**1. Introduction**

As the twentieth century wore on, the Catholic Church's teaching on sexual ethics became ever more embattled. After the 1968 teaching on the wrongness of birth control, the teaching became more and more contested. The new pope, John Paul II, who inherited the enthusiasm of the second Vatican Council, tried to give a new defense of the teaching. This effort was somewhat unexpected, since he had previously skipped the commission that was working on the topic. John Paul, confident in his unique abilities, decided to rethink the teaching from a personalist perspective.
