10
“A ‘book’ written by God and capable of being ‘read’”
The profound reality of the body’s sacramentality behooves man to study it, as Pope
Emeritus Benedict XVI suggests, as “a ‘book’ written by God and capable of being ‘read’…by
the various sciences.” 31 Here, the Holy Father is presumably referring not only to the speculative
sciences of theology and philosophy, but also to the natural and applied sciences of biology and
medicine. Indeed, in his treatise on the Theology of the Body, St. John Paul II argues that
modern science addressing human sexuality and fertility has much to offer a theological study of
marriage, as well as to what it means to be male and female from an anthropological perspective.
Here the argument returns to that friendship between faith and science, along with the necessary
caveat, however, reminding that all science must be at the service of man and his ultimate
good. 32
In fact, a scientific discussion bound by and oriented to the dignity of the human person
serves to underscore the words of Humanae Vitae in its explanation of the meaning of
responsible parenthood. Blessed Pope Paul VI cautions that this term, “responsible parenthood,”
31
32
Benedict XVI, “Saint Albert the Great,” para. 16.
CCC, 2294.