Papal Document to Strongly Reaffirm Contraceptive Ban : Doctrine: Encyclical acknowledges a crisis in teaching of moral issues around the world, magazine says.

In an up coming document on church doctrine, Pope John Paul II “unambiguously confirms” the Roman Catholic Church’s ban on all forms of artificial birth control, a Catholic magazine reported Thursday.

The monthly Catholic World Report said in its July edition, made available Thursday, that it had access to the long-awaited papal encyclical “Veritatis Splendor” (The Splendor of the Truth), which will be issued in the autumn.

As had been widely expected, the document focusing on moral issues firmly restates the teachings of Humanae Vitae, Pope Paul VI’s landmark 1968 encyclical that banned all contraception on the grounds that it blocked the transmission of life.

Since his election in 1978, the conservative Pope John Paul has often strongly reaffirmed his predecessor’s ban. An encyclical is the highest form of papal writing and Catholics are expected to follow its teachings.

Since “Humanae Vitae” was issued, many of the world’s 960 million Roman Catholics, particularly those in more industrialized countries, have disregarded the ban on contraception.

The church approves only the rhythm method of birth control in which a couple abstain from sex during a woman’s most fertile period.

Many Catholics who disregard the ban to avoid unwanted children feel they are acting in good conscience and are not sinning. This challenge to Vatican authority has posed one of the church’s most delicate problems in modern times.

The Pope has often condemned so-called cafeteria Catholicism as practiced in countries such as the United States where the faithful decide for themselves which regulations to obey.

The Catholic World Report said the new encyclical, the Pope’s 10th, acknowledged that a real crisis had arisen in the teaching of moral issues around the world.

The encyclical addresses the discord between the church’s official stand on moral issues and the way they are taught in Catholic universities and seminaries.

In 1986, the Vatican stripped Father Charles Curran of his permission to teach theology at the Catholic University of America in Washington because he openly questioned church positions on sexual morality.

The magazine said the encyclical condemned interpretations of ethics which were inconsistent with church doctrine. It rejected the notion that individual freedom of conscience and personal sincerity were the only criteria for moral judgment.

For this reason, the magazine said, the Pope’s new writing would be a doctrinal encyclical addressed particularly to bishops, who are responsible for ensuring that those teaching in the name of the church comply with official doctrine.

“It is no surprise that in this document, appearing 25 years after ‘Humanae Vitae,’ the Church unambiguously confirms its teaching on contraception, as it has already done in the ‘Catechism of the Catholic Church,’ ” the magazine said. It was referring to the church’s revised “universal catechism,” or book of religious instruction, issued last year.

It said the encyclical was 130 pages long and divided into three chapters. The first is a spiritual and theological meditation, the second is an ethical analysis on moral issues and the third deals with morality in everyday life.