Zadar, (IKA) – An international congress, Humanae Vitae for All Times – Human Sexual Life in Generosity and Prudence, was held in Zadar from November 28 to 30 on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the publication of the encyclical Humanae Vitae by Pope Paul VI. The congress was organized by the Office of the Croatian Conference of Bishops for the Family, the Zadar Archdiocese, the Croatian Catholic Medical Society and the Croatian Catholic Society of Medical Nurses and Technicians, under the auspices of the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Zadar County and the City of Zadar, with support from the Ministry of Science, Education and Sports and the Ministry of the Family, Veterans’ Affairs and Multigenerational Solidarity. The congress participants, led by the coordinator of the Central Organizational Committee, Dr. Petar Krešimir Hodžić, summarized the conclusions of the congress in a statement.

“At the opening of the congress, we listened with joy and gratitude to the message sent to us by the Holy Father Benedict XVI. With paternal love, he urged us to deep contemplation of the mystery and gift of human life, as well as personal testimony:
‘Procreative marital love, open to the birth of children in mutual unselfish giving of a man and woman, not only resembles but also participates in God’s creative love, which is concretely communicated by bringing a human being to life. To exclude this communicative dimension by means of acts that hinder procreation means to disclaim the intimate nature of conjugal love. May the example and testimony of so many parents, rich in faith and confidence, always serve as encouragement and consolation to those who fulfill their paternal and maternal responsibilities under conditions of difficulties and uncertainty.’ The congress emphasized the current relevance of the encyclical of Humanae vitae, that speaks of the natural law and the moral experience of sexuality as lasting values; the prophetic dimension of the encyclical because of its prediction of the increasingly evident consequences of deviation from natural and moral sexuality, the integrity and beauty of human love and sexuality according to God’s plan in the sense of the well-being that the person achieves if he accepts and lives pursuant to this plan; the richness of the doctrine of the Church, which not only does not contradict science but also provides a positive contribution in order for investigations in humanistic and scientific disciplines to develop for the benefit of the person and society. The main currents of today’s society, despite the imposition of alternative currents, place the family precisely in the center, based upon marriage between a woman and a man. There is a need for a new feminism that confirms the covenant between the woman and life with increasing recognition of ‘female genius’ in various areas of life, the woman’s support of life and the general humanization of the society in genuine equality of the sexes. There is also a neglect of the spiritual dimension of sexuality that abates the genuine purpose and integrity of human love. Natural family planning methods are scientifically and clinically based, with high reliability, and they provide numerous health, psychological, spiritual, economic, ecological and other benefits to the individual, married couple, family and society. Although currently on the path of extinction, there are still traces of hope for the demographic recovery of the Croatian society, with significantly better support by the responsible institutions, individuals and groups. There is a necessity for mutual networking and connection in order to develop a systemized and standardized approach to promoting and teaching the natural family planning method.

The congress organizers and more than 200 participants, inspired by the message of the encyclical Humanae vitae, have expectations from various institutions in the sense of the message of genuine cooperation in implementing projects directed toward education in values, the promotion of marriage, families and the protection of life, and therefore seek the following: 1. from educational institutions, to assure the implementation of programs for the integrated education of young persons for generous and prudent sexuality, respecting the parental priority of the right to decide upon the upbringing of children; 2. from the Church structures, which pursuant to the existing documents and decisions, to afford the natural family planning method a suitable place in the formation of pastoral workers, pastoral activity among young people, pastoral work among families and pastoral healthcare, and make possible the implementation of projects for the systematic promotion and teaching of natural methods in regular pastoral activity, especially in parishes and family counseling centers; 3. from institutions of vocational, secondary and higher education, to include the contents of natural family planning methods in their regular programs of the professional formation and ongoing education of healthcare personnel and pharmacists; 4. from healthcare institutions, to respect the existing code of the Croatian Medical Chamber and the Croatian Medical Association, and establish natural family planning as the foundation of procreative health, particularly in the case of problems in achieving conception; 5. from the scientific community, to join in the creation of a base of knowledge and to interpret scientific facts credibly on fertility and natural family planning, making this knowledge accessible to the general public; 6. from the mass media, to transmit the truth about human sexuality and natural family planning in a suitable, comprehensive and intelligible manner.”