The formation of — and fallout from — “Humanae Vitae” was an intimate affair for leaders of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. Among the three American bishops who served on the Vatican’s Pontifical Commission on Population, Family and Birth-rate — popularly known as the “birth control commission” — was Archbishop Leo Binz of St. Paul and Minneapolis, who maintained throughout the commission that every contraceptive act was wrong.
Fifty years ago, an encyclical was released affirming a long-held teaching of the Catholic Church, yet it became one of the most controversial encyclicals in recent church history.
Fifty years ago, Blessed Pope Paul VI articulated the gift of the Church’s positive vision of human sexuality in the encyclical “Humanae Vitae,” and its message is a stark contrast to the false vision of sexuality that society promotes, said Auxiliary Bishop Andrew Cozzens. An example of that “false vision,” he said, can be found along Minnesota highways in the form of billboards advertising vasectomies.
