Vatican City, Oct 3, 2008 / 05:20 pm (CNA).- Marking the 40th anniversary of “Humane Vitae,” Pope Benedict XVI has sent a message to the president of the John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and the Family, in which he praises the Church’s teaching on contraception as the only way to understand the truth about human sexuality.

That important document, writes Pope Benedict, "deals with one of the essential aspects of the vocation of marriage, and of the specific path to sanctity deriving therefrom. In fact, the married couple, having received the gift of love, are called in their turn to give themselves to one another unreservedly."

Noting that the “possibility of procreating a new human life is inherent to the complete giving of the spouses," Pope Benedict explains that contraception seeks to “deny the intimate truth of married love."