Thomas Aquinas’ theology of mercy is deeply marked by the liturgical tradition of the Order of Preachers, incorporating many explicit and implicit references to liturgical prayers in praise of God’s mercy. This article explores the liturgical context of Thomas Aquinas’ theology of mercy, demonstrating the influence of the Dominican liturgy on Thomas’ understanding and articulation of mercy and showing the subsequent influence of Thomas on Pope Francis’ theology of mercy.

Anglican moralist Kenneth Kirk is an early twentieth-century forerunner of Catholic revisionism. Kirk critiques the moral manuals and defends a historicist, biblically grounded virtue ethic forty years prior to Catholic figures like Bernard Häring. Kirk also utilizes inductive casuistry in analyzing concrete cases to the end of promoting Christian freedom and mature Christlike character. For these reasons his moral theology has historical and ecumenical importance.

Catholic feminism has flourished in the decades following Humanae Vitae. Still, Catholic women do not speak with one voice on the issue of birth control. I argue that Humanae Vitae has had far-reaching damaging effects on many Catholic women and their spirituality, moral agency, and fertility. Nevertheless, any feminist critique of the document must also take seriously the experiences of Catholic women who express that practicing natural family planning has brought empowerment, good health, and increased spousal intimacy. Further ecclesial discernment is needed, with special attention to women’s leadership on this issue.

This article explores the ecclesial consequences of Humanae Vitae in relation to four seminal contributions of Vatican II: (1) a renewed appreciation for the sensus fidelium; (2) the theological recontextualization of doctrine; (3) episcopal collegiality and ecclesial subsidiarity; (4) the revitalization of the church’s pastoral mission. The article argues first, that Humanae Vitae, directly or indirectly, impeded the full reception and implementation of these four contributions; and second, that the pontificate of Pope Francis has helped rehabilitate precisely those conciliar contributions that were most affected by the controversies associated with Humanae Vitae.

The landmark encyclical Humanae Vitae is frequently viewed in isolation from its context. This essay addresses this lapse by understanding the encyclical in light of the history which preceded its publication, as well as factors that followed it. The full story includes the carefully nuanced position of the majority report of the pontifical commission, the meaning of responsible parenthood in Gaudium et Spes, and the fact that Paul VI did not intend Humanae Vitae to be the last word on the meaning of conjugal morality. Nevertheless, the intrinsic link between the unitive and procreative dimensions of conjugal morality posed by the encyclical is maintained and developed in subsequent papal teaching. The major contribution of Pope Francis to the discussion is the principle of discernment as applied to the reception of the encyclical’s teaching.

The Catholic Church’s evangelizing and healing presence throughout the world also entails the unintended reinforcement of cultural forces of misogyny that contribute to the suffering of women. This presents an urgent ethical imperative for the church to examine and reform its patriarchal structures of decision-making, ministry, and worship. Ecofeminist epistemologies and Schillebeeckx’s theory of the proportional norm are employed in a movement through the steps of a theological reflection process that the author learned in collaboration with women theologians from Latin America. The symbolic paradigm guiding the movement is the Lukan Gospel’s bentover woman, standing up straight and glorifying God.

2018 marks the fiftieth anniversary of 1968 and Humanae Vitae as well as the centenary of the 1918 Armistice ending the Great War. The negative reception of Humanae Vitae is frequently viewed within the narrow causal lens of “the sixties” and in particular the tumultuous year 1968. However, the factors shaping the laity’s reception were 50 years in the making, including internalized authority and agency via the postwar currents of both “mysticism” and Catholic Action. Additionally, birth control was a discourse spanning 1918 to 1968.

This article considers what has transpired in the Catholic Church on the issue of contraception in the fifty years since the encyclical Humanae Vitae in 1968. The author argues that today there are sufficient reasons to support a consideration of change in the teaching. Without such a consideration that works toward development or change in this teaching, the church risks continuing loss of credibility and will not be able to address honestly other important contemporary issues.

In 1968, Mary Daly published The Church and the Second Sex, one of the first monographs in the field of Catholic feminist theology. On the fiftieth anniversary of its release, this article remembers the book not only as an important historical milestone in Catholic theology, but also as an early and still-resonant articulation of issues that have concerned US Catholic feminist theologians since. This return to 1968 also puts into focus how the field has moved beyond Daly’s original project, clarifying important characteristics of the current discourse and its trajectories.

On August 24, 1968, Paul VI inaugurated the Second General Conference of the Latin American Episcopate. The work sessions were held at the Medellín Seminary between August 26 and September 6. Medellín represents the reception of Gaudium et Spes within the “People of God” ecclesiology of Lumen Gentium and is considered the only example of a continental reception of Vatican II carried out in a collegial and synodal manner. This article exposes the previous debates, the main topics, and the immediate reception.