Page "Humanae Vitae" Paragraph 25

Pope Paul VI was troubled by the encyclical's reception in the West.

Paul defended the encyclical, saying “ It does not surprise the Church that she becomes, like her divine Founder, a ‘ sign of contradiction ’; yet she does not, because of this, cease to proclaim with humble firmness the entire moral law, both the natural law and the law of the Gospel.

Acknowledging the controversy, Paul VI in a letter to the Congress of German Catholics ( Aug. 30, 1968 ), stated: " May the lively debate aroused by our encyclical lead to a better knowledge of God ’ s will.

" In March 1969, he had a meeting with one of the main critics of Humanae Vitae, Cardinal Leo Joseph Suenens.

Paul heard him out and said merely, " Yes, pray for me ; because of my weaknesses, the Church is badly governed ".

On 23 June 1978, weeks before his death, in an address to the College of Cardinals, Paul VI reaffirmed his Humanae Vitae: " following the confirmations of serious science ", and which sought to affirm the principle of respect for the laws of nature and of " a conscious and ethically responsible paternity ".