Brief Introduction to Why Humanae Vitae is Still Right

Janet Smith’s new book, Why Humanae Vitae is Still Right (Ignatius Press, 2018), delivers indisputable evidence that Humanae Vitae was never wrong. Pope Paul VI’s encyclical was right fifty years ago. It is still right today.

Fifty years have passed since the bombshell of Humanae Vitae was dropped on the world. The document declared that the Catholic Church was opposed to artificial contraception and offered a handbook for faithful spouses on the meaning of conjugal relations. Humanae Vitae has since been condemned by popular culture and ridiculed by anti-life activists.

Perhaps one of the most misunderstood documents in Church history, Humanae Vitae nevertheless has been correct in its teachings on everything from marriage to birth control. Pope Paul VI was unfortunately right when he predicted the dissolution of the family, the twisted meaning of sex, and the impact of hormones on women and relationships when he wrote Humanae Vitae.

Professor Janet E. Smith, Ph.D. compiled Why Humane Vitae is Still Right to deliver a deeper understanding of the prophetic document from the minds of the most respected experts today. In addition to essays by Dr. Smith herself, the book features contributions by other renowned experts and scholars such as Mary Eberstadt (author of the best-selling Adam and Eve after the Pill), George Weigel, Therese Scarpelli Corey, Michael Waldstein, Christopher West, Obianuju Ekeocha (author of the best-selling Target Africa), Maria Fedoryka, Deborah Savage, Derek Doroski, Angela LaFranchi, William Newton, Joseph Atkinson, Michele M. Schumacher, and Peter Colosi.

A sequel to Smith’s classic Why Humanae Vitae Was Right, this new volume shows how the ethical, theological, spiritual and sociological case for Paul VI’s controversial document remains strong. In fact, it shows how Humanae Vitae is even stronger today, following Pope John Paul II’s Theology of the Body and the problems triggered by the sexual revolution.

Why Humanae Vita is Still Right includes the Krakow Document, which was composed under the supervision of Cardinal Karol Wojtyla (later, Pope John Paul II) and which influenced Humanae Vitae. George Weigel wonders in his essay if Humanae Vitae may have been better received if it adhered more closely to the Krakow Document.

My Personal Take on Why Humanae Vitae is Still Right

As a long-time fan of Dr. Janet E. Smith, I had high expectations for this book and was not the least disappointed. However, some of the essays were more appealing to me than others, but all were thought-provoking, well-researched, and very relevant.

In her essay, “Rethinking Humane Vitae” Dr. Deborah Savage reminisces on the changes that took place in her life and the culture from high school to college. As a high school student in the late 60’s, she was completely unaware that contraception even existed, let alone that the Pill had been invented and was already being prescribed. Like many young people during that era, she viewed the cultural transformation as “liberating.” However, she now sees the events of that time as “the beginning of a new slavery.” She refers to Humanae Vitae as a “prophetic document” based upon her lived experience and that of the other young women of her time.

Savage was born in San Francisco and attended college in 1970, an hour’s drive from the famous Haight-Ashbury district, ground zero for the free-love movement. She has no recollection of ever hearing about Humanae Vitae from church or the Newman Center. She relates how her female college classmates used the Pill and became depressed and distraught after one night stands. She recalls one date she had with a young man who insisted they have sex. When she turned him down, he said, “Well, I would like to hear your reason, but it had better be a good one.”

Christopher West writes a powerful essay, entitled “Come and Become One Who Sees: Humanae Vitae, Theology of the Body, and The Triumph of the Immaculate Heart” which makes fascinating connections between Fatima, Marx, and the Theology of the Body. His essay also addresses the differences between contraception and Natural Family Planning.

Dr. Janet E. Smith contributes two strong essays. “Why Natural Sex is Best” uses the thought of Thomas Aquinas and Martin Luther to show how the sexual act is central to the morality of the sexual act. In her second essay, “The Sensum Fidelium and Humane Vitae” she explains precisely what the sensum fidelium (sense of the faithful) is and how it is used to properly determine which teachings are compatible with the faith.

Why Humanae Vitas is Still Right includes other vital essay topics such as: how contraception takes the conjugal act from one of self-giving to one of selfishness and objectification of spouses, a comparison of NFP—based reproductive technology to IVF, and how Humane Vitae predicted the #MeToo Movement fifty years before it happened.

Dr. Janet E. Smith’s Why Humanae Vitae is Still Right is a beautiful reference volume for parish, diocesan, seminarian, and college libraries. It also makes a useful reference for home libraries. Why Humanae Vitae is Still Right is a must-read for: priests, newly engaged and married couples, marriage counselors, NFP teachers, and all those who are active in engaged couples encounter and the marriage ministry.

Why Humanae Vitae is Still Right helps the reader understand that self-gift is at the very heart of why Pope Paul VI wrote what he did as the pope and shepherd of the Catholic Church.

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