Francis Sounding Like a Catholic Pope in Thrilla at Manila

Paul VI was right to warn against contraception, Pope Francis says:

After discussing various threats to the family, including “a lack of openness to life,” he deviated briefly from his prepared remarks, transitioning from English to his native Spanish in order to speak from the heart about the subject.

“I think of Blessed Paul VI,” he said. “In a moment of that challenge of the growth of populations, he had the strength to defend openness to life.”

In 1968, Pope Paul VI released the encyclical Humanae Vitae, which upheld Catholic teaching on sexuality and the immorality of artificial contraception, predicting the negative consequences that would result from a cultural acceptance of birth control.

“He knew the difficulties that families experience, and that’s why in his encyclical, he expressed compassion for particular cases. And he taught professors to be particularly compassionate with particular cases,” Pope Francis said.

“But he went further. He looked to the peoples beyond. He saw the lack and the problem that it could cause families in the future. Paul VI was courageous. He was a good pastor, and he warned his sheep about the wolves that were approaching, and from the heavens he blesses us today.”

Read it all. Perhaps Jennifer Roback Morse is on to something with that environmental encyclical so many are worried about.

And then…What threatens families? Redefining marriage, Pope says:

“The family is also threatened by growing efforts on the part of some to redefine the very institution of marriage, by relativism, by the culture of the ephemeral, by a lack of openness to life,” warned Pope Francis, speaking Friday… His comments on the threats to family come in the wake of Philippines president Benigno Aquino’s signing a highly controversial reproductive health bill in 2013 that drew strong protest from local bishops and members of the faith.

The legislation requires government-sanctioned sex education for adults, middle school and high school students, as well as a population control program that includes fully subsidized contraceptives under government health insurance.

Pointing to numerous obstacles facing the Philippines and greater society, the Pope highlighted the need for “good and strong families to overcome these threats.”

“God calls upon us to recognize the dangers threatening our own families and to protect them from harm,” he said, emphasizing the importance of living out the vocation of family.

And he took some time to visit children who don’t have much in the way of worldly things, and he preached about the scandal of poverty; he crowned a statue of Our Lady of Fatima, and sent a tweet.

And like it or not, this this sounded pretty Papal, too. Because the pope is not an American politician. He’s Peter. Just like the last couple hundred of them. They don’t speak to the issues of a single day, but of eternity.