July 2016

How This Mom of 13 Lives out Humanae Vitae

Humanae Vitae Giving Day * * * By Kateri Schwandt Through the Church’s teachings in Humanae Vitae on married life and love, my husband and I have willing accepted the practice of being open to life. Upon the arrival of our 13 boys, we have welcomed and cherished each one as a gift that has…

How Humanae Vitae Helped Me Overcome My Addiction to Porn

Humanae Vitae Giving Day * * * By Michael Gagnon Like many men in our culture, I have struggled with pornography throughout my life. Similar to most any addiction, you are never truly free of it but learn to find mastery over it with healthy boundaries, help from others and – above all – the…

Finding Strength in My Perfectly Imperfect Witness

Humanae Vitae Giving Day * * * By Kara Storey My husband and I just finished teaching another marriage-preparation course yesterday. Every month for the past two years we’ve had the opportunity to talk to young couples about sex and natural family planning. There’s nothing like 40 pairs of eyes staring straight back at you…

CCL Apostolate Sprung from Humanae Vitae

Humanae Vitae Giving Day By Chris Reynolds Former CCL Executive Director A papal encyclical can have a wide-reaching impact, which is certainly true for us. Pope Paul VI’s Humanae Vitae inspired the very creation of the Couple to Couple League, which today is the nation’s largest provider of natural family planning training. John Kippley was…

It’s Beauty That Brought Us Here

Humanae Vitae Giving Day * * * By Roxane B. Salonen Self-discipline of this kind is a shining witness to the chastity of husband and wife and, far from being a hindrance to their love of one another, transforms it by giving it a more truly human character. And if this self-discipline does demand that…

How G.K. Chesterton Influenced Pope Paul VI

Humanae Vitae Giving Day * * * By Dale Ahlquist In his book of St. Francis of Assisi, G.K. Chesterton says, “The moment that sex ceases to be a servant it becomes a tyrant.” He understood that separating sex from birth would lead not only to personal strife but societal strife, to broken relationships, to…

‘Clarity with Charity’: Why we Need Humanae Vitae

Humanae Vitae Giving Day * * * By Sheila Liaugminas For the past couple of years, I have considered the idea of tweeting out Humanae Vitae, or key lines from that prophetic document, so people in modern culture with busy lives and short attention spans, who are totally unaware of its contents, might be grabbed…

Humanae Vitae Fortifies my Marriage

Humanae Vitae Giving Day * * * By Jenna Hines Do you know what creates the tightest bonds? A common goal. Or a common enemy, if you will. My husband and I are on the same team fighting the same fight – and no, the opponent is not natural family planning. Instead, that is our…

Radical Feminist Becomes Nun

Humanae Vitae Giving Day * * * By Sister Helena Burns You may be wondering what a nun has to do with or say about Humanae Vitae, the little 1968 encyclical that reaffirmed the Church’s 2,000-year-old position on contraception. Two thousand years? Yes. There have always been forms of contraception and abortion, and the followers…

Humanae Vitae is a Gift of Love

Humanae Vitae Giving Day * * * By Cardinal Timothy Dolan It’s no secret that when Humanae Vitae was released it set off a difficult period of turmoil and confusion within the Church. However, if we look at the encyclical today, we see the many ways in which Blessed Pope Paul VI correctly understood and foresaw the consequences…