Msgr. Robert J. Batule: The Steadying Wisdom of ‘Humanae Vitae’

Science and technology enhance our lives in innumerable ways. There’s no disputing that. But we have moved beyond fixing things and operating at maximum efficiency. If truth be told, we have arrived at something like Huxley’s Brave New World (1932) with the counter-developments in biotech.

Science and technology are powers, and thus they have to be harnessed or regulated if there is to be a morally licit way of making the best use of them. In the past, practitioners of various kinds, doctors especially, were reticent about stepping outside certain limits; they did not want to be seen or perceived as playing God. It would seem, however, that the boundary line has shifted, or the reticence has evaporated. …