“For you deal here above all with human life, and human life is sacred; no one may dare make an attempt upon it. Respect for life, even with regard to the great problem of the birth rate, must find here in your Assembly its highest affirmation and its most rational defence. Your task is to ensure that there is enough bread on the tables of mankind, and not to encourage an artificial control of births, which would be irrational, in order to diminish the number of guests at the banquet of life.”
-Pope Paul VI to the UN General Assembly, 4 October 1965
great quote!
But then Paul VI’s Humane Vitae was filled with great quotes too!
Yes it is. And in due course, we’ll be revisiting Humanae Vitae, ably assisted by Dr. Janet Smith’s reflections on that document, as well as a consideration of how the scientific literature bear out its predictions.