After we published Christopher West's column on the 40th anniversary of Pope Paul VI's encyclical, Humanae Vitae, ("On the Regulation of Birth"), I've been in a couple of conversations about this important document. It is a relatively short document, but full of love for the married couple, and deep in meaning.

When I first read it in 1999, remembering that it was issued in 1968, I was struck by the pope's prophetic voice, specifically about infidelity, and also about government forcing birth control. Continuing in section 17, he also speaks a bit more vaguely about limits that shouldn't be passed regarding the integrity of the human organism and its functions. More about this in a moment.

He asks us to consider "how wide and easy a road" (remember that the road to heaven is narrow and steep) would be opened to extramarital affairs and a general lowering of morality.

And who says a pope is unaware of human weakness?

He goes on to say "Not much experience is needed in order to know human weakness, and to understand that men - especially the young, who are so vulnerable on this point - have need of encouragement to be faithful to the moral law, so they must not be offered an easy means of eluding its observance." We need encouragement to do the right thing, not an easy way out of it.

Then, he goes on to say that, "It is also feared that the man, growing used to the employment of anti-contraceptive practices, may finally lose respect for the woman and no longer caring for her physical and psychological equilibrium, may come to the point of considering her as a mere instrument of selfish enjoyment, and no longer as his respected and beloved companion." Apparently, he could not foresee the coarsening effect on women, as well, as exemplified by many My Space listings.

He predicted also that artificial contraception would be a "dangerous weapon" placed in the hands of public authorities who might have no morality. "Who will stop rules from favoring, from even imposing upon their peoples, if they were to consider it necessary, the method of contraception which they judge to be most efficacious?" He adds that our most personal moments of "conjugal intimacy" could be interfered with by public authorities. Hmmm. He doesn't say it, but I think that China's one child policy comes to mind as a rather extreme example.

He concludes section 17 with comments about "insurmountable limits" to man's dominion over his own body; "limits which no man … may licitly surpass." This is more of a stretch, but I believe in this, we see a reference to things only vaguely possible, but unknown, in 1968 - embryonic stem cell research, frozen "spare" embryos, designer babies and the like.

There are powerful arguments made against contraception by people more learned than I, including Dr. Janet Smith's "Contraception: Why Not." Her talk is available for free from One More Soul - www.omsoul.com . I would also heartily recommend reading the encyclical for yourself.

Encyclicals are available at the Vatican web site, www.vatican.va but there's a site that is easier to search - www.papalencyclicals.net. For me, Pope Paul's vision of the future, and how I saw it come about, played an important role in understanding the connection between abortion, weakening morality and contraception.

Paula Glover is editor of The Monitor. She is available at pglove@dioceseoftrenton.org.