In a lecture in Rome early this year Cardinal Martini of Milan said one of the challenges for the Catholic Church at the close of the millennium was that of being a reference point on moral issues for the world.
While there are many in our world who disagree with the church's stance on key moral issues they continue to refer to ideals set out in teaching documents of the church. Many would, for instance, disagree radically with the church's teaching on abortion, euthanasia and the statement in Humanae Vitae that each marriage act must remain open to the transmission of life.
In their understanding of things the standards set out by the church are either unrealistic or unreasonable or both. In a milieu where there is a huge variety of opinions on crucial moral issues the church remains a prophetic voice.
The decades since the issuing of Humanae Vitae have been difficult for many institutions, and the church has not been spared a share in the turmoil. In a culture where personal freedom is prized and where it is at times regarded as the supreme value, tension with institutions is inevitable because institutions put limitations on personal autonomy.
In a recent article (the Tablet, June 13th, 1998) Cardinal Hume pointed out how our world is distrustful of any appeals to authority, how it is suspicious of traditional sources of authority such as parents, teachers and churches. In recent times these sources of authority have been put under the searchlight of close scrutiny and the shortcomings of some of their representatives highlighted.
One of the practical effects of this searching examination of institutions is that citing the voice of authority for clear guidance on moral matters doesn't have the impact it once had. "When you have to quote the rules you've lost the argument" is how one media expert put it recently. Citing the regulations is no longer enough to win acceptance for the church's message.
Dissent from directives given by institutions is part of the culture in which we live. The fact that people, including many who are well disposed, have problems with giving their assent to the teaching of the church on some issues deserves more analysis than a short article can give. A few observations can be made.
Rejection of institutions is rejection of limitations: it is difficulty with the curbs which they put on our behaviour. The normal scenario is that where there are difficulties with institutions these problems are a reflection of our own personal difficulties.
With the loosening of structures in various institutions in the post-Vatican II church there is more scope for personal responsibility but also more scope for personal immaturity to express itself. The truth we see sometimes blinds us to the truth we don't yet see. We are people on the way to maturity rather than people who have arrived. The immaturities that are part of our lives can come between us and an objective view of reality.
What Plato said long ago still holds, namely that it takes a high level of maturity to appreciate truth. In a climate where there is mistrust of institutions, resistance to the ideal set out in Humanae Vitae hardly comes as a surprise. We owe it to one another to try to understand this resistance.
A factor to be reckoned with is how in many areas of life expectations have changed. In a world that prizes democracy people expect to have an input into decisions that affect their lives. Sometimes their expectations are unrealistic, but people can become frustrated when they feel they can't have an input, have their say and see that their views have been taken on board.
Regarding Humanae Vitae, many people experience feelings which flow from unmet expectations. They find it more difficult to own the teaching of this encyclical because they feel they had no input into the process that led to its being issued.
Where the impact of its authority is diminished there is greater need for the church's message to be persuasive and convincing if it is to gain acceptance. My impression is that the message of Humanae Vitae has not been well understood.
In a climate of continuing controversy the beauty of truth can get lost, the truth about the deepest meaning of the gift of human sexuality, about the nature of human freedom and the place of sound teaching in building up the unity of Christian family.
Yet if Humanae Vitae had never been written, questions about the meaning of our sexuality would need to be addressed in today's culture where so many parents are concerned about the potential exploitation of their children through the explicit sexual messages that are directed at them. Others are disturbed by the moral implications of some of the experiments being done in the field of bioethics.
By looking at the nature of the God-given gift of our sexuality Humanae Vitae has provided valuable input into a debate that needs to take place today on how to respect this gift in ourselves and in others.
In The Great Divorce C.S. Lewis said there are really only two kinds of people, those who say to God "Thy will be done" and those to whom God says "Thy will be done". We either live for God or for ourselves.
Sexual activity can be an outlet for aggression, as in the case of rape. It can express manipulation, as in the case of fathers who take no responsibility for the children born as a result of their actions. It can be two people using each other. But to live for God is to respect his plan, to respect the maker's instructions.
When he gives us a gift it is so that we might be more like him. He always relates to us in a life-giving way; he holds nothing back. His invitation is to model our self-giving on his way of giving, to hold nothing back.
Humanae Vitae teaches that there should be no conditions attached to the self-giving of husband and wife in their marriage relationships, if they are to respect the plan of God. The encyclical remains a moral reference point for all who aspire to what respects our dignity as persons.
Bishop Martin Drennan is Auxiliary Bishop of Dublin and is based in Bray, Co Wicklow. A version of this article appears in the current issue of the Irish Catholic