Bishop of Portsmouth Phillip Egan came out in support of the around 500 priests who signed a letter defending the teaching of Humanae Vitae on human sexuality and its specific judgement that artificial contraception is “absolutely excluded” and “intrinsically wrong”.
In a tweet on Father’s Day, Bishop Egan said he thanked and praised all those who signed the “amazingly prophetic document”. He said: “It foresaw how a redefinition of sex would lead to the malaise our society now faces.”
The letter, headed “We affirm Humanae Vitae’s noble vision”, is timed to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the release of Paul VI’s encyclical in 1968 and was sent out to priests across the UK.
The encyclical affirmed “in harmony with the Church’s traditional teaching, the purity and beauty of the spousal act, always open to procreation and always unitive”.
The signatories also argue that Humanae Vitae was prophetic. “Humanae Vitae predicted that if artificial contraception became widespread and commonly accepted by society then we would lose our proper understanding of marriage, the family, the dignity of the child and of women, and even a proper appreciation of our bodies and the gift of male and female,” they write. They acknowledge that many people at the time of publication rejected its message and warnings, finding them “difficult to accept and challenging to proclaim”.
However they argue that “Fifty years later, so much has unfolded in our society that has been to the detriment of human life and love”, so that “Many have come to appreciate again the wisdom of the Church’s teaching”.
Affirming the “noble vision of procreative love” that Humanae Vitae teaches and that “the Church has always taught”, the signatories advocate “discovering anew” the encyclical’s message, “not only in fidelity to the Gospel, but as a key to the healing and true development of our society”.
The original signatories named in letter are: Fr Robert Farrell, Fr Timothy Finigan, Fr David Marsden, Fr Francis Marsden, Fr John Saward, Fr David Palmer, Fr Andrew Pinsent, Mgr Gordon Read, Canon Luiz Ruscillo, and Fr Michael Woodgate.
None of these original signatories were willing to claim responsibility for creating and circulating the letter and replies were asked to be sent to an unknown residential address. Some of the priests who did sign told The Tablet they did so “because I agree with it”, “It’s a good thing to sign on the anniversary” and “because of medical ethics, the consequences are much wider now than they were then”.
The Catholic Herald, who printed the letter in full, said the unnamed organisers “noted that the sheer number of signatories represents a significant shift in favour of the encyclical’s teachings”, quoting them as saying: “In 1968 very few priests spoke out confidently regarding this teaching and many dissented.”
There are around 5,200 priests in England and Wales and more than 700 in Scotland.
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