Let me share with you my reflection
on the Church and the poor. If the Church is serious about its vision of the
Church of the Poor, then its moral reflection on artificial birth control and
the use of contraceptives as defined by Pope Paul VI in Humanae Vitae must be
viewed from the perspective of the poor women and children deprived from safe
and affordable reproductive health care and family life education program for
responsible parenthood.
A note to Humanae Vitae
Pope Paul VI, if you recall,
rejected the majority report of the papal commission (special commission to
study birth control and population by Pope John XXIII) which proposed a radical
stand by allowing the use of the contraceptives among Catholic couples. In so
doing, Pope Paul VI adopted the minority report and upheld the old teaching
prohibiting the use of contraceptives. This act of the Pope was controversial
and many theologians around the world criticized the traditional teaching of
the Humanae Vitae. For them, the teaching of Humanae Vitae is not infallible
and can be changed to address the alarming global social problems like women's
reproductive health, AIDS and others.
