Covenant of Love: Pope John Paul II on Sexuality, Marriage, and Family in the Modern World

Foreword

And now the most eminent cardinals have called a new bishop of Rome. They have called him from a distant country, distant but always so close through the communion in the Christian faith and tradition.

Talks of John Paul II

Karol Wojtyla was neither a recluse nor a stranger to much of the world when he accepted the duties of the Vicar of Christ on October 16, 1978. He had played a strong role in the proceedings of the Second Vatican Council and had served as a representative from his native Poland in each of the synods of bishops from the time of the institution of that forum.

It is unlikely, however, that anyone could have anticipated the extraordinary impact he has had on the world in these past six years. In part because of his travels and in part because of his obvious attractiveness to people, what he says and does receives the greatest possible attention.

What is becoming increasingly clear to me is that it is impossible to divorce the person of John Paul II from his teaching. In a world of personality peddlers, he comes through as integral and a person totally informed by his unwavering faithfulness to the Church of Christ.

Concern for truth is the Holy Father’s basic preoccupation. He is able to teach people hard truths. He preaches chastity to an age that has pretty much rejected chastity. He teaches the Values of family life to a world that is pretty cavalier about those values; There is an extraordinary consistency about John Paul II, the man and the teacher. He is the product of a living, growing faith, and his roots are set solidly not only in his native Poland but in the Second Vatican Council. His mission in life is to share his vision of faith and the vision of that Council with all who will listen.

As early as 1972, when he published Sources of Renewal, the cardinal archbishop of Cracow patiently explained what the teaching of the Council was. Now, with a much larger platform he brings that same message to the entire world. The secret of John Paul II’s consistency in teaching is that today he is guided by the same Holy Spirit who inspired him and his brother bishops when they drafted the conciliar documents.

In an extraordinary statement, the conciliar fathers taught that our Lord Jesus Christ fully reveals man to himself (Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, no. 22). Of course, within John Paul’s new and most interesting theological system this statement is clearly associated with God’s revelation in Genesis that human beings are made to the image and likeness of God. Obviously, if we are like God, we do not know ourselves unless we know God.

That central insight in the Holy Father’s approach to faith lies in God’s revelation in Genesis and Christ’s fulfillment of creation. This insight has dictated his teachings on sexuality and family life.

It is not possible to fragment the teaching of this pope. You really don’t understand what he says about sexuality and the family without understanding his entire system of thought.

It is my belief that Fathers Hogan and LeVoir have not only provided this background in the first part of this volume, but they have also applied their studies of his thought to the most important document the Holy See has issued on the family, Familiaris Consortio, The Role of the Christian Family in the Modern World. It is my hope that this volume will be an enrichment to the many who look for truth from a man who spends his life in the cause of truth.

THE MOST REVEREND JOHN R. ROACH

Past President, National Conference of Catholic Bishops

Preface

The authors of this volume have incurred a responsibility toward John Paul II. They have received the priceless gift of the truth in the teachings of the present successor to Saint Peter. In accepting such a gift, the authors have incurred an obligation to make some repayment. In a sense, they have a debt to John Paul II—a debt which they now desire to discharge. Since the Holy Father wishes his teachings to be made known to all people, the authors, through this work, wish to repay the Holy Father in a small way by making his masterful preaching of the gospel better known and understood, especially as it relates to sexuality and family matters.

This volume is divided into two parts. The first part, in five chapters, is an analysis of John Paul II’s new synthesis as applied to sexuality and family life. The first chapter briefly examines John Paul’s revolutionary new synthesis of faith and reason. The next four chapters consider the human person as an individual, as a member of the communion of persons of the family, as a member of the communion of persons existing among all workers, and as a member of the mystical person of Christ, the Church. Sexuality and family life are discussed extensively in the second and third chapters. The second chapter considers the individual human person as an image of God called to love in and through the body. The third chapter examines the expression of love within the family. Clearly, these chapters are closely related and a few of the same topics are discussed in both. However, we have striven to limit the duplications. The second chapter will discuss those areas that pertain more to the individual, e.g., sterilization, and the third, those that pertain more to a couple, e.g., premarital sexual contact. But since the family in many modern societies has been devalued by a fundamental misunderstanding of the relationship of man and work, John Paul II’s view of sexuality and family life is incomprehensible without an understanding of the Holy Father’s considerations on work. The application of John Paul’s new synthesis to work corrects the false understanding of work and situates it within the context of human and family values. Thus, it is only through a comprehension of the Holy Father’s revolutionary view of work that the family can be restored to its proper position in society. Therefore, the chapter on work is essential to this study of John Paul’s vision of family and family life. Finally, the Holy Father describes the family as the domestic church. As such, it cannot be understood without knowing who the Church is.

The second part of this volume applies the principles analyzed in the first part to a key document of John Paul II’s pontificate, Familiaris Consortio, The Role of the Christian Family in the Modern World. The commentary on this document will serve to highlight a brilliantly written work, which has, for the most part, not received the attention it deserves.

Of course, the second part depends on the first. The same ideas and some of the same arguments are found in both parts. However, we have tried to avoid unnecessary repetition. Thus; in the second part, an idea might be sketched briefly in a few sentences because it has been extensively explained in the first part. Since we did not want to burden this work with numerous notes, we have not included citations to previous or subsequent discussions of a topic. However, the index should prove helpful in locating all the references to a particular topic. We have also avoided other notes except in the case of direct quotes. The references in the notes are abbreviated. The full titles of those works cited and abbreviated in the notes, together with their abbreviations, are listed following this preface. The Scripture quotes are taken from the Revised Standard Version (Catholic Edition).

One further note is important. The Holy Father is almost exclusively addressing the normal situations. For example, he teaches that the body expresses the person as God gave it to us. This is true for all those born without handicaps. However, if a child is bodily handicapped from birth, his body does not adequately express his person. Not only may the medical profession do what it can to restore normal health, i.e., the normal bodily expression of the person, it must (provided the medical means employed are ordinary). The Holy Father does not address this case precisely, but, in his principle, he does not mean to exclude ordinary medical intervention to restore the health of handicapped infants. The Holy Father addresses normal situations. He expects us to apply his principles to the less than ordinary cases without doing violence to his basic system.

The authors owe a debt to many people, not the least of whom is Pope John Paul II. Others who have encouraged this work at various stages include Monsignor Richard J. Schuler, Reverend Leo Dolan, Mr. Alphonse J. Matt, Mr. Paul W. Le Voir, Dr. Richard H. Berquist, Dr. Thomas Sullivan, Dr. William May, Mr. John (Jack) G. Quesnell, Mr. and Mrs. Patrick Shannon, Mr. and Mrs. Donald Kramer, Mr. Douglas G. Bushman, Mrs. Mary Jo Smith, Mrs. Karlee Gardner, and Mr. John Gries. We are particularly grateful to the Most Reverend John R. Roach, Archbishop of Saint Paul and Minneapolis for writing the foreword, and to our pastors, Monsignor Stanley J. Srnec and the Reverend Francis R. Kittock for their encouragement. We wish also to express our gratitude to our families, who have helped us in many intangible ways while this work was prepared.

Further, we are grateful to the many people who allowed and even invited us to present to them the ideas found in this volume. This group would include the parishioners of both Saint Raphael and Saint Charles parishes in Minneapolis. In a special way, it includes the members of the Saint Raphael Inquiry classes of 1982, 1983, and 1984. We also want to thank Mr. John Hamlon and the Family Life Bureau of Saint Cloud. This bureau has invited one or both of us to speak at various meetings and conventions. Similarly, we wish to thank Mr. and Mrs. Michael Marker of the Human Life Center at Saint John’s University in Collegeville, Minn., for their invitations to speak. We have also experienced the hospitality of the Reverend Richard Villano and Mr. John Sondag of Saint Helena’s parish in Minneapolis. We are grateful to Mr. Paul Sellors, who invited us to speak at De La Salle High School, and to the Reverend Patrick Ryan and Mrs. Nancy D’Heilly, who invited us to speak at their parish, Saint Rose of Lima, in Saint Paul. We will never be able to repay the kindnesses of these and many others who contributed to this volume. Lastly, we must end with a note of thanks to those who made this published work a reality. We wish to thank Mrs. Roberta Nathe and Mrs. Michaeline (Ondrey) Loomis, who typed portions of this volume. Without our editor, Patricia Kossmann, this work would never have appeared.

John Paul II is the answer to modern man’s question, To whom should I go for the truth? If this book aids others to see the truth that the Pope is teaching, the authors’ labors will not have been in vain.

Finally, let it be said that the authors of this volume submit in all things to the Holy Father. It is their intention to present his thought, not their own. With this hope, they place this book into your hands.

RICHARD M. HOGAN

John M. LeVoir

Preface to the Second Edition

The second edition of this volume is substantially the same as the first edition. Readers familiar with the book will notice that the Introduction to the first part has been expanded. Actually, this chapter now stands as it was originally written. During the editing process for the first edition, some materials were cut from the first chapter. These have been restored in this edition. Familiar readers will also recognize that an effort has been made to eliminate the awkward he / she language. In some cases, we have used the plural. In a few cases, where it is absolutely necessary for the sense, we have decided to say he or she. There were one or two references to the Soviet Union in the first edition. Where necessary, we have changed these to account for the different world we see today.

We both are firmly convinced that this book is as timely today as it was when it was first published. Pope John Paul II continues to teach the world his new synthesis of faith and reason. Even today, in the second decade of his pontificate, many, many people do not seem to grasp the extraordinary new way that John Paul II is using to present the Faith. This new synthesis of the Faith can be the means of renewing the Faith of all Christians and of bringing more people to Christ. If this second edition promotes that process, then it will have fulfilled its purpose.

RICHARD M. HOGAN

John M. LeVoir

November 8, 1991

Abbreviations

The following are works of John Paul II:

DM     Dives in Misericordia, On the Mercy of God. Boston: Saint Paul Editions, 1981.

FC     Familiaris Consortia, Apostolic Exhortation, The Role of the Christian Family in the Modern World. Boston: Daughters of Saint Paul, 19 81.

LE     Laborem Exercens, On Human Work. L’Osservatore Romano (English Edition.) Vol. 14, no. 38, (September 21, 1981), pp. 1-13.

LR     Love and Responsibility. Translated by H. T. Willetts. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1981.

RH     Redemptor Hominis, The Redeemer of Man. L’Osservatore Romano. (English Edition.) Vol. 12, no. 12 (March 19, 1979), pp 3-14.

SC     Sign of Contradiction. Translated by Saint Paul Publications. New York: Seabury Press, 1979.

SR     Sources of Renewal: The Implementation of Vatican II. Translated by P. S. Falla. New York: Harper & Row, 1980.

TB     Theology of the Body. (A series of sixty-three addresses at the Wednesday papal audiences. These are cited in the notes by number, 1-63. The numbers are given in parentheses after the dates in the following list.) All the addresses are found in L’Osservatore Romano. (English Edition.) Vol. 12, nos. 37-40, 42, 44-48, 51-53 [September 10 (1), 17 (2), 24 {3), October 1 (4), 15 (5), 29 (6), November 5 (7), 12 (8), 19 (9), 26 (10), December 17 (11), 24 (12), 1979.] Vol. 13, nos. 1-3, 5-8, 10-11, 13-14, 16-18, 20, 22-23, 25-26, 30-46, 49-50, 52. [January 7 (13), 14 (14), 21 (15), February 4 (16), 11 (17), 18 (18), 25 (19), March 10 (20), 17 (21), 31 (22), April 8 (23), 21 (24), 28 (25), May 5 (26), 19 (27), June 2 (28), 9 (29), 23 (30), 30 (31), July 28 (32), August 4 (33), 11 (34), 25 (35 and 36), September 1 (37), 8 (38), 15 (39), 22 (40), 29 (41), October 6 (42), 13 (43), 20 (44), 27 (45), November 3 (46), 10 (47), 17 (48), December 9 (49), 15 (50), 29 (51), 1980.] Vol. 14, nos. 2-3, 5-7, 12, 14-19. [January 12 (52), 19 (53), February 2 (54), 9 (55), 16 (56), March 23 (57), April 6 (58), 13 (59), 21 (60), 27 (61), May 4 (62), 11 (63), 1981.] These addresses can also be found in the two-volume series: Original Unity of Man and Woman: Catechesis on the Book of Genesis and Blessed are the Pure of Heart: Catechesis on the Sermon on the Mount and Writings of Saint Paul. Boston: Saint Paul Editions, 1981, 1983.

The following works of the Second Vatican Council are cited from Documents of Vatican II. Edited by Austin P. Flannery. Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1975:

GS     Gaudium et Spes, Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World. (December 7, 1965), pp. 903-1001.

LG     Lumen Gentium, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church. (November 21, 1964), pp. 350-432.

PART ONE

The Family

in the Teachings of

Pope John Paul II

INTRODUCTION

Pope John Paul II

A Man for Our Times

A. The Papal Elections (1978)

"Annuntio vobis gaudium magnum: Habemus Papam! These historic words were spoken from a Vatican balcony in Rome by the then dean of the College of Cardinals, His Eminence, Pericle Ordinal Felici, at 6:43 p.m. on October 16, 1978. Through the miracle of modern satellite communication, the whole world watched and listened in anticipation as the cardinal appeared from behind the balcony doors. All was quiet as he gave voice to the conclave in the official and venerable language of the Roman Church: I announce to you a great joy: we have a Pope, the Most Eminent and Most Reverend Lord, Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, Karol Wojtyla, who has taken the name, John Paul II."

Profound mystery, inspiring nothing less than awe—even in the eyes of nonbelievers—surrounds the passing of the keys of Saint Peter to a new pope. The drama and ritual of this event include the funeral of the deceased pontiff, the conclave, and the election and installation of a new pope. But present in addition to all of this, is the awesome and even fearful hand of God. For, as Catholics believe, it can not be that God would abandon bis Church at such a time. Quite the contrary is true. The exterior pomp and ceremony are merely the visible signs of the hidden and subtle workings of the Holy Spirit. What does not appear to the senses must be seen through the eyes of faith, and it is usually in retrospect only that these eyes can be focused enough to see how the invisible God has inspired visible results. What does such a retrospective view of the election of Karol Wojtyla disclose?

First, the papal elections of 1978 were somewhat unusual because most observers did not expect the two popes chosen after Paul VI to become the successors of Saint Peter. In past papal elections of this century, there have often been one or two cardinals who were the obvious candidates. Since speculation about an upcoming conclave had started long before Pope Paul VI had died in August 1978, the lack of two or three clear candidates is especially noteworthy. With the increasing age of Pope Paul, everyone knew that there would soon be a conclave, and many were preparing for it by publishing and discussing the biographies of the cardinals. From these biographical sketches and discussions there emerged a list, as there always does before a conclave, of the papabili, that is, the cardinals from whom most observers thought the next pope would be chosen. But in 1978, the list was extraordinarily long. Of course, no one at the time knew what the cardinals were actually thinking. Nevertheless, the papabili lists in the past had been reasonably accurate.

Immediately after the death of Pope Paul VI, and continuing until the election of Pope John Paul I, the mass media made the varying papabili lists known. Everyone was confident that the new pope would be chosen from among those on these lists because they were so long. The observers could not be completely wrong, or so thought most people.

Imagine then the frustration of the observers and the newscasters when, in August 1978, the cardinals elected the Patriarch of Venice, Albino Cardinal Luciani, a man almost unknown, and, of course, not on anyone’s papabili list. The television newscasters in New York covering the papal election had to apologize to their viewers for not having a dossier on the new Pope immediately available. After all, they had thought that one of the papabili would be chosen. Dare it be suggested that the Holy Spirit was clearly letting everyone know that a papal election was his business, and that he was not limited to prepared lists of papabili?

After the untimely death of Pope John Paul I, the second papal election of 1978 took place. An identical situation arose. Again, the same lists as before appeared, with amateur political guesses as to what had gone wrong in the previous conclave. A general consensus seemed to be that the smiling Pope John Paul I was a compromise candidate. Now, of course, the pundits seemed sure that the cardinals would choose someone from the papabili lists. Still, they were more cautious than before.

Remembering their previous embarrassment, at least some of the television news organizations added dossiers on cardinals who were not on the previous papabili lists. One newscaster proudly announced that he and his staff could not be caught off-guard this time because they had prepared dossiers on all the Italian cardinals. Furthermore, they still had on file the dossiers of the papabili cardinals who were not Italian.

Imagine then, this news staff’s frustration when Cardinal Felici made his historic and striking announcement of the election of Wojtyla. They were in the same situation as before. They did not know at first where this new Pope had been bishop. They had to ask their viewers to be patient until they could assemble some information on this obscure Polish cardinal.

Of course, one cannot blame them. By any normal human assessment, the election of Karol Wojtyla had to be regarded as a very poor bet. But the transfer of the keys of Saint Peter is not merely a human affair. The Holy Spirit guides the cardinals in their choice, and in this particular instance—as with John Paul I—the hand of the Holy Spirit seems quite apparent.

Second, the events of August and October 1978, were striking because of the new double name that each of the new popes took. For John Paul I, this was either an attempt to ward off a comparison between his pontificate and those of his predecessors, John XXIII and Paul VI, or it was a unique way of showing his continuity with these two popes of Vatican II. In either case, it was nothing short of revolutionary. It was comparable to the move in the late tenth century when the popes first began to take new names when they were elected to the chair of Saint Peter.

One television commentator noted the significance of the new double name when he spoke of the John Paul Revolution on a newscast after the election of Karol Wojtyla. Perhaps some would argue that this was an exaggeration, but in fact it was not. The incredible force of ritual and tradition in papal elections, even in the post-Vatican II Church, must be remembered when addressing this development. It was indeed a departure from previous practice, and it will probably change the names that the popes take in the future. Thus, it qualifies as a revolution.

Third, the most striking and unusual feature about the events leading to the election of Pope John Paul II was that his was the second election in a single year; 1978 was the year of three popes. Not since 1605, with the election and death of Pope Leo XI, had there been three popes in one year. For some reason known to God alone, it was divinely ordained that Karol Wojtyla should succeed not Paul VI, but John Paul I.

The world reacted to the death of the smiling Pope John Paul I with shock and disbelief. In America, the news came in the middle of the night and many were wakened by friends calling early in the morning. Still others heard about the Pope’s passing on the morning radio or television newscasts. More than a few initially thought that this was old news. Since the Pope had died almost two months previous, why were their friends disturbing them in the middle of the night with such old stories? Why were the newscasters so excited about what everyone already knew? In short, the world could not comprehend the death of the sixty-five year-old Holy Father less than a month after he had been elected. The news was simply extraordinary! (In Germany, the initial reaction was that the Pope had been poisoned by the Italians!) Why God called John Paul I to his eternal reward is not for us to know, but it is clear that such an event is evidence of God’s activity in his Church.

In addition to the extraordinary events already mentioned—the election of two unexpected candidates as pope; the choice of a double name by both popes; and two papal elections in one year—there was the choice of a non-Italian as the Vicar of Christ. Not since the pontificate of Adrian VI (1522-1523), who was a Dutchman, had a non-Italian been elected to the chair of Saint Peter. Of course, after the Second Vatican Council, many had expected that a non-Italian would be elected pope, if only to demonstrate the international character of the papacy. Some thought that this would happen after the death of Pope Paul VI. Others thought it would occur only after his successor’s pontificate. Of course, the latter were correct, but they never foresaw the short reign of Pope John Paul I. Astonishingly, however, Wojtyla was not only not Italian, he was Polish. This fact in itself is significant and deserves an in-depth look.

Never has there been a Polish pope! Few, if any, ever expected the first non-Italian pope in four centuries to be Polish. Some speculation (rather far fetched and irresponsible, or so it was thought), stimulated partly by the famous movie, The Shoes of the Fisherman, held out the possibility that a man from the Eastern-bloc nations would be elected pope. But even the most outlandish of these opinions never considered a Polish cardinal as a possible successor to Saint Peter.

Furthermore, such an election of an Eastern-bloc cardinal was envisioned as ending the difficulties between the Church and the communist governments. Instead, we have Wojtyla who, it seems, has completely opposed the Polish communist government with some success. Far from a rapprochement, his election was clearly the beginning of a new phase in the struggle between the Church and the communist governments, especially in Poland.

There is no doubt today that Karol Wojtyla, as Pope, is the spiritual father of the solidarity union movement in Poland. The very name, solidarity, reflects one of the major components in John Paul II’s new synthesis of philosophy and the gospel, the communion of persons.¹ However, what many do not realize is that the term, solidarity, was used as a leftist-Marxist slogan in 1973-1974, especially with regard to the difficulties in Chile in those years. The communists of the world were to rally in solidarity with their comrades suffering in Chile. Now, an anti-Marxist Polish union, inspired by the Pope, is using the same word to signify opposition to the Marxists.

The communist governments of the East face a man wielding enormous influence extending far beyond the borders of their nations. They face a man who knows their mode of operating intimately and who uses their own ideas against them. Never could such a forceful and effective Polish anti-communist Holy Father have been predicted in 1978. In such there is clearly the hand of God.

It was probably because of our Holy Father’s anticommunist stance that a tragedy, unknown for centuries in the history of the papacy, occurred. On May 13, 1981, less than three years after his election, an assassin’s bullet struck the Pontiff while he was greeting the people assembled in Saint Peter’s square for his weekly Wednesday audience. Was the assassin part of an elaborate plot to kill the Pope? Was there a conspiracy having ties with the communist governments? These are certainly possibilities. At any rate, it appears that the attempted assassination was done by professionals and that it should have succeeded!. As it was, the Pope was rushed from the square, slumped over in the rebuilt jeep that he uses for transportation around the crowded square on Wednesdays. If it was surprising that the professional assassin did not succeed in killing him instantly, it was equally surprising that he did not succumb to his wounds. For it now seems clear that these wounds were much more serious than originally reported in those long hours immediately after the shooting. As our Holy Father himself has acknowledged, he was saved through the intervention of God and the Blessed Mother.

Besides these extraordinary occurrences, one must take account of the tremendous mobility and popularity of Pope John Paul II. It seems that the world knew, from the very first month of the new pontificate, that the face of the papacy would be changed by this man from behind the Iron Curtain. In the person of Karol Wojtyla, a fresh breeze off the Carpathian mountains had blown into Rome. He was elected on October 16, 1978, and by the end of the following January he was in Puebla, Mexico, with plans already formulated for a visit to Poland the following May. Literally millions from around the world have seen this Vicar of Christ on his visits to the British Isles, the United States, South America, the Philippines, Japan, Australia, Africa, Germany, France, Spain, and his many visits within Italy. Countless other millions have watched him on television. No other pope has traveled so much or as widely. Never has a pope been as well known or as famous as John Paul II. But the people of the world not only know him, they love him. There are numerous manifestations of the affection with which the people of the world regard the Pope: the recording Vatican Rock, which appeared shortly after his election; the cry J. P. II, we love you heard in the English speaking world; the chanting of Polish hymns to honor the Pope; and the comic book published about his life. The papal trips, together with the response of the people, could never have been predicted or foreseen. They are, by any human standard, absolutely extraordinary.

Of course, not every Holy Father