Chaos or Hope and Peace?

29 May 2025   Matthew 16:13-19  

The Feast Day of St. Paul VI

“Upon this rock I will build my church.’”  Matthew 16:18​

Just moments after He called Peter the “Rock” and handed him the keys to the kingdom, Jesus hissed at him, “Get behind me Satan! You are thinking as people do!” (Matthew 16:23). Peter had presumed to rebuke Jesus for predicting His passion and death, but Jesus barked back that you don’t get Him or salvation without them.

Separate what must never be separated, and chaos follows.

1968 was a rough year. It started with the Tet Offensive in Vietnam in January. Even though militarily it was a win, it wound up weakening support for the war in the U.S., and finally persuaded LBJ to withdraw from the presidential race in March. It divided the Democratic party, and one of the commonest patterns in American politics appeared again – when one of the major parties divides, the other side wins. Then there were the two assassinations – April and June, Martin and Bobby. More chaos. The Sexual Revolution was in full swing. The Summer of Love was the year before, Woodstock the summer after. More chaos.

In July of 1968 Pope Paul VI stepped into that maelstrom with what he firmly believed was at least part of the solution to the chaos. His encyclical Humanae Vitae opposed artificial means of birth control. Pope Paul’s argument was very straightforward: artificial means of birth control separate what must never be separated, viz. the unitive and procreative significance of sex. Reduce the significance of sex, he said and a host of evils will follow – the objectification and commodification of women, the exploitation of children, easier infidelity and casual divorce, weakened families and fraying social bonds.

Chaos.

Humanae Vitae was attacked from all sides, even from within the Church. It is attacked to this day.

Of course, everything Pope Paul VI warned about has come to pass. The significance of sex has been reduced so far that it is used to sell everything, and is visible everywhere, in degraded forms, even to the very young. Women and children are trafficked all over the world. The out of wedlock birthrate exceeds 40% (as much as 70% in some communities) and families have crumbled to the point where the Surgeon General issued a report in 2023 on the epidemic of loneliness and isolation. We are raising the unhappiest generation since anyone started paying attention to such things.

Separate what must never be separated, and chaos follows.

In the mid 2010s there began a boom in dystopian novels for teens and young adults. It got real traction with movies like The Book of Eli (2010) and The Hunger Games franchise (2016). Dystopian fiction always begins with a disaster that destroys traditional forms of order and meaning. But it always ends with a small group of outliers who form new communities of hope. In 2014 Pope Paul VI became St. Paul VI, and many began to suspect that he had been right all along – separate what must never be separated and chaos follows. But put it back together again, and there is peace and hope.

The number of converts to the Catholic faith has been quietly increasing – 160% in France since 2015, 72% in Ft. Worth Texas since 2023.

Bible sales increased 22% in 2024, many of those sales to people who had never owned a Bible before.

Some studies suggest that by 2050 there will be more Christians in China than there are people in the United States, more Catholics in Africa than there are people in the United States.

“Upon this rock I will build my church.”

Peace and hope?

St. Paul VI, pray for us.