Change is a-coming

“The changes that have taken place are of considerable importance and varied in nature. In the first place there is the rapid increase in population which has made many fear that world population is going to grow faster than available resources, with the consequence that many families and developing countries would be faced with greater hardships. This can easily induce public authorities to be tempted to take even harsher measures to avert this danger. There is also the fact that not only working and housing conditions but the greater demands made both in the economic and educational field pose a living situation in which it is frequently difficult these days to provide properly for a large family.

Also noteworthy is a new understanding of the dignity of woman and her place in society, of the value of conjugal love in marriage and the relationship of conjugal acts to this love.

But the most remarkable development of all is to be seen in man's stupendous progress in the domination and rational organization of the forces of nature to the point that he is endeavoring to extend this control over every aspect of his own life—over his body, over his mind and emotions, over his social life, and even over the laws that regulate the transmission of life.”

Paragraph 2 details the successes accumulated over the years of life. But it’s an interesting “importance” the Pope delineates; an importance that separates the individual from the group, the woman from the man, and the culture from the society. The first paragraph in this section deals with the world and the population’s across it and the resources that play key roles in the existence of those populations. The next two paragraphs talk about the separation of man and woman and their roles in society, life, and culture. The Pope sets on the table that these roles are strict, fixed. But this oxymoron of a rule doesn’t stay fixed in this life time. Populations grow, individuals change, the role of the woman and man shift. But these changes are good. They show a nation that is healthy and heading in the correct direction, contrary to the Pope’s beliefs.

The Pope has a point here though. A point that there have been many changes in our culture, but not all these changes are bad. Yes, there are some, that if we were able to travel back in time we might change, but of course we don’t have that luxury, yet. But these mistakes can be seen as points to improve on. The growing population issue yes is true, but if we all work together we’ll pull through. The role of woman spreading from what was constricting back in the 1920s and further are becoming nonexistent as we see woman climb the ladder for the greater good. And man, always flying to new heights.

I do find at least one fault with the Pope’s message: the argument, although very nicely said, but a bit implicit, of the separation of the roles of woman and man in society. Haven’t we in society come to the point where there is no separation? Where man and woman are equals? The Pope goes on to say, “This love is above all fully human, a compound of sense and spirit... It is also, and above all, an act of the free will, whose trust is such that it is meant not only to survive the joys and sorrows of daily life, but also to grow, so that husband and wife become in a way one heart and one soul, and together attain their human fulfillment.” Man and woman are one, yet the Pope says throughout the entire article that it is not alright for artificial birth control. Birth control brings the man and woman closer, it helps them to reach to newer heights with their relationship, to reach for the top point where a child could come in to their lives, but the Pope doesn’t see it that way. The birth control is woman’s way of being able to control that what God has given her to her pace of life. To the Pope the pill is steering women down the wrong path. I believe, on the contrary to “the wrong path” that Pope preaches of, the pill is a step in the right direction. It helps women to learn the goings-on’s of the body and to be able to be ready for when the time comes that she does want to bear a child into this world. The Pope talks of in the first paragraph that there is fear of a vastly growing population that will out run the resources, well the pill helps to counter that increase by giving women the right to chose when they are ready and when they are not. The body and mind have to be one, and sometimes the body reacts too fast for the mind to compensate. Our culture has brought with it change, a change that brings the individual with the population, the woman with the man, and the culture with the society. Our culture today isn’t fixed, it’s ever changing, and the Pope may not like it, but he should brace himself for it, because change is a-coming.