And now
We wish to speak to rulers of nations. To you most of all is committed the
responsibility of safeguarding the common good. You can contribute so much to
the preservation of morals. We beg of you, never allow the morals of your
peoples to be undermined.
The
family is the primary unit in the state; do not tolerate any legislation which
would introduce into the family those practices which are opposed to the
natural law of God. For there are other ways by which a government can and
should solve the population problem—that is to say by enacting laws which will
assist families and by educating the people wisely so that the moral law and
the freedom of the citizens are both safeguarded.
We are
fully aware of the difficulties confronting the public authorities in this
matter, especially in the developing countries. In fact, We had in mind the
justifiable anxieties which weigh upon them when We published Our encyclical
letter Populorum Progressio.
But now
We join Our voice to that of Our predecessor John XXIII of venerable memory,
and We make Our own his words: "No statement of the problem and no
solution to it is acceptable which does violence to man's essential dignity;
those who propose such solutions base them on an utterly materialistic
conception of man himself and his life. The only possible solution to this
question is one which envisages the social and economic progress both of individuals
and of the whole of human society, and which respects and promotes true human
values."
No one can, without being grossly unfair, make
divine Providence responsible for what clearly seems to be the result of
misguided governmental policies, of an insufficient sense of social justice, of
a selfish accumulation of material goods, and finally of a culpable failure to
undertake those initiatives and responsibilities which would raise the standard
of living of peoples and their children.
If only
all governments which were able would do what some are already doing so nobly,
and bestir themselves to renew their efforts and their undertakings! There must
be no relaxation in the programs of mutual aid between all the branches of the
great human family. Here We believe an almost limitless field lies open for the
activities of the great international institutions.
Pope
Paul VI, Humanae Vitae 23
Reflection – Well, I must confess that I have
relatively little to say about this paragraph of the encyclical. I’m afraid
that, child as I am of my times, I have so little hope for governments and
those in them to actually be serving the common good of humanity as opposed to
their own narrow and short-term partisan and financial good, that it is hard to
know what I would say to the politicians of our day apart from ‘Repent and
believe the good news,’ and perhaps to remind them (as I remind myself) that we
will all one day stand before a Judge who cannot be bought, conned, spun, or
outwitted, and that perhaps if they cannot give any serious thought to serving
the common good of humanity, they might give some serious thought to the care
of their own immortal souls.
Of course the
real problem in the political world today is not the politicians but the
electorate who repeatedly vote into office whoever tells them the most
plausible lies and promises them the moon and oceans of endless money flowing
from the magical treasury. Politicians who attempt to start a serious
conversation about the utter mess our economies are in and the impending
financial crash that will indeed occur if drastic steps are not taken do not
win (Wynne?) elections. Not that I have any particular election in mind.
But I am
boring my non-Ontario readers (nothing is more tiresome than local politics to
those not of that locality). Meanwhile HV is not precisely about that, but
about what the common good actually is, whether governments choose to serve it
or not. And that common good is to build up a culture of the family, to
encourage and facilitate a society in which men and women will together live
their lives responsibly and generously, and raise their children in a secure,
stable family unit so as to become adults capable of the same generosity and responsibility.
I don’t know
how much governments can do in this regard, or are willing to do for that
matter. Men of Pope Paul VI’s era were more optimistic about that question than
most men of mine. But I do know that this is the key to human happiness, human
development, human economic progress. Not to throw a bunch of contraceptives at
people (the standard practice of much UN and other international ‘development’
initiatives), but to build up the family, the bond of love of man and woman out
of which children are born, the unbreakable bond of men and women for the
children they create together in love, and the forging of an unbreakable community
of man, woman, children that is the family and that is the foundation of
society, the Church, the world, has been ‘from the beginning’ and always will
be.
If the family
is weak, society and the Church will totter. If the family is strong, society
and the Church will flourish. At this point, realistically I don’t think we can
expect too much real support from our governments in building a culture of the family,
but build it we must, and this building is something we all can have a share
in, according to our proper vocation and work.
