Monsignor Gilfredo Marengo's revisionist history...

The Catholic Herald reports:


Four theologians specialising in marriage and family life are studying Vatican archival material with a view of telling the whole story of how and why Blessed Paul VI wrote his encyclical Humanae Vitae on married love.

Mgr Gilfredo Marengo, leader of the group and a professor of theological anthropology at Rome’s Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family, spoke to Vatican Radio about the study on July 25, the 49th anniversary of the encyclical’s publication.

Some bloggers, writing in the spring about the study group, described it as an initiative of Pope Francis to change the encyclical’s teaching against the use of artificial contraception.

Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, chancellor of the John Paul II Institute, categorically denied the bloggers’ reports.

In reply to an email, Mgr Marengo told Catholic News Service that the study 'is a work of historical-critical investigation without any aim other than reconstructing as well as possible the whole process of composing the encyclical.'

'Anyone who imagined any other aim should have simply done their work and verified their sources,' he said.

In view of the 50th anniversary, Mgr Marengo told Vatican Radio, he and three other Italian professors are conducting their research with the goal of showing the encyclical’s place among 'all of the very important and fruitful things the Church has said on marriage and family in the past 50 years.'

Also, he said, from a historical point of view, it is important that theologians formally examine and document the process that led to the encyclical’s publication. What Mgr Marengo called 'the distinct phases' of the encyclical’s development included the work of a small committee appointed by St John XXIII in 1963 and expanded greatly by Pope Paul. The commission’s work ended in 1966 with the leaking of a report by the majority of commission members asserting artificial contraception was not intrinsically evil and minority reports insisting it was.

In the end, Mgr Marengo said, the commission 'was not able to give him [Pope Paul] what he needed to write the encyclical. Therefore, Paul VI almost had to start over alone,' but with the added complication of public opinion, including among theologians, 'polarised between those favourable and those contrary' to the use of the contraceptive pill.

The encyclical itself was criticised by many – and not just by those who advocated for acceptance of artificial contraception, the priest said. 'It is important to remember that in those years many still looked at the regulation of births' using natural fertility rhythms 'as a ‘benevolent concession’ to couples rather than as a positive value to pursue.'

Procreation, he said, was seen by many as the primary purpose of marriage, so Pope Paul’s insistence in Humanae Vitae that sex within marriage is both procreative and unitive was something new..."

Pope Paul VI's teaching that sex within marriage has two elements, the unitive and the procreative, was something new?

This is nothing less than an exercise in bovine scatology.


In his Encyclical Letter Casti Connubii, Pope Plus XI cites St. Augustine (De Genesi ad litteram, bk. 9, chap. 7, no. 12).

Pius identifies the three blessings of marriage as children, mutual fidelity, and the dignity of a sacrament (CC, no. 10). The first and primary blessing is the procreation of children (CC, nos. 11-18; see Gen. 1:28 and 1 Tim. 5:14). With the begetting of children, husband and wife become intimate cooperators with God in propagating the human race. They take upon themselves the task of rearing and educating their children. The noble nature of marriage leaves God’s new children in their parents’ hands.

The second blessing of marriage is the mutual fidelity of the spouses (CC, no. 19). In matrimony, husband and wife are joined together so closely as to become "one flesh" (Matt. 19:3-6 and Eph. 5:32; cf. Gen. 1:27 and 2:24). Husband and wife, in marital chastity and total exclusivity, blend the whole of their lives in mutual support, self-giving, and service to God (see 1 Cor. 7:3; Eph. 5:25; Col. 3:19; and CC, nos. 20-30).

I guess Monsignor Marengo needs to do his work.  He should begin here.

I'm betting he won't.  Too many "scholars" like him have become lazy.  And while proclaiming themselves to be wise, have become fools instead.

I'd like to present this year's Walter Duranty Award for living in denial to Monsignor Marengo.