In the life of the Catholic Church, the papal encyclical Humanae vitae represents a deepening of understanding regarding the nature of married love and the transmission of life. Despite fifty years (1968-2018) since it’s promulgation, many Catholics have yet to discover the treasure of these rich teachings. This volume therefore seeks to elucidate the encyclical’s reaffirmation of the divine plan. It does this in a unique way by providing essays from experts of various disciplines that include history, theology, science, medicine, law, and governmental policy. The occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of Humanae vitae offers a teaching moment. In this compendium, experts representing a variety of disciplines including history, culture, theology, medicine, law, and psychology present their reflections upon God’s divine plan as described in Humanae vitae. The authors first presented this work in an abbreviated form at a symposium held at The Catholic University of America (April 4-6, 2018). Here, their presentations are substantively developed and hopefully will encourage further scholarly work. Ultimately, their purpose is to help the reader arrive at a more positive understanding of the teachings found in Humanae vitae. Although designed for the educated reader, the essays presume that when the teachings of Humanae vitae are embraced by men and women, they can contribute to the healing of the wounds of a world broken by sin but redeemed by Christ.

"Paul VI's genius proved prophetic: he had the courage to stand against the majority, to defend moral discipline, to exercise a 'brake' on the culture, to oppose present and future neo-Malthusianism." — Pope Francis "Of all the paradoxical fallout from the Pill, perhaps the least understood today is this: the most unfashionable, unwanted, and ubiquitously deplored moral teaching on earth is also the most thoroughly vindicated by the accumulation of secular, empirical, post-revolutionary fact. The document in question is of course, Humanae vitae." — Mary Eberstadt, Author, Adam and Eve after the Pill After half a century, how has the teaching of Pope Paul VI on marriage and birth control, presented in his encyclical Humanae vitae (On Human Life), held up? Very well, says philosopher Janet Smith and her colleagues in Why Humanae Vitae Is Still Right. A sequel to Smith's classic Why Humanae Vitae Was Right, this new volume shows how the ethical, theological, spiritual, and sociological case for Paul VI's controversial document remains strong—indeed, how it's in some ways even stronger today, following Pope John Paul II's Theology of the Body and in light of the problems caused by the sexual revolution. In addition to essays by Dr. Smith herself, the book features contributions by other renowned experts and scholars such as Mary Eberstadt (author of the best-selling Adam and Eve after the Pill), George Weigel, Therese Scarpelli Corey, Michael Waldstein, Christopher West, Obianuju Ekeocha (author of the best-selling Target Africa), Maria Fedoryka, Deborah Savage, Derek Doroski, Angela LaFranchi, William Newton, Joseph Atkinson, Michele M. Schumacher, and Peter Colosi. Why Humanae Vitae Is Still Right includes the Krakow Document composed under the supervision of Cardinal Karol Wojtyla (later, Pope John Paul II), which provided research by moral theologians and other experts that helped to shape Humanae vitae to be a more personalistic document.

Janet E. Smith presents a comprehensive review of this issue from a philosophical and theological perspective. Tracing the emergence of the debate from the mid-1960s and reviewing the documents from the Special Papl Commission established to advise Pope Paul VI, Smith also examines the Catholic Church's position on marriage, which provides context for its condemnation of contraception.

Hard choices lie ahead, Christians. The bestselling team of James Robison and Jay Richards show what’s at stake in our post-Christian society, how to prepare, and why we must never forget that the battle, above all, is spiritual. Our rulers have kicked aside our Constitution and common sense. They have demonized our heroes. Now they’re trying to erase the difference between male and female. All while running up unimaginable and catastrophic debt. What’s left for Christians in such a society, where dissent invites ruinous retribution? Should they retreat? Fight back? Something else? God is not finished with us as a nation, but if we’re going to get off the road to ruin, we must do more than slow down and conserve whatever good remains: We must repent. That means a hard, 180-degree turn—and fast. If we’ll pray, think straight, persuade other lovers of truth to join us, and fight together—wise as serpents and innocent as doves—then there’s still hope.

It’s Time to Start Asking the Right Questions About Happiness The West is facing a happiness crisis. Today, less than a quarter of American adults rate themselves as very happy—a record low. False views of happiness abound, and the explosion in “happiness studies” has done little to dispel them. Why is true happiness so elusive, and why is it so hard to define? In How and How Not to Be Happy, internationally renowned philosopher and happiness theorist, J. Budziszewski, draws on decades of study to dispel the myths and wishful thinking that blind people from uncovering lasting fulfillment. Could happiness lie in health, wealth, responsibility, or pleasure? Should we settle for imperfect happiness? What would it even mean to attain perfect fulfillment? Budziszewski separates the wheat from the chaff, exploring how to attain happiness—and just as importantly, how not to.

This book offers an analysis of the sociological, historical, and cultural factors that lie behind mandatory clerical celibacy in the Roman Catholic Church and examines the negative impact of celibacy on the Catholic priesthood in our contemporary age. Drawing on sociological theory and secondary qualitative data, together with Church documents, it contends that married priesthood has always existed in some form in the Catholic Church and that mandatory universal celibacy is the product of cultural and sociological contingencies, rather than sound doctrine. With attention to a range of problems associated with priestly celibacy, including sexual abuse, clerical shortages, loneliness, and spiritual sloth, In Defense of Married Priesthood argues that the Roman Catholic Church should permit marriage to the priesthood in order to respond to the challenges of our age. Presenting a sociologically informed alternative to the popular theological perspectives on clerical celibacy, this book defends the notion of the married priesthood as legitimate means of living the vocation of Catholic priesthood—one which is eminently fitting for the contemporary world. It will therefore appeal to scholars and students of religion, theology, and sociology.

This close reading of Thomas Aquinas explores the relevance of the Divine Law to the modern world.

It is fairly clear that, while Rome continues to teach as if its authority were unchanged from the days before Vatican II (1962-65), the majority of Catholics - within the first-world church, at least - take a far more independent line, and increasingly understand themselves (rather than the church) as the final arbiter of decision-making, especially on ethical questions. This collection of essays explores the historical background and present ecclesial situation, explaining the dramatic shift in attitude on the part of contemporary Catholics in the U.S. and Europe.

For the 25th anniversary year of the historic document Humanae Vitae(1968), Janet Smith has gathered together twenty-one outstanding essays and articles by well-respected thinkers to provide the demonstration that Pope Paul VI was not simply correct, but prophetic. While this document is still widely neglected and misunderstood, the Church continues to proclaim that contraception is a moral evil and that the view of man, sexuality, and marriage that leads to the use of the Pill is not one that is compatible with human dignity, sexual responsibility and spousal love. Many are unaware that there have been energetic and persuasive worth defenses of this teaching. The general reader, as well as the ethicist and moral theologian, will find much here to stimulate his thinking on this issue. Contributors include William May, Paul Quay, Elizabeth Anscombe, Dietrich von Hildebrand, Carlo Caffara, Cormac Burke, Ralph McInerny, John Kippley, John Finnis and Janet Smith.