Wednesday 25 July was the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of Humanae Vitae, Pope Paul VI’s hotly anticipated encyclical on birth control. Today The Tablet republishes in full its editorial of 3 August 1968, which led to it being banned in some parishes (along with The Catholic Herald, which took a similar line) and warmly applauded in others. It is as true now as it was then.

The editor, the late Tom Burns, opened by quoting the title of the most celebrated text from the Second Vatican Council, the pastoral constitution Gaudium et Spes, which began: “The joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the people of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted, these are the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the followers of Christ …”