International Training Course - Working assembly. Theology of the Body and the concrete practice of Natural Family Planning
Saturday 5 September 13h to Sunday 6 September 13h in Warsaw
Plan
· Update of educational materials
The bishops expressed their support for the project in writing and sent representatives
Anthropological basis towards an educational process in responsible procreation Dr. Michele Barbato
Introduction
This symposium was organise to allow the meeting of people interested in one
way or another by the evangelization of marital intimacy:
- former students of the Institute John Paul II in Rome
- people who teach natural family planning,
- organizations acting
in the field of family ministry
This meeting aimed at
- enhance their knowledge: the former sudents of the Institute John Paul II on family planning, those persons teaching natural family planning for Theology of Body
- create links between these three categories of people
- develop initiatives to improve services for the provision of expertise in the dioceses and parishes, this last point warrants a special effort to make contact with the clergy (see below, the list of bishops who supported the project).
This event fits within the "Project Saint Benedict," partnership
between the Institute John Paul II in Rome and the
European Institute of Family Education. The project includes in particular:
- meetings of the type it in Warsaw, Milan (January 2010), Paris (January 2010), Barcelona (2010), Moscow and perhaps other cities to bring together people with language communities or geographical proximity
- the launch of training of people with dual expertise, knowledge and practice in the field of sexual abuse.
Meeting
In Warsaw met 98 people from Armenia (1), Belarus (1), Georgia (2), Latvia (11) Lithuania (16), Poland (31), Slovakia (19), Czech Republic (7)
and Ukraine (3) as well as France (2), Italy (2) and Switzerland (2).
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The meeting included two aspects:
- teaching in lectures followed by group work (language) to deepen understanding of teachings received:
- Rev. Prof. Livio Melina: The Prophecy of Humanae Vitae and the Truth concerning Spousal Love: Towards a Responsible Procreation
- Dr. Michele Barbato: Anthropological basis towards an educational process in responsible procreation
- Archbishop Henryk Hoser whose skill in the field of sexual and domestic family planning has been invaluable
- work groups to:
- make an inventory of cooperation between the various groups present: this cooperation needs to be developed
- identify goals
- develop the strategy to work towards the objectives
Projects
Four guidelines have been proposed for future activities:
- Jean-Marie Viannet Project: conjugal vocation and sacerdotal vocation: what we call "Jean-Marie Viannet Project". The project has two aspects:
- participation in the implementation of directives of the Congregation for Catholic Education namely "Guidelines for the training of seminarians on issues relating to marriage and family", March 19, 1995, pp. 24 (code 2101 -4), that Monsignor Livio Melina encouraged us to take as a benchmark for action. Our project includes :
- Drafting of a handbook containing the elements that lay people working in the area of family ministry can offer in the teaching of seminarians, the cited document inviting to avoid ad hoc interventions and focus on a holistic approach to develop issues on family life education within the ordinary
- training (qualification) of persons able to participate in courses in seminaries in the area of family ministry
- proposal "field work" for the seminarians in the area of family ministry
- proposal for these services to dioceses.
- All this program is to develop and validate with relevant persons, this is a first draft, not yet validated.
- Another aspect which we have not spoken at meetings, but has since been mentioned in various trade: in families it is necessary to develop a reflection on the family context conducive to the development of both domestic and priestly vocations and a more systematic teaching of the content documents of the magisterium as Familiaris Consortio seems essential.
- Accreditation of organisations distributing natural family planning: European Institute of Family Education has developed a grid to allow this type of approach, a proposed systematic approach to accreditation will be made to the European
- Mutual Aid between broadcasters of natural family planning, some being very structured and have trainers, others are beginners.
- Update of educational materials for better integration of theology of the body in teaching young people and with couples.
Conclusion
The first European meeting dedicated to the countries of Central Europe, was a frank success. We go out with a firm resolve
to work together between former sudents of the Institute John Paul II and the
member organizations of the European Institute of Family Education, to
participate in the provision in the greatest number possible dioceses skills
for coaching couples for marital sexuality fully adequate.
Acknowledgments
We thank all those who made this
possible. A special thought
goes to the Church in Need, which have had confidence in this project to serve
the family in Europe. We
thank Pawel and Aga Stasieńko
Eva Ślizien'kuczapska, sister Elzbieta Szwarc, bishops, especially
Archbishop Henryk Hoser. We also thank from our heart Monsignor Livio Melina
and Michele Barbato.
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Pawel et Aga Stasieńko |
Membres de l'IEEF |
Annexe
The bishops expressed their support for the project in writing and sent representatives
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Titre |
Prénom |
Nom |
Ville |
Pays |
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Archbishop |
Janis |
Pujats |
Riga |
Lettonie |
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Bishop |
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Liechtenstein |
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Archbishop |
Sigita |
Tamkevicius |
Vilinius |
Lituaniae |
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Archbishop |
Henryk |
Hoser |
Warszawa-Praga |
Poland |
hfhoser@gmail.com |
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Archbishop |
Jan |
Graubner |
Olomouc |
République tchèque |
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Bishop |
Vojtech |
Cikrle |
Brno |
République tchèque |
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Bishop |
Viliam |
Judek |
Nitra |
Slovakia |
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Bishop |
Milan |
Chautur |
Bratislava |
Slovakia |
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Bishop |
Rudolf |
Balaz |
Banska Bystrica |
Slovakia |
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Archbishop |
Jan |
Babjak |
Presov |
Slovakia |
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Monseigneur Professeur |
Frantisek |
Tondra |
Spisske podhradie |
Slovakia |
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Archbishop |
Robert |
Bezak |
Trnava |
Slovakia |
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Bishop |
Tomas |
Galis |
Zilinsky |
Slovakia |
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Archbishop |
Stanislav |
Zvolensky |
Bratislava |
Slovakia |
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Time table
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FRIDAY |
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18h30-19h30 |
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First session of registration and welcome of participants by the secretariat |
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SATURDAY |
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7h00-7h45 |
Chapel |
Sunday mass |
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8h-8h45 |
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Breakfast |
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9h-11h30 |
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Meeting of
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10h30-11h30 |
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Second session of registration and welcome of participants by the secretariat |
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12h-12h45 |
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Lunch of members of the organising committee and the members of the local secretariat |
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13h-13h25 |
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Third session of registration and welcome of participants by the secretariat |
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13h30-14h15 |
Plenary |
Opening ceremony
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14h15-14h30 |
Plenary |
A few word about organisation |
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14h30-15h30 |
Languages groups |
Mutual presentation of people coming from a same country
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15h30-16h |
Plenary |
Presentation of the delegations from each country |
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16h15-16h45 |
Tea break |
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16h45 – 18h |
Conference room |
Public conference by
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18h00 – 19h00 |
Dinner |
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19h00-19h45 |
Languages groups |
Discussion about the conference of Monseigneur Livio Melina and Doctor Michele Barbato |
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19h45-20h45 |
Languages groups |
Near future
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20h45-21h15 |
Languages groups |
Near future
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21h15-22h15 |
Chapel |
prayer and worship |
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SUNDAY |
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7h00-7h45 |
Chapel |
Sunday mass |
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8h-8h45 |
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Breakfast |
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9h-10h30 |
Plenary |
Near future
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10h30-11h |
Tea break |
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11h-12h |
Plenary |
Strategy : collaboration between former JPII students, NFP educators and family life organisations (30 minutes)
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12h-12h45 |
Plenary |
Closing ceremony
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13h00 |
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Lunch |
The Prophecy of Humanae vitae and the Truth concerning Spousal Love: Towards a Responsible Procreation Livio Melina
At a distance of more than 40 years from its publication, the prophetic character of the encyclical Humanae vitae of Pope Paul VI, still today a "sign of contradiction" in the Church and in public opinion, appears in full light. In order to grasp the historical consequences of Humanae vitae and its influence upon current events, we must ask ourselves what really is in play in its teaching. At the time when Humanae vitae was published, the majority of commentators thought that the encyclical treated only a question of conjugal morality, a very delicate issue in the life of many Christian spouses, or a question of social morality, linked to control of the birthrate in front of the phantom of overpopulation. Moreover, it was perceived that in addition to the main theme of the Montini encyclical, there was also implied an ecclesial question relative to the interpretation of that "aggiornamento," which came to be identified with the historical importance of the Second Vatican Council just celebrated: was it finally possible to break with a normative tradition, that - according to some - seemed to reflect a thousand-year underestimation of sexuality in the Christian sphere? I will immediately present my thesis: Humanae vitae has revealed itself as a prophecy of that truth concerning love, which is so essential for the life of men and women.
1. Affective Illiteracy, Pansexualism and An Educational Emergency
When we speak of prophecy, we spontaneously think of a capacity for foreseeing the future: however, this is only one aspect of that which constitutes prophecy in the Sacred Scriptures. Primarily, a prophet is he who, speaking in the name of God, passes a judgment upon the situation being lived and by inviting to conversion, he therefore opens the road to the future. Before entering into the merit of Humanae vitae, I would like to quickly sketch the situation in which we are living, and I would like to do so by the light of that concern also recently expressed by Benedict XVI: the "educational emergency." Education for love shows itself to be strategically crucial for the anthropological question, above all in reference to that which one can define as learning its grammar and its syntax.
And in fact, the phenomenon of a growing "affective illiteracy," diffused among the younger generations, has been reported[1]. One study on this topic has recently been carried out in 90 schools in the area of Southhampton, in England. The study showed that among a population of students that belong to the middle-lower class, in which 40% of the cases live in families composed of only one parent, these children know at the maximum a dozen words related to emotions and affectivity. These are words scarcely differentiated, generally vulgar, and do not allow for subtleties when one searches to define the one's own mood or to understand that of others. The phenomenon is alarming: the incapacity to enter into contact with the world of one's own emotions implies an incapacity to communicate and to establish adequate relations with others.
We could say that this new type of illiteracy, detected by sociologists and psychologists, implies an incapacity to read and to write. An incapacity to read one's own emotions and feelings, which results in their being removed or exploding uncontrollably; an incapacity to interpret one’s interior world and to give it sense inside of a complex frame of meaning. An incapacity to write the storyline of one's own existence and the story of which one is most intimately aware, that therefore remains unexpressed or expressed badly, incomprehensible and unrealizable. The solitude of this vital context, the lack of authoritative points of reference, of teachers, of narrated stories, and of lived communities, hinders the interpretation of emotions and of feelings and obstructs the recognition of a meaning that qualifies and orients them. Without vocabulary, without grammar, without teachers, one does not learn to read and to write. This is the decisive problem for the formation of the person: the necessity of a frame of interpretative reference of lived emotions and affections, that might construct a context of meaning capable of integrating experience, of rendering it comprehensible and constructive.
In order to understand the dimensions of today's challenge, it is necessary to consider that we do not find ourselves in front of a mere absence of education, but also a subversive strategy that tends to modify the culture by means of a manipulation of the language. The educational emergency will consist in helping the young to find once again the essential meanings of the language of the body and of love, by demonstrating their correspondence to the "heart" of man. This "heart" of man is the whole of the original evidence and demands that constitute the basic experience[2]. Only in this manner can we avoid the deformation of consciences and the growth of a true personal liberty.
On the other hand, one witnesses today to a paradox: while all of society is invaded by that which is called a pervasive "pansexualism," it happens too often that only in the pastoral life of the Church there is a difficulty of speaking about sexuality, in such a way that the faithful are left without a statement, without a word of orientation, without a word of advice. There seems to exist a timidity that leads either to silence or to a misunderstood reference to the judgment of the individual conscience. A guilt complex weighs heavily for a recent past in which one spoke of sexuality too often or maybe rather in terms unilaterally negative. This has provoked a widely diffused self-censure and an ambiguous reference to the individual conscience. Certainly influential has been Puritanism, a current with a Protestant basis that from the 17th to the 19th century conditioned European and North American Christianity, and also had considerable influence in Catholicism. Its fundamental spirit can be expressed through a series of equations that propose at first an identification between God and morality, then between morality and normative prohibitions, and finally, between these moral prohibitive norms and sexual repression. From this equation results that identification between religion and sexual repression that still dominates the public imagination and is exploited by the media every time that one wants to denigrate the preaching of the Church and force her into silence.
It is of the maximum urgency, therefore, to overcome this self-censure and that guilt complex: we can do this only by finding once again a full awareness of the beauty and greatness of the word that the Church receives from Revelation concerning human love and sexuality. Humanae vitae was prophetic precisely because it anticipated a fair analysis of this situation, and as a testimony to the truth about human love, has opened the way to the future.
In this presentation, I would like to trace the pastoral and doctrinal course of the pontifical Magisterium during these 40 years, developing amidst a tight confrontation with a cultural sphere marked by radical transformations of custom and mentality. It is an itinerary that progresses from the prophecy of Pope Paul VI in Humanae vitae to the theological meditation on agape of Deus caritas est, passing by way of the theology of the body proposed by John Paul II. In this way, the complete panorama of that theology of love will become clear, that theology of love in which we also insert the commitment to educate for a truly mature sexuality and for responsible fatherhood and motherhood.
2. The Prophecy of Humanae vitae
The heart of the teaching of Humanae vitae, as has been authoritatively indicated, is found in paragraph 12, where Paul VI affirms "the inseparable connection (indissolubilis nexus), established by God, which man on his own initiative may not break, between the unitive significance and the procreative significance which are both inherent to the marriage act."[3] As is evidenced by this formulation, but also by the context of the paragraph, the doctrinal foundation of the ethical norm is seized at the level of the personalistic value of the conjugal act and not by respect for simple physiology: in fact, it regards that sense of "true mutual love" and "its ordination to the supreme responsibility of parenthood," that was inscribed in the being itself of man and woman by the Creator. This principle has a character so “in harmony with human reason,” that Pope Paul VI believes that our contemporaries are particularly capable of seeing it.
The Montini encyclical desires, therefore, to reclaim the personalist dignity of conjugal sexuality and of human procreation, in order to preserve their integral meaning of love, respecting the intimate connection between the unity of bodies and the openness to the transmission of life. In fact, when it becomes intentionally separated from procreation, human sexuality additionally loses its meaning of integral gift of self and of full acceptance of the other person: contraception inoculates in the corporeal act of the reciprocal donation between man and woman the poison of a lie, which intimately falsifies the act, making it a self-giving without a total gift of self, an acceptance without true hospitality. We can truly say that a contraceptive act is no longer a conjugal act: in its objective intentional structure it is not any different from forms of sexual activity realized in order to reach a mere hedonistic individual satisfaction and incapable of constructing a true personal communion.
On the other hand, procreation that does not derive from a sexual conjugal act assumes the aspect of a technical-productive activity, regulated by the logic of the efficiency of means as regards the desired results. In this activity, therefore, the personal dignity of the child is no longer respected. This child is no longer welcomed as a gift that comes from a gift, but instead comes programmed and produced like an object, over which one can always exercise the power of verifying its correspondence in respect to the initial project. We can thus affirm that the doctrine of Humanae vitae is a defense of sexuality as a true expression of spousal and personal love, and is at the same time also a defense of the personalistic dimension of human procreation.
We can locate here the ethical and anthropological difference of recourse to periodical abstinence, which uses the help of natural methods, in order to regulate the birthrate. The object of the moral judgment is not the "natural methods," but those choices of abstinence (and those acts of exercise) of sexuality, undertaken when there exist serious motives, evaluated with responsible discernment on the part of the spouses, to avoid a new pregnancy. The abstinence of sexual relations during the fertile period of the woman is a behavior that does not negate the unitive dynamism of the conjugal relation: this abstinence also expresses the spousal relationship, but in the form allowed by procreative responsibility. It is an act of personal and bodily realization of love, even if it does not occur through physical union. Other ways of expressing unity can and must be found by the spouses. On the other hand, the exercise of sexuality during the infertile periods of the woman does not negate the procreative meaning of the sexual conjugal acts, which come to be respected in their dignity and their intention of openness, even if they do not possess a biological procreative function. Therefore, both in the case of abstinence and in that of the exercise of sexuality, we are treating of acts that are fully conformed to the virtue of conjugal chastity and that express spousal love.
It is interesting to note that the teaching of Humanae vitae is located exactly at the dawn of that vast and complex cultural phenomenon that goes under the name of the "sexual revolution"[4] and that has led to the present climate of diffused eroticism. The sexual revolution is the programmatic attempt to separate the exercise of sexuality from the institution of Matrimony and from the prospect of paternity and maternity. The massive diffusion of contraception makes possible the claim to a sexuality free from institutional, or even only stable, ties. Separated from ties both natural and traditional, inside of which is found its meaningful context, the exercise of sexuality comes to assume a single reference point and criterion: the "libido," the satisfaction of the desire of the single person.
In this manner, the final consequence of this phenomenon is that sexuality becomes separated even from the sexual difference between man and woman. From the moment that "gender" becomes understood as a cultural construct, and thus also as an object of individual choice, not even the natural sex must be a bond and a reference. This "malleable" sexuality, free from any link with procreation, becomes individualistic: in democratic society, we can verify a push towards a historical transformation of intimacy. [5]
Far from producing an authentic liberation, the sexual revolution seems instead to have provoked a sexual obsession of the masses. This concerns a cultural proposal that reduces sexuality to an exercise of the genitality, and thus considers it to be a mere object of consumption, whose enjoyment on the part of the individual is in itself normal and good. It is therefore an attempt at a radical secularization of sexuality, that, stripped of every content of mystery and transcendence, loses its most intimate longing: to build a communion of persons. Sexuality becomes simply an occasion of pleasure[6], but the search for pleasure as an end unto itself deprives sexuality of the innermost promise that animates it and renders it so fascinating.
The prophetic character of Humanae vitae consists precisely in having grasped the crucial character of a phenomenon of historical consequence: the transformation of social customs. Going against the current, in respect to the prevalent mentality, the encyclical of Paul VI affirmed the principle of a sexuality that would be truly an expression of love, like a personal and integral gift, capable of constructing an authentic community and open to life. As I will now attempt to demonstrate, the successive Magisterium of the Church, with John Paul II and Benedict XVI, has developed the potential of this prophecy, forming it into an always richer and more articulate theology of love.
3. The Analogy of Love in John Paul II: The Anthropological Question
It has been rightly observed that John Paul II, in his abundant teaching on the subject, but particularly in the cycle of Wednesday catecheses in the first years of his pontificate, instituted an intimate connection between the matrimonial and the anthropological questions[7]. In other words: when we speak of conjugal love, man and the truth of an anthropological concept are in play.
This thesis, developed precisely in reference to Humanae vitae, is founded by means of the elaboration of a true and proper "theology of the body," which for the first time expounds in an organic manner the vision of human corporeality that arises from Revelation, investigated in light of original human experiences. The human body, marked by sexual difference, is a "sacrament of the person:" a visible sign of the invisible reality that constitutes us as unique and irrepeatable subjects[8]. The human body, far from being reduced to the physiological dimension taken into consideration by the empirical sciences, is permeated by subjectivity. It is in the body that man discovers his irreducible difference from other living beings. Thus, he experiences in the visible world his original solitude and at the same time his call to communion in the encounter with the person-body of the woman. Exactly in this way, the possibility of a singular experience of intimacy and the possibility of a unique reciprocity is revealed to him: the body manifests its nuptial meaning.
For this reason, bodily gestures must be understood as signs of a language, a language that is called to express and to realize the communion of love of the persons, in which nature and person are intertwined in an indissoluble manner[9]. In order to understand the meaning of the language of the body, it is necessary, above all, to place it within the sphere of communication between subjects.
Here we find two levels of meaning: one perennial and the other unique and unrepeatable. The first regards the "objective sense," of which the body itself is not the author, that which has been "spoken by the word of the living God." [10] The second, of a "subjective" character, is that of which man himself is the author, through the necessary and continuous "rereading" of the original truth. The Pope observes that in this rereading, in reality, something "more" takes place: man becomes with God "co-author" in the language of the body, assuming and consenting to the original meanings that are proper to creation.
In this way, the positive meaning of human sexuality and the dignity of man, the subject of love precisely in his essential unity of soul and of body, appears in full light. [11] In this sense, if the meaning of the body is the call to the gift of self and to acceptance of the other, the condition of a full realization of this vocation is self-possession, which one realizes through the acquisition of virtues, in particular, the virtue of chastity. Chastity is not to be understood as the repression of passions and of affectivity, but rather as the virtue of true love. This virtue is the interior strength that allows drives and emotions to be expressed with full respect for the personal dignity of the other person, realizing in this way an authentic communion of persons in the act of conjugal love.
It emerges, therefore, that precisely in their limits and in their presupposing a personal maturation, the so-called "natural methods" assume an indirect moral value. They do not substitute the person and the persons of the spouses in their acting. They do not artificially manipulate the meanings of the conjugal act, but respect the personalistic value. Demanding and encouraging the formation of necessary personal dispositions, they place themselves at the service of love.
In one of his catecheses on human love, John Paul II had affirmed just this:
By itself, the knowledge of the “rhythms of fertility” -though indispensable- does not yet create that interior freedom of the gift that is explicitly spiritual in nature and depends on the maturity of the inner man. This freedom presupposes that one is able to direct sensual and emotive reactions in order to allow the gift of self to the other “I” on the basis of the mature possession of one’s own “I” in its bodily and emotional subjectivity. [12]
The novelty of such a language and of such an approach to the theme of sexuality provoked a great sensation in public opinion. In fact, it addressed a radical overcoming of that puritanical misunderstanding that, as we have already mentioned, had for centuries imprisoned Catholic sexual morality in a false and reductive interpretation.
We can therefore understand the accusation of Nietzsche against Christianity, raised by Pope Benedict XVI in his inaugural encyclical: Christianity has poisoned eros, turning to bitterness the most precious thing in life[13]. Well then, the catecheses of John Paul II caught unprepared prejudices and accusations and opened the way to a rediscovery of the value of the body in Christianity. As has been observed: "with John Paul II, suddenly it became beautiful to be Christians," exactly because we could see the attractiveness of Christianity and the correspondence with that which men and women most desire in the profundity of their hearts.
At the same time, however, the spiritualist misunderstanding, that had colored personalism and suggested orientations divergent from that of Humanae vitae,[14] was also overcome. In this misunderstanding, in fact, the value of the interpersonal relationship of love, understood as the "primary end" of the conjugal act, had led to a reduction of the "procreative end," collapsing it into a biological vision. In reality, the perspective of the theology of the body of John Paul II, while it clearly show the personalistic dignity of the conjugal act, knows how to recognize in the acceptance of fecundity an intrinsic meaning of the same personal donation. This openness to fecundity can not voluntarily be excluded without threatening the entire value of the personal donation. There is revealed here the intimate indissoluble unity of the three factors that constitute that which is called the "nuptial mystery": the sexual difference, the unity of the flesh, and the fecundity.[15] These indicate the fundamental grammar of love, beginning from which men and women can compose, without committing errors, the unique and original poem of their stories of love, in the life of the couple and in that of the family.
The term "mystery" suggests a complete openness of the experience of human love. Indeed, it does not indicate that which remains obscure and unknowable to reason, but rather that which is revealed of what is in itself beyond the possibilities of comprehension of reason: thus a revelation through the form of a sign. In what sense, therefore, is the experience of human love a mediation for an analogical reference to God, in what mode is it a way to a knowledge of God the Creator?
If we consider the act of love, we find that it always contains the relation of a person who loves to another who is loved and who, on a certain level of consideration, is the ultimate and unsurpassable point of reference: the person is loved for himself. And still, the dynamism of love addressed to the person is in itself encompassed in a preceding causality that exceeds it.[16] We are speaking of the act of original love, that envelops all of creation and implies a radical goodness of creation, for which it is worthwhile to be loved. This leads to recognizing that human love is preceded by a creative original love, which is manifested in human love and makes it possible.
The Way of Charity in Benedict XVI: The Theological Question
The teaching of Benedict XVI begins exactly at this point in order to develop an even more profound theology of love, to which he dedicates the inaugural encyclical of his pontificate. Love constitutes in fact the center itself of the Christian message: "God is love." We are not dealing with a philosophical idea but the adhesion of faith to a historical event: "We have come to believe in the love God has for us." (1 John 4:16) That which characterizes this ulterior stage of teaching is the emphasis on the intimate connection between the question of love and the theological question.
The Pope follows an indication of Saint Augustine, ever as relevant today. The great Father of the Church, almost following and commenting on Psalm 41 with its unnerving question: “They ask daily, 'Where is your God?',” offers a way of responding: “If you see charity, you see the Trinity.”[17] The visibility of the intimate mystery of the One and Triune God is made possible by the life of charity, which is realized in the Church. Thus, in a world like our own, in which there is being dramatically diffused a spiritual blindness in front of creation and an intellectual blindness towards other evidence for the existence of God, the question of an authentic love, animated by charity infused by means of the Holy Spirit, acquires the value of witness to God.
Human action, through the indwelling of the divine Spirit, gives birth to charity lived among men. This action represents a unique testimony to the glory of God, a true epiphany of his glory among men.[18] In particular, Matrimony and the Christian family acquire a permanent sacramental meaning for the world: precisely by realizing an authentic communion of persons in charity, they are called to give witness to the saving presence of God among men.
This implies that transparence of the archetype is the necessary condition for approaching knowledge of the original love. The divine image in man is realized precisely when he, in love, expresses the communion of persons, united in the fruitful gift of themselves. The analogy of love (ανά λόγος: discourse that ascends from below) signifies the similarity in the always greater dissimilarity: human love grants access to the divine love that precedes it and that offers itself to human love as a light and a strength to realize love according to truth.
At the same time is the catalogia (κατά λόγος: discourse that descends from above) of the revelation of the Trinitarian love in Christ that reveals to man the ultimate meaning of the same human love: in the symbolism of the love of Christ the Spouse for the Church his Bride is manifested the value of conjugal love as a sacrament. Here we find once again a second key affirmation of the encyclical of Pope Ratzinger: "Corresponding to the image of a monotheistic God is monogamous marriage." [19] The revelation of God in the history of Israel, that culminates in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, manifests the definitive dimension of love and at the same time opens to man the possibility to realize the original design of God. "God's way of loving becomes the measure of human love."[20] The anthropological truth of conjugal love, that in its original structure is constituted by the triple dimension of sexual difference, the gift of self, and procreation, is the created icon of the divine Trinitarian love. [21]
In this manner, the pericoresi between the act of faith in the divine revelation and the practice of love, also and specifically of conjugal love in its truth, is drawn even tighter in the inner unity of the Christian event. Human love between man and woman has its own truth, its own language, its own grammar, that is ultimately founded upon the original project of God, instituted in creation and definitively revealed in Jesus Christ. Respect for the inseparable unity between the unitive meaning and the procreative meaning of the conjugal act is part of the grammar of love, that is, of that system of rules that allows for authentic communication between persons. "I fear that as long as we believe in grammar, we will continue to believe in God," Friedrich Nietzsche had affirmed. [22] Truth is the inescapable context that intentionally embraces all of our discourses, even those that try to negate it, and truth is ultimately founded on God. Even the grammar of love has its origin in God Creator and Redeemer; to negate it means to obscure his face.
Conclusion
“Christianity is not a work of persuasion, but of greatness”[23] With this beautiful quote from Saint Ignatius of Antioch, Pope Benedict XVI indicated before the bishops of Switzerland the key point in which he sees the formidable challenge of the new evangelization. The greatest difficulty, which we run up against in educative work, is not so much making ourselves understood, but rather losing the initial greatness that Christianity proposes in amazement. In this case, Christianity can only appear as a series of fastidious rules and not as a vocation to realize a poem of love.
What is ultimately in play with Humanae vitae? This was the question with which we began. The rapid journey in the development of the theological thought linked to the teaching of John Paul II and Benedict XVI has demonstrated that it is not only a simple norm of sexual morality which is in play, that could be practically eluded or easily changed in the future. It has become evident that to the question of matrimonial sexuality there are linked both the anthropological and the theological questions, precisely since these basic themes are linked to love. Once again, here is a manifestation of the interior organic unity of the Catholic truth, in which the whole is always implicated in the part, from which it draws meaning and to which it contributes essentially. For this reason, it is never possible to separate the truth concerning God from that concerning man, the faith to believe from the practice to realize in everyday life.
The rupture of the intimate link between sexuality and openness to procreation is the expression of a process of radical secularization of human love, that becomes progressively reduced to the utilitarian and individualistic dimension of the search for pleasure for oneself. A search that, thus directed, experiences an always greater frustration of desire and even an impoverishment of pleasure. The defense of love as "mystery" is therefore at the same time a defense of God and a defense of man. Ultimately, it is also a defense of desire and even of pleasure.
For this reason, the complete and indivisible preaching of the truth about human love, taught by Humanae vitae, is an integral part of evangelization and of the commitment to building an authentic civilization of love and a culture of the family.[24] The Church, when she teaches these truths, does not do so because she is obsessed with sexual themes, and if she goes against the current, it is not to repress, but rather to collaborate in the authentic joy of men and women, indicating to them the way of love.
Anthropological basis towards an educational process in responsible procreation Dr. Michele Barbato
When dealing with the themes of the natural regulation of fertility, one needs to do away with innumerable prejudices in the current cultural context. The basis of this thought is firmly rooted in the reduction of the problem of responsible parenthood to a mere contraceptive technique, both in prevalent contraceptive methods as well as in Natural Family Planning (NFP) methods. Further, there being relatively simple contraceptive techniques to use, it is not clear why they should not be adopted. One may think that the chosen technique is not relevant to the value of the person, sexuality, relationship, family, life, love, etc.
Furthermore, it is taken for granted that there is an ‘evident’ difference between contraception and abortion, without considering that within each contraceptive technique there are present obvious contradictions. Therefore I feel that before tackling natural family planning it is essential to lay the foundation on a correct and deep anthropology, with particular emphasis on the concept of the person, the meaning and value of human sexuality, conjugal relationship, the concept of love and procreation...
This is very important since the motivation of NFP users is fundamental to such an extent that it determines the acceptability of NFP, its continued use and the efficacy in avoiding conception.
But how do the natural methods feature in fertility control? According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) definition: ‘The natural methods are based on the knowledge of the biological process wherein a pregnancy can be sought or avoided with the help of the observation of signs and symptoms of the fertile phase of the menstrual cycle. When pregnancy is to be avoided, one needs to abstain from sexual intercourse during the fertile phase of the cycle; when a pregnancy is desired, one can make use of the most fertile days with precision’.
These methods require awareness since the woman needs to be able to observe and interpret the cyclic signs and symptoms, but moreover self-awareness, since they require a vision of sexuality in harmony with femininity and masculinity. Knowledge and self-awareness are required in order that this small aspect of life be tackled in an adequate manner. Then one marvels at discovering that this minor aspect, if tackled well, helps us to discover the deeper meaning in the human heart.
For this reason, when one speaks about this human issue, when one promotes and teaches NFP, one needs to have a sense of modesty because we are dealing with the mystery of man.
We are today witnessing a general and widespread decline of NFP use in Europe, and for this reason we need to understand in which cultural context we are today proposing NFP.
Today it is difficult to ask about the truth of human love and its place in an interpersonal relationship. Nevertheless, if we would like to approach the cultural assumptions of natural methods, we need to overcome current censorship. There is a truth about love that the predominant culture does not want to acknowledge and does not accept that it be said.
So what is the reason for this censorship on the truth of love? This is because it is strictly connected with the truth about man, and by acknowledging this, a radical revision of the current dominant culture would be required. The censorship effected by the prevailing culture, leads man to express himself and live without any objective point of reference, solely concerned with following his own instinct, his own criterion, his own opinions and his own interests.
What is the cultural context in which we are we making our proposal?
Today, the philosophical-cultural thought tends to define the person limitedly through his collective actions.
Simultaneously, in recent years, we have witnessed a degeneration of the concept of freedom, reduced to spontaneity. ‘The freedom not to perform good or bad, but also to determine what is good and what is bad, uprooting freedom from the Truth of man, so denying the actual possibility of there being one Truth’ (C. Cafarra. (2008). The message of Humanae Vitae: Theological and doctrinal aspects. Rome).
In literature we find the simbolic figure of Don Giovanni: ‘a man who expresses through love, his quest for immortality, his thirst for the absolute’ (Tirso de Molina – 1630). Don Giovanni becomes an atheist libertine aiming at enjoying himself and for whom instinct is the only criteria. Don Giovanni represents modern man who identifies the relationship with reality according to a measure that denies any transcendence, or any nostalgia for an ideal. But in ‘Miguel Manara’ (Milosz) we see what this type of attitude leads to. Don Giovanni says: ‘I have served Venus in anger, then with malice and disgust. Today I would wring her neck. . . Oh , how to fill this abyss of life?’
Today the most common sexual pathology is the absence of desire. In scientific literature we read that in 30-40% of married couples, interest in conjugal sexuality has drastically diminished to almost disinterest. The resulting boredom is explained by noting that the experience lived does not correspond to the core to that infinite desire of joy, of good and beauty that there is in each and every man.
We propose NFP in this cultural context. We propose to live sexuality according to a rule that is written withing the structure of our being as persons. However, for this to materialise, one needs to do a lot of work, based on formation and education.
Today, sexuality is being methodically rendered trivial and reduced to a purely biological function. However, all this does not correspond with the desire of infinity, of happiness, of beauty, of truth that sexuality seems to promise.
Thus, we need to abandon the idea of trivial sexuality, pure biological function, and rediscover the value of love of the person as a subject who loves; rediscover the source from where one can draw consistency and meaning.
In order for this to happen, it is necessary to take on a commitment, to put some questions. It is necessary to accept the challenge of a serious question posed to our own sexuality. It is necessary to give birth to the desire to ask oneself where the value and significance of sexuality lie and not satisfy oneself with what one has. To challenge our noble convictions even though they are supported by moralistic reasons and accept the challenge of seriously questioning our own sexuality, our own being man and woman, husband and wife: this is the job of the counsellor. Outside this methodology, there is only formalism, moralism, sexual pathology. What meaning does it have to explain the Church’s teachings if these are not expressly requested? ‘There is nothing more useless than an answer given to an unasked question’.
We need to provoke questions in our listeners, but it is not a problem of commmunication technique. ‘Only those who have already encountered the answer, are able to provoke the question’ (L. Giussani.).
We have to rediscover sexuality as a mystery, since at stake is man in his totality. We cannot be human if we are not male or female, and the human being is that unity of body, mind and spirit that constitutes the person. Sexuality forms part of the sphere of being of the person and not having; it is not a function of our body, but an integral and constitutive element. My body and that of the other can never be reduced to an object. The exercise of sexuality is the language of the person and therefore the biological aspect cannot be separated from the relationship of the person. It is the unity of biology and relationship that defines the nature of sexuality (C. Cafarra. (2008). The message of ’Humanae Vitae: Theological and doctrinal aspects. Rome).
This relationship between sexuality and the person lead to focus one’s attention on the person as a subject, that is, the person as a source of free decisions.
To be able to understand the value of the person, we can start with our own experience.
When falling in love, one discovers the value of the other as a person, not because it is convenient, but because it is there. I give myself to the other for his well-being and I am intrigued by his destiny. I look at the person in all his totality and not only at his sexual dimension. His presence has the power give meaning to a day without light, to generate warmth, zest and consistency to a life that seems to have unexpectedly turned sour, without being loved, devoid of value and senseless.
Being a person, having full dignity is a fact that precedes the relationship with the other, however, only the encounter with the other person, allows us to recognise the value of our being, the value of our I, ‘How wonderful it is for me to live because you are present’. The person, a unified totality, becomes an I reaching out towrds a YOU.
Today, however, there is the conviction that the YOU can make the I happy. The couple’s relationship transforms itself in a much desired haven that is futile if it stops at appearances and does not delve into the deeper meaning. ‘It is as if a woman, upon receiving a bouquet of flowers, enchanted by their beauty, forgets the face of the one who sent them to her, and of whom they are a sign, and misses the best that the flowers have to offer’. ‘The woman’s beauty is actually a ray of the divine, a sign that points out to something beyond, to something greater, divine, incommensurable to her limitedness’ (J. Carron. (2009). The experience of family: A beauty to be conquered once again. Milan).
However, in history, there has always been someone who understanding the experience of love between man and woman, discovered the relationship between human love and the Divine Mystery.
It is actually in the encounter with the beloved that man discovers himself as a desire and question of Another, other than him: God is the appropriate object of that desire for happiness that attracts the man to the woman and the person towards to other person (K. Wojtyla. The Jeweller’s Shop).
‘Everyone seeks the portrait of one’s own God in the face of his beloved’ (Plato).
‘Show me a woman who is beautiful, and her beauty would only make me think of one who is even more beautiful’ (W. Shakespeare – Romeo and Juliet).
‘A ray divine, O lady! To my thought, thy beauty seemed (G. Leopardi – Hymn to Aspasia).
‘The woman’s beauty is actually a ray of the divine, a sign that points out to something beyond, to something greater, divine, incommensurable to her limitedness’ (J. Carron. (2009). The experience of family: A beauty to be conquered once again. Milan).
‘Love between man and woman, where body and soul are inseparably joined and human beings glimpse an apparent irresistible promise of happiness. . . all other kinds of love immediately seem to fade in comparison’.
Love promises infinity, eternity: a reality far greater and totally other than our every day existence (Deus Caritas Est, 4).
Let us look again at our experience.
Notwithstanding the premise that the meeting with the beloved one instills in us . . .
If we reflect on man we can easily ascertain how it is practically impossible for our freedom, to remain in that pure love that loves every being in the love that it merits. Man is called to be in love, but may not know and cannot be in love if not in an ethical dimension.
There is a force that attracts us towards reality not in reason with its objective dignity, but as a resualt of the pleasure it procurs in us; there is an internal disorder that preceeds our free decisions (Original sin).
Love is like a call for infinity, a thirst for happiness and communion that burns in our heart, but the beloved one cannot extinguish this fire, this thirst. It is only a sign that directs my desire elsewhere, this thirst of mine. The experience of our human limitations, or awaits a Redeemer or will one day or another become a refusal, an agression.
We only have to look at the everyday news to see the how much violence breeds in the relationships between man and woman.
Love would be destructive of the loved one if it is not based on an objective good. This objective good unites lovers in a single and unique destiny, intended as the individual’s path towards good. Wishing the good of the other means asking that together one realises his own destiny as a person in the pursuit of a common good. The other one is not loved for his qualities, but for the mystery that it is and for the destinty of fulfillment and good towards which we are attracted together. The meaning of life together is cherising the destiny and the vocation of the other (E.g. Saint Joseph).
So how is it possible that this materializes fully, notwithstanding the structural fragility that pervades the loving relationship between man and woman?
The more they live the presence of the loved one as a sign of an Other. In this context one can understand Jesus’ incredible proposal, so that the most beautiful life’s experience - falling in love - does not degenerate and transform itself into something that is suffocating.
‘Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth. I have come to bring not peace but the sword . . . Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter than me is not worthy of me’ (Mt. 10, 34-40).
Jesus presents himself as the centre of man’s affection and freedom, putting himself at the heart of natural human sentiments. He rightly places himself at the centre of their true origin. Without loving Christ more than the beloved person, this last relationship withers, because He is the truth of such relationship, the fullness to which one points to the other, and in which their relationship is fulfilled (J. Carron. (2009). The experience of family: A beauty to be conquered once again. Milan).
Let’s look again at our experience.
What astonishes us in the simple experience of falling in love?
It is the gratuity. You fall in love when you least expect it, with the person you never imagined that it could ever happen before.
What strikes us in the experience of conjugal love? Gratuity. You love unconditionally, notwithstanding what you are . . .
What astonishes us in the birth of a son? Gratuity. You are given a son, an incomparable gift in respect to the effort that you have made. This astonishment will then accompany us constantly throughout the different stages of the child’s development: the first steps, play school, school, girlfriend, marriage. . .
Throughout our life of affection and experience we constantly receive gratuitously. What does this show us, where does it direct us?
The essence of love does not lie in the attraction of the relationship betwwen man and woman, as the prevaliling mentality and systematic lie of the dominant idealogy would like to make us believe. It lies in acknowledging that everything is given, that the greatest and most deep evidence is that I do not make myself; I am not making myself; I do not give myself my being, I do not give myself the reality that I am; I am given.
I belong to a “You” that makes me.
The essence of love is the recognition of the “Father” (L. Giussani).
The ultimate root of love lies in acknowledging that we are creatures. The encounter with the beloved makes me percieve that the consistency of my person “I” is tending towards a “YOU” that transcends the same beloved.
In order that this be possible it is necessary to have a different notion of man and, before anything else, affirm that it is necessary for me to acknlwoedge that “I depend on Another”, that I “belong to Another” who is not me or my will. I am because God has freely willed that I be.
My being as a “gift”: this way of conceiving onself is a basic elementary experience that is lived and can be lived by anyone. The concepts of dependence and of belonging may seem to be distant and difficult. In reality, every instance and action of our day are scanned by this. Dependence does not arise from an idelogical recognition; for it is rooted in the heart of each one of us.
My uterus is mine and I manage it how I like; life is mine and I do what I want with it: these are slogans that well express the opposite of this concept: that of non-dependence.
The awareness of having been donated makes one understand the principal rule: “to affirm the other”. The female cycle is such that every month it compels man and woman to face that which constitutes them, that determines them and gives them meaning as a couple. This leads to the growth of awareness of dependence and of the meaning of reciprocal love as a gift of one to the other.
How astonishing is it to feel oneself accepted for what one is, notwithsting that which one is! How amazing is it to perceive that the fundamental value of marriage, of man and humanity, of love, is not the result of an emotional sensitivity or of a sexual attraction, but that it is before anything else a gift! Were it not so, it would be enough to input all the basic personal characteristics in a personal computer to find the ideal companion.
Living the responsibility for having received this gift radically changes the experience of sexuality between two persons and the level of fulfilment is greater beyond measure that that of any other type of sexual experience. It is only by sharing the other in depth for what he/she is, with his/her destiny, that a total participation can happen, that would involve all one’s life, and indeed would demand the sacrifice of one’s whole life.
By allowing the other in one’s intimacy, be it physical as well as spiritual, one becomes capable of generating both in the spirit as well as in the flesh. One generates the other in the intimacy of the spirit when without any pretention one helps the other to discover the truth and the greatness of his/her person in its journey towards its destiny, that towards God. This happens independently of whether one has children or not, but it becomes impossible when one has a False idea of liberty (“my life is mine and I do what I want with it”).
True liberty can only exist in function of love and does exist so that man can accomplish the gift of himself and fulfil himself as a person that is an “I” leaning towards a “You”. The person is a masterpiece given on loan to your freedom. The family and the couple begin when one’s personal liberty is based on one’s belonging to another.
This way of going forward immediately clears the field from many moralisms such as “I have to choose natural family planning because I am a Catholic”.
In reality it is necessary to understand to whom we are making this proposal, what type of self-consciousness do the persons in front of us have, what is the journey that we should make with them so that they come to own these assumptions? Working on these themes renders it easier to talk of the rest: the language of the body, morality, responsibility, generosity, liberty, acceptance of others.
Within this dimension, Natural Family Planning is a way of living one’s sexuality (that also allows the responsible birth control) that is in harmony with the sense of a life that is lived in the shadow of the Father. The phase of fertility that alternate with those of infertility allows one to perceive in a different way the Presence of Him who is ever powerful.
The natural family planning methods may become the pedagogical tool that helps us in our every day life to discover the destiny of man, the meaning of love and of the family. They are a small particular that helps in the understanding and in answering many questions about our life.
They are a feature of existence that are addressed to the person as a whole. It is only in this dimension that difficulties may be overcome, that one does not chose to resort to easier contraceptive solutions and one can live an experience of sexuality that is fully human and fulfilling.
These considerations, derived from an experience of faith, are in reality shared by persons of other denominations, since who is sincere with himself, a careful reading of his personal experience leads him to acknowledge that life is a gift, that the ardour, the desire of the other are the inequivocal signs of his limits, that the answer of the need for love can only be found outside himself.
To conclude, quoting Dostoevsky, we do not want that today one be satisfied with partial truths: “Someone holds that man is not great enough to bear the weight of his entire life; it is necessary to give him a reduced one”.