Fifty years of Pope Paul VI's 'Humanae Vitae'

The editorial in The Tablet this week is titled 'A plea for change'.

It begins with how Melinda Gates has pointed out how access to contraception is a vital key to promoting the welfare of women and children in the poorer parts of the world.

It concludes recalling The Tablet's comment 50 years ago on the publication of Pope Paul Vl's encyclical Humanae Vitae, which labelled contraception an intrinsic evil.

The Tablet then wrote: neither joy nor hope can we derive from the encyclical.