I was theologically active at the time of Humanae Vitae. I examined the arguments offered by the dissenting theologians. I found them so inadequate that I wrote a book defending the received teaching and criticizing the dissenters’ arguments. For its second edition I retitled it as “Birth Control and the Marriage Covenant.” It was that edition that found its way into the hands of Kimberly and Scott Hahn when they were students in a Protestant seminary. It helped persuade them of the truth of the received teaching affirmed by Humanae Vitae, and such acceptance was a step towards their entry into full communion with the Catholic Church. An expanded version is now published as “Sex and the Marriage Covenant” by Ignatius. In March 1971, the generally liberal journal Theological Studies published my article “Continued Dissent: Is It Responsible Loyalty?” in which I showed that the decision-making principles of arch-dissenter Fr. Charles Curran could not say NO even to spouse-swapping. To the best of my knowledge, no one ever accused me of making a “straw-man” argument.
I suggest that you read those things before you waste lots of time and effort trying to support the dissenting position, a position that is unsupportable except in the context of situation ethics which is incompatible with Christian discipleship.
The only thing really surprising in Humanae Vitae is an amazing omission in Section 17 which deals with the consequences of the societal acceptance of unnatural forms of birth control. In 1930 when the Anglican bishops were debating birth control, their conservatives pointed out that the acceptance of marital contraception would logically entail the acceptance of sodomy. Not only were they correct, but today the Anglicans accept as bishops those who are openly involved in the practice of sodomy and calling it marriage. I regret that Pope Paul VI did not include this important bit of history.
At our website you can find lots more to support Humanae Vitae and to uphold the dignity of women as mothers. Nowhere else will you find so much support for the kind of breastfeeding that actually DOES naturally postpone the return of fertility. We have to call it “Ecological Breastfeeding” to distinguish if from the styles of breastfeeding that have little or no effect on the return of fertility.
Future historians will record Humanae Vitae as a bright spot in Catholic history.
John Kippley
Sex and the Marriage Covenant