St. Pope Paul VI is a much-misunderstood pope. He was elected after the death of Pope St. John XXIII in 1963 and continued Vatican II. He then implemented the reforms until his death in 1978. The reforms of Vatican II included reforming all the sacraments so that they were better understood and celebrated by the people; the understanding of who we are as Church; what the Church’s relationship with the world is; and relations with non-Catholic Christians and non-Christians.
St. Pope Paul VI also served the Church during the times of great social upheaval and changes in social and sexual mores throughout the world. He issued his last encyclical, Humanae Vitae to help the Church and the world deal with many issues concerning sexual behavior and family life. Many in Europe and America opposed it. It condemned artificial birth control as intrinsically evil on the grounds that it is opposed to the generation of life in the act of contracepting, which is contrary to Catholic Church teaching as well as natural law. Sacramental marriage is about being in union with God as well as one’s spouse: “Love is total—that very special form of personal friendship in which husband and wife generously share everything, allowing no unreasonable exceptions and not thinking solely of their own convenience. Whoever really loves his partner loves not only for what he receives, but loves that partner for the partner's own sake, content to be able to enrich the other with the gift of himself” (8,9).
St. Pope Paul VI also reaffirmed other doctrines of the Church, including a male priesthood, which was declared dogma by St. John Paul the Great in 1994. He may have been misunderstood, but that is the lot of prophets, and Saint Pope Paul VI is our modern-day prophet.
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