The Transmission of Human Life

A few days ago, on July 25^th, we celebrated the 50^th anniversary of Paul VI’s Encyclical, Humanae Vitae. This document met with strong opposition, yet it was also recognized as “prophetic” for it looked to the future and, above all, because it recalled that “the transmission of human life is a most serious role in which married people collaborate freely and responsibly with God the Creator.”

In human conception, parents are the collaborators of God the Creator who ignites the spark of life and calls a new human person into existence. Conception is, therefore, a sacred moment, since it involves the creative action of God himself. The collaboration of the spouses is a task and a great wonder, because a man and a woman, united by mutual and total love, set the conditions for fulfilling God's creative action.

The doctrine contained in the Encyclical, its anthropological vision, which is so profoundly biblical and at the same time natural, is thus inscribed in the Creation itself, in the conjugal relationship of a man and a woman, essentially God’s creative will and, therefore, cannot change in time or be relegated to history. The unity between the unitive and the procreative aspects helps the man and the woman to discover their fertility as a couple. Love is built and renewed every day.