially the biologist Gregory Pincus (1957) became the “fathers of the pill”. It was not until much later that it was known that Flemish gynecologist from Turnhout, Nand Peeters, who had made the real breakthrough. For the first time in human history, in the conjugal act, the union and fertilization could be separated by chemical means. What an endless eulogy of the liberation of women, of the happiness of marriage, of the end of tense and old-fashioned moralist ideologies, they hailed it as the final solution to global overpopulation and especially the unprecedented (commercial!) success of the pharmaceutical industry. This industry provided information for textbooks distributed by physicians and governments on a large scale. Our scientists obediently joined their chorus, as did our highest ecclesiastical authorities. They provided the justifications. Against contraception, no objection seems to be made, neither from Biblical grounds, nor by the doctrine of the Church, no effort was put forward in theology, medicine, and human action. A negative word on contraception was unacceptable and Paul VI had to be fiercely opposed as a mad and asocial conservative. Thus, "safe contraception" would become a legacy, cherished like a “global heritage site” for both ecclesial and civil proponents of “political correctness.”
The myth of “safe contraception” has been turned
After half a century, not much remains to support the substance of this proverbial term. The myth of " safe contraception " is over. Actually more and more people are waking up from what they now see as contraceptive intoxication. According to the World Health Organization (WHO, 2005) estrogens and progestins in each "pill" are among the most carcinogenic substances known for humans and animals. Not a week goes by before another scientific study warns of dangerous side effects. Dr. Ellen Grant and her team (while she was chief researcher at the General Hospital of Massachusetts) knew the dramatic consequences way back in the ' 70s, while doing their research on the contraceptive pill globally. In the meantime, pharmaceutical companies continue to pay astronomical amounts to compensate women who are victims. And all this is only increasing. In fact, people knew from the beginning that something was wrong. Initially, no pharmaceutical company wanted to offer contraceptives. Originally it was against their ethical principles. When the American company GD Searle finally was bold enough to sell Enovid in 1960, it was the gate of the dam, but back then even the word contraception was scrupulously avoided. Organon introduced Lyndiol to the Dutch market in 1962 as a cure for "irregular menstrual cycles and menstrual pain". Anovlar was sold in Belgium two years later as a way to "let the ovaries rest in a therapeutic way"! Incredible ingenuity.
Contraception is fundamentally bad: physically, morally and humanly
It's time to take stock. With contraception, there is something fundamentally wrong physically, morally and humanly. Into the extremely delicate process of fertility, contraception comes in with radical chemical intervention. Is it possible to disturb something that deeply touches every moment of the life of every woman (and marriage), without physical or psychical consequences? And is it the job of doctors and pharmacists to make what is healthy sick? Moreover, the love of marriage exists in a total mutual gift of oneself. The doctrine of the Church has never taught anything else. Contraception prevents this total gift of self and constitutes an attack on the essence of marriage: We do not give ourselves completely; we do not completely receive each other. Finally, the dignity of a human act is to accept responsibility for one's actions. Contraception does not accept the inseparable link between union and fertility as the essence of the act of marriage. It is a rejection of responsibility for one's own actions. The break-up of this essential unit caused a snowball: a deluge of marriage dissolutions, a cascade of all sorts of superficial relationships without life or future, veterinary practices tampering with the beginning of human life, the rejection of the wealth of sexual differentiation (gender), abortion, euthanasia, etc. In an interview in a newspaper 25 years after Humanae Vitae the prof. Jan Grootaers (+2016) of the University of Leuven and the great expert of the Second Vatican Council, said that in the 1960s Cardinal K. Wojtyla (the future Pope John Paul II) was one of the few who studied the question of contraception. And this was right. Others who thought very well were Professor Jérôme Lejeune (+ 1994), a famous geneticist in Paris, who discovered the gene of Down syndrome, the courageous German dr.Siegfried Ernst (+ 2001), former president of the Lutheran Synod of Baden-Würtemberg. Unfortunately, Dr. Pierre Simon (+ 2008) knew very well what he could do with contraception. He has twice been Grand Master of the Freemason Lodge of France and for decades the principal adviser to family policy with much influence abroad. Mr. Simon saw contraception as the lever he needed for destroying traditional family values. After contraception, according to him, all the rest of the desired destruction would follow automatically: the dissolution of the traditional marriage, family, abortion, etc. This crisis that we have now is what he planned back in the ‘60s. That's exactly what Humanae Vitae predicted (# 17).
The message of Humanae Vitae is for all humanity and for all times.
In addition to a rejection of contraception, Humanae vitae was also a song of praise for life, an incentive to know more about human fertility and to enjoy it more consciously. To send huge spaceships to the moon and to calculate where and when they must land is a spectacular achievement. Why not pay more attention to the greatest miracle of life to know in a natural way the exact moment of conception? Although it brings nothing commercial, it is the most precious gift for daily life. As a matter of urgency, the last synod on the family (2014-5) as well as the next apostolic exhortation Amoris laetitia (Nos. 82 and 222) called for the rediscovery of Humanae vitae.
Interest in natural fertility was once a fight against the current thinking. In Belgium and the Netherlands, the method has acquired the brand name sensiplan® and is scientifically recognized. It has become even more effective than the pill. Is there anything more fascinating for a woman and a family than to know their own fertility, managing naturally and live consciously? Effective support on behalf of ecclesiastical authorities and Civil society could be one of the most important contributions to rebuilding a happy family life in a healthy society. Regular, happy and stable families are the solution to almost all the major social problems of today.
This year, we are awaiting the canonization of Pope Paul VI and celebrate his Encyclical Humanae Vitae 50 years ago. This encyclical was fiercely disputed, which was a fatal mistake. His message is valid for all men of all times, and his encyclical is worthy of being celebrated with a golden jubilee, even without ecclesial or civic endorsement.
P. Daniel Maes o.praem . - Deir Mar Yakub , Qara , Syrië - June 2018
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Article in Flemish: Contraceptie. Gouden Jubileum van een fatale vergissing.
Translation: David Johnson (Detailed Justification in these Flemish books:
https://www.deblauwetijger.com/product/daniel-maes-hoe-een-paus-gelijk-kreeg/; https://www.deblauwetijger.com/product/syrisch-oorlogsdagboek-i-en-ii-aanbieding/).
