St. Anne
Roman Catholic Parish
Holy Family Institute of Catholic Faith and Life
Weekly Wednesday Formation Series
Greetings in Christ, St. Anne Parishioners and Friends!
What does some celibate old man in Rome know about marriage and human sexuality? Isn't it time for the Catholic Church to take a cue from the culture and embrace contraception? Isn’t birth control necessary for modern Christian couples to have a happy marriage without the stress of too many children? And doesn’t contraception empower women to finally take their place as equals with men in modern society?
All these questions, and more, were swirling around the Church as everyone awaited the publication of Pope St. Paul VI’s encyclical on contraception and Church teaching. Hope ran high that Catholics would finally have permission from the Church to join the culture and their fellow Christians in using contraception to control fertility. Many in the clergy and hierarchy anticipated that the commission convened in 1963 to consult the pope on these questions would recommend giving that hoped-for permission, and that Paul VI would take their advice.
What happened? Join us for this week’s Weekly Wednesday Formation Series (WWFS) and find out! We will go into the story behind Pope St. Paul VI’s (in)famous 1968 encyclical, Humanae Vitae, the fallout following its publication, and how the four predictions Pope Paul made in that landmark document have held up almost sixty years later.
You won’t want to miss this one, so mark your calendars and, when they aren’t looking, your friends’ calendars, too!
BONUS CONTENT: As a hearty appetizer to the topic of the fallout of the Sexual Revolution, here is a Reasonably Rational podcast episode I recorded with the one and only Dr. Jennifer Roback-Morse. She is world-class on this topic!
The link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6l2iSeAUxIA&t=12s
Peace,
Steve
p.s. For those of you who, having (laudably) committed yourselves to a week-long celebration of the Milwaukee Brewers’ first World Series Championship, will be hosting a brat fry, complete with a live polka band and a keg of imported Spotted Cow Farmhouse Ale, you can grab a bratwurst and a beer and watch the livestream on the St. Anne website, or catch the video recording later at www.holyfamilyinstitute.com.