Bishop Schneider and the Kazakh Bishops Celebrate Humanae Vitae

The encyclical “on the holiness of marriage and the regulation of birth” was promulgated by Pope Paul VI on July 25, 1968, nearly fifty years ago. But the bishops of Kazakhstan chose May 13, the anniversary of the apparitions of Our Lady of Fatima, to commemorate this important papal document. By choosing this date, they wished to show how the attacks against Christian marriage and natural morals are to be understood in the light of the Blessed Virgin Mary’s message in Fatima.

Their pastoral letter once again proclaims “with the voice of the Magisterium of the Church”, the truths contained in the encyclical written in 1968: all conjugal acts must be open to the transmission of life; abortion and birth control are gravely illicit, for “it is never lawful to do evil that good may come of it”; by raising himself up as master over life and death, man “attributes to himself a power which belongs to God alone” and goes against natural and divine law.

The Kazakh bishops likewise recall that “every commandment also entails a gift of grace which helps human freedom to fulfill it,” and that this grace can be obtained through “constant prayer and frequent recourse to the sacraments.”

The prelates of this vast country in Central Asia declare that “the entire human history gave sufficient evidence for the fact that a true progress of society depends to a large extent on large families” and that “this fact applies all the more to the life of the Church.”

This Pastoral Letter was co-signed by Bishop Jose Luis Mumbiela Sierra, Bishop of the diocese of Most Holy Trinity in Almaty and President of the Conference of the Catholic Bishops of Kazakhstan; Archbishop Tomash Peta, Metropolitan Archbishop of the archdiocese of Saint Mary in Astana; Bishop Adelio Dell’Oro, Bishop of Karaganda; Bishop Athanasius Schneider, Auxiliary Bishop of the archdiocese of Saint Mary in Astana; Very Reverend Father Dariusz Buras, Apostolic Administrator of Atyrau; Very Reverend Mitred Archpriest Vasyl Hovera, Delegate of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches for the Greek-Catholic faithful in Kazakhstan and Central Asia.

For more on the Enyclical Humanae Vitae, consider attending the Angelus Press Conference for Catholic Tradition, which this year will focus on the 50th anniversary of its promulgation

Conference: 50 Years Since Humanae Vitae