Humanae Vitae: Encyclical of His Holiness Pope Paul VI

By Pope Paul VI

A revised and improved translation of Pope Paul VI's encyclical letter, Humanae vitae.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ignatius Press
• Release date: Feb 10, 2011
• ISBN: 9781681492384

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HUMANAE VITAE

HUMANAE VITAE

Encyclical Letter of

His Holiness Pope Paul VI

On the Regulation of Births

IGNATIUS PRESS    SAN FRANCISCO

This new, revised translation of Pope Paul VI’s Encyclical Letter, Humanæ Vitæ, was originally prepared by Rev. Marc Calegari, S.J., on the occasion of the symposium of July 1978, sponsored by the Archdiocese of San Francisco and by the Saint Ignatius Institute of the University of San Francisco, to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Encyclical’s promulgation. Fr. Calegari subsequently revised his translation in 1985. Those revisions are reflected in this thirtieth-anniversary edition. Fr. Calegari died in October 1992.

© 1998 Ignatius Press, San Francisco

All Rights Reserved

ISBN 0-89870-728-5

Printed in the United States of America

Revisor’s Note

The English and the other vernacular translations of Humanæ Vitæ, along with the Latin text, were released in the Vatican on July 29, 1968. These translations were made from the Italian. Why not from the Latin? Presumably because the Latin was not available when the modern language translators began their work. The Latin translation was being prepared from the Italian at the same time as were the other translations.

A first revision of the Vatican’s English translation, made chiefly to eliminate some renderings that seemed too literal, was published in Catholic Mind of September 1968.

A second and more extensive revision was published for the Archdiocese of San Francisco / University of San Francisco celebration of the tenth anniversary of Humanæ Vitæ. The process of revision has continued since 1978.

The revisor’s primary concern remains fidelity to the Italian original. It is left to a future translator to bring about a more satisfactory union of elegance and accuracy, perhaps on the occasion of a later anniversary celebration of Humanæ Vitæ.

It should be noted that any attempt to deepen one’s understanding of Humanæ Vitæ by a more intensive study of the Latin translation of the encyclical (or of English translations of the Latin translation) is an exercise of limited value, given the origin of the Latin text, the kind of Latin used and the resulting distance from the original.

It is true that the Latin text is the official text, but there are few if any passages in the encyclical where an appeal to the Latin would be needed to resolve a disputed point. However, an asterisk [*] is used on a number of occasions to call attention

Reviews for Humanae Vitae

[maryh10000 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

It's not a book, it's a short pamphlet. Whether you agree with it or not, you might want to read it before you take issue with the position it takes. So you really know the position it takes.