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Paul VI issues Humanae Vitae

1968 · Rome (Rome, Italy)

On 25 July 1968 Paul VI issues Humanae Vitae, on the regulation of birth. Against the majority report of his own study commission, the encyclical reaffirms the teaching that each marital act must remain open to the transmission of life, and so excludes artificial contraception. Its reception is contested across the Catholic world, and it becomes the most debated papal act of the century.

Tagged: Catholic

The Event

Date
1968 (exact)
Era
The Modern and Global Church; Standard periodization of Catholic history
Location
Rome; today Rome, Italy
Traditions
Catholicism
Streams
Catholic
Key figures
Paul VI
Key texts
Humanae Vitae

How the Tradition Tells It

The encyclical's teaching is the standing doctrine of the Catholic church; its reception by theologians and the faithful has been contested from the year of its issue, and both facts stand in the record.

Connections

Illustration for Second Vatican Council History Event Second Vatican Council 1962–1965 answers a question the council had reserved to the pope

Primary Sources

  • Paul VI, Humanae Vitae, 1968.

Secondary Sources

  • Chadwick, Owen. A History of the Popes, 1830-1914. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998.
  • Duffy, Eamon. Saints and Sinners: A History of the Popes. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.
  • Hastings, Adrian, ed. A World History of Christianity. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999.
  • MacCulloch, Diarmaid. A History of Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years. London: Penguin, 2009.
  • O'Malley, John W. Trent: What Happened at the Council. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2013.

Provenance: HIST-1345; confidence 0.95; accessed 2026-10-30.

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