Fifty years ago, Pope Paul VI issued an encyclical that shook the Catholic Church to its core by declaring that every use of artificial contraceptives is immoral. The document, “Humanae Vitae” (“Of Human Life”), was a shocker because many Catholics had hoped the pope, with the widening availability of the pill after its appearance in 1960, would open the way for Catholics to use birth control.
The encyclical continues to be controversial, with the hierarchy, including Pope Francis, supporting it while most Catholics ignore it.
When the encyclical was published July 25, 1968, the response from Catholic moral theologians was overwhelmingly negative.