Encyclicals

"The question of human procreation, like every other question which touches human life, involves more than ... biology, psychology, demography or sociology. It is the whole man and the whole mission to which he is called that must be considered: both its natural, earthly aspects and its supernatural, eternal aspects." - Pope Paul VI, Humanae Vitae

Pope Paul VI's prophetic encyclical Humanae Vitae, issued in 1968, presented the Church's consistent teachings on marriage and contraception to the modern world -- a world that demanded then, as it does now, that the Church adapt her teachings to itself. Standing calmly and firmly against a culture that sees contraception and abortion as individual choices, Humanae Vitae shows us what it means to share in the creative work of God. Paul VI lays out God's plan for human sexuality, a plan that invites married couples to celebrate the incredible gifts of human love and human life.

Humanae Vitae is a loving and honest look at the benefits and the challenges of Church teaching, and a call to the Church to provide guidance and support for couples as they strive to live out God's design for human life and marriage.

The Eucharist is the source and summit of our Faith because the Blessed Sacrament is Christ himself, the full manifestation of his boundless love.

In this encyclical letter On the Eucharist, Pope John Paul II seeks to rekindle in the faithful the profound sense of amazement and gratitude that surrounds the Eucharist.

"In the humble signs of bread and wine, changed into his Body and Blood, Christ walks beside us as our strength and our food for the journey, and he enables us to become, for everyone, witnesses of hope," John Paul II writes. "The Church has received the Eucharist from Christ her Lord not as one gift -- however precious -- among so many others, but as the gift par excellence, for it is the gift of himself, of his Person in his sacred humanity, as well as the gift of his saving work."