Humanae Vitae is online at the Vatican site, and the text highlighted below is © Copyright – Libreria Editrice Vaticana.
The first principle is that human beings are not just biological entities. Any serious theology must be rooted in the fullest picture of people, namely the whole person and the entirety of our mission and call as we have been made by God.
7. The question of human procreation, like every other question which touches human life, involves more than the limited aspects specific to such disciplines as biology, psychology, demography or sociology. It is the whole (person) and the whole mission to which (we are) called that must be considered: both its natural, earthly aspects and its supernatural, eternal aspects.
Yes, we must also consider the “supernatural, eternal,” the spiritual qualities of human beings as well as what can be scientifically quantified.
And since in the attempt to justify artificial methods of birth control many appeal to the demands of married love or of responsible parenthood, these two important realities of married life must be accurately defined and analyzed. This is what We mean to do, with special reference to what the Second Vatican Council taught with the highest authority in its Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the World of Today.
Others know that Pastoral Constitution as Gaudium et Spes, and it will be heavily referenced in the document to come.
The “limited aspects specific to .. biology” and ” It is the whole (person) and the whole mission which (we are) called that must be considered” seems to argue in favour of a wholisic view of marriage rather then an focus on individual acts – a point later taken up in HV with a different conclusion.
On the demands of married love, one wonders what practical experience celibate clerics have on these matters ? And to what extent God teaches through the pratical experience of married couples who ought to be listened to very carefully.
God Bless