Humanae Vitae: The Foretelling of Infidelity

Does not Pope St. Paul VI’s encyclical, Humanae Vitae, foresee a correlation between the use of artificial birth control and an increase in marital infidelity?  And, does this not by extension, advance a greater infidelity to the moral teachings of the Church – subverting the deposit of faith and undermining the teaching authority of the Church (Magisterium)?

From the beginning, the encyclical asserts, married persons are the free and responsible collaborators of God the Creator, and that the transmitting of human life is a most serious duty:

1. The most serious duty of transmitting human life, for which married persons are the free and responsible collaborators of God the Creator, has always been a source of great joys to them, even if sometimes accompanied by not a few difficulties and by distress.[1]

And, this most serious duty has – a purpose, or end, proper to it:

11. These acts, by which husband and wife are united in chaste intimacy, and by means of which human life is transmitted, are, as the council recalled, “noble and worthy” (cf. Pastoral constitution Gaudium et Spes, no. 49), and they do not cease to be lawful if, for causes independent of the will of husband and wife, they are foreseen to be infecund, since they always remain ordained towards expressing and consolidating their union. In fact, as experience bears witness, not every conjugal act is followed by a new life. God has wisely disposed natural laws and rhythms of fecundity which, of themselves, cause a separation in the succession of births. Nonetheless the Church, calling men back to the observance of the norms of the natural law, as interpreted by its constant doctrine, teaches that each and every marriage act (quilibet matrimonii usus) must remain open to the transmission of life (cf. Pius XI, encyc. Casti Connubii, in AAS XXII (1930), p. 560; Pius XII, in AAS XLIII (1951), p. 843).[2]

4.The Church has always taught the intrinsic evil of contraception, that is, of every marital act intentionally rendered unfruitful. This teaching is to be held as definitive and irreformable. Contraception is gravely opposed to marital chastity; it is contrary to the good of the transmission of life (the procreative aspect of matrimony), and to the reciprocal self-giving of the spouses (the unitive aspect of matrimony); it harms true love and denies the sovereign role of God in the transmission of human life.[3]

Here one can see, the Sacrament of Marriage, as well as the conjugal act, have been ordained by God – through which husband and wife are united in chaste intimacy (unitive), while remaining committed and open to the transmission of life (procreative):

12. That teaching, often set forth by the magisterium, is founded upon the inseparable connection, willed by God and unable to be broken by man on hisown initiative, between the two meanings of the conjugal act: the unitive meaning and the procreative meaning. Indeed, by its intimate structure, the conjugal act, while most closely uniting husband and wife, capacitates them for the generation of new lives, according to laws inscribed in the very being of man and of woman. By safeguarding both these essential aspects, the unitive and the procreative, the conjugal act preserves in its fullness the sense of true mutual love and its ordination towards man’s most high calling to parenthood. We believe that the men of our day are particularly capable of seizing the deeply reasonable and human character of this fundamental principle.[4]

This being true, it becomes clear that any means undertaken which is contrary to the unitive or procreative aspects of the conjugal act – that which intentionally inhibits or prevents it from accomplishing its proper end – is an offense against the law of God and of nature, and those who indulge in such are branded with the guilt of a grave sin:

56. Since, therefore, openly departing from the uninterrupted Christian tradition some recently have judged it possible solemnly to declare another doctrine regarding this question, the Catholic Church, to whom God has entrusted the defense of the integrity and purity of morals, standing erect in the midst of the moral ruin which surrounds her, in order that she may preserve the chastity of the nuptial union from being defiled by this foul stain, raises her voice in token of her divine ambassadorship and through Our mouth proclaims anew: any use whatsoever of matrimony exercised in such a way that the act is deliberately frustrated in its natural power to generate life is an offense against the law of God and of nature, and those who indulge in such are branded with the guilt of a grave sin.[5]

Therefore, Pope St. Paul VI, foretells the grave consequences of employing methods of artificial birth control in paragraph 17:

17. Upright men can even better convince themselves of the solid grounds on which the teaching of the Church in this field is based, if they care to reflect upon the consequences of methods of artificial birth control. Let them consider, first of all, how wide and easy a road would thus be opened up towards conjugal infidelity and the general lowering of morality. Not much experience is needed in order to know human weakness, and to understand that men — especially the young, who are so vulnerable on this point — haveneed of encouragement to be faithful to the moral law, so that they must not be offered some easy means of eluding its observance. It is also to be feared that the man, growing used to the employment of anticonceptive practices, may finally lose respect for the woman and, no longer caring for her physical and psychological equilibrium, may come to the point of considering her as a mere instrument of selfish enjoyment, and no longer as his respected and beloved companion.

Let it be considered also that a dangerous weapon would thus be placed in the hands of those public authorities who take no heed of moral exigencies. Who could blame a government for applying to the solution of the problems of the community those means acknowledged to be licit for married couples in the solution of a family problem? Who will stop rulers from favoring, from even imposing upon their peoples, if they were to consider it necessary, the method of contraception which they judge to be most efficacious? In such a way men, wishing to avoid individual, family, or social difficulties encountered in the observance of the divine law, would reach the point of placing at the mercy of the intervention of public authorities the most personal and most reserved sector of conjugal intimacy.

Consequently, if the mission of generating life is not to be exposed to the arbitrary will of men, one must necessarily recognize unsurmountable limits to the possibility of man’s domination over his own body and its functions; limits which no man, whether a private individual or one invested with authority, may licitly surpass. And such limits cannot be determined other- wise than by the respect due to the integrity of the human organism and its functions, according to the principles recalled earlier, and also according to the correct understanding of the “principle of totality” illustrated by our predecessor Pope Pius XII (cf. AAS XLV (1953), pp. 674-675; AAS XLVIII (1956), pp. 461-462).

First, Pope St. Paul VI asserts, that if the Church were to embrace artificial means of birth control (contraception) – a position indefensible and contrary to the moral teachings of the Church – this will surely lead to the lowering of moral standards and an increase in marital infidelity. Secondly, he asserts, that to offer an easy means of eluding the observance of the moral law, will do little to encourage the young to understand, internalize, and remain faithful, to the truths of the moral law.

Rather, this grave matter paves the way toward infidelity to one’s spouse, through the rapid objectification of the other. Husband, or wife, now becomes an instrument to be used for one’s self enjoyment – no longer does he, or she, seek the true good and dignity of the other. This in turn, fosters a lack of respect for one’s spouse – toward the end, that husband, or wife, no longer holds dear the indissolubility of the sacramental vow each made to the other in the Sacrament of Marriage.

How could this not lead to a loss of humility on the part of the creature, and rupture the relationship between creature and Creator? The result is the age-old attempt to usurp the role of God – man’s feeble attempt to become the master of his own destiny. Ushering in, an ever-declining set of moral standards, because misled human beings perceive themselves as autonomous arbiters of what is moral and true.

And, lastly, by extension, Pope St. Paul VI calls all of mankind to consider the dangerous weapon (contraception) is – that which can be placed in the hands of those public authorities who take no heed of moral exigencies. What government officials could impose on its peoples, a method of contraception – they judge to be most efficacious – above and beyond God’s Truth and the teachings of His Church.

Clearly, one can see that Pope St. Paul VI’s predictions have materialized in modern day society – to the detriment of souls and the debasement of society itself. And, Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen elucidates this within his book, Moods and Truths:

…[M]odern law, modern in the sense that it has broken with Christian tradition, takes it stand beneath the Cross, and who is there who is not already familiar with its taunts and pleadings:

Come down from your belief in the law of eternal justice! Come down from your belief in hell. Come down from your belief that the laws of Christ are more sound than the laws of State! Come down from your belief in the law of mortification, for who is there in the pagan world who wants your penance and your suffering? Look to the sorry end it has brought you now! Come down from your Cross, and we will believe!

…Come down from your belief in the sanctity of marriage! Come down from your belief in virginity and celibacy! Come down from your age-long opposition to divorce. Come down from your opposition to sex, when all the world is mad about it! Come down from your opposition to birth control! Can you not see that the acids of modernity have eaten away your age-old morality? Come down from the Cross, and we will believe.

…It is esy to step from great heights when the world scorns, but it is the sign of a martyr to die for an ideal. It is easy to come down and follow the world, but it is nobler to remain suspended and draw the world to oneself. It is human to come down, but it is divine to hang there.

But will there never be a reconciliation between the world and the Church? Must the one always be hanging on the Cross in apparent defeat, and the other walking the earth in apparent victory? Ah, there is the possibility of a reconciliation, and it resides in the words of forgiveness pronounced the first time by Our Blessed Lord on the Cross, and now repeated for the thousandth time by the Church on its Cross.

…“Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.”[6]

[1] Catholic Church. 1968. Of Human Life = Humanae Vitae. Boston, MA: Pauline Books & Media., pg. 1 (hereafter cited as Humanae).

[2] Ibid., pg. 5-6.

[3] Pontifical Council For The Family, Vademecum For Confessors Concerning Some Aspects of the Morality of Marriage Life, The Holy See, accessed August 12, 2025, https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/family/documents/rc_pc_family_doc_12021997_vademecum_en.html

[4] Ibid., pg. 6.

[5] Pius XI, Casti Connubi [On Christian Marriage] The Holy See, accessed August 12, 2025, https://www.vatican.va/content/pius-xi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xi_enc_19301231_casti-connubii.html

[6] Fulton J. Sheen, Moods and Truths (New York: Century, 1932), pg. 213-216.