Catholic Medical Quarterly Volume 62(4) November 2012
In this issue
2013
marks 45 years since the promulgation of Humanae Vitae.
So we decided to use this edition of the CMQ to discuss some of
the issues that arise from Humanae Vitae. When
published, Humanae Vitae was a controversial and
prophetic document, written by a man of great faith. He pleaded
for the science underneath HV to be developed. We see that in 45
years, Natural Family Planning has developed enormously, is
effective and acceptable to many couples. Sadly we see too that
contraception has led to many problems, including population
decline in Western Countries, which now rely upon immigration,
as well as very high rates of divorce, illegitimacy and
other societal catastrophes. We fully recognise that many have
struggled with Humanae Vitae and its message. But we
also believe that, 45 years on, Humanae Vitae is more
clearly evidence based than it was in 1967 and we hope that this
issue of the CMQ illustrates some of that.
![Married couple](pics/married%20couple.jpg)
We promise more for future editions. But as we enter 2013, we cannot express this better than St Padre Pio, who wrote to Pope Paul VI in 1968, just before he died.
So we publish his last letter to Paul VI in this journal.
Other articles related to Humanae Vitae in this issue are:-
- The Catholic Church and Artificial Birth Control - Pravin Thevathasan
- Dr John Billings - Greg and Aghi Clovis
- Discussing Natural Family Planning - Adrian Treloar
- Is religion bad for Natural Family Planning? - Adrian Treloar
- Natural fertility regulation - Dr Helen Davies
- NaProTechnology: A medical, pro-life approach to infertility and miscarriage - Dr Anne Carus.
- The infallible teaching of Humanae Vitae - Fr Thomas Crean O.P
- Humanae Vitae: a legacy - Pia Matthews