Since I'll be blogging Evangelii Nuntiandi for a few days here it is good to have some basic info on the person who issued it. From Wikipedia (where else?):
Pope Paul VI was a troubled figure who angered both traditionalists and liberals. Reviled by traditionalists for implementing the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, he was also a lightning rod for liberals for failing to change the Church's teaching on priestly celibacy, birth control, and the ordination of women. His encyclical On Human Life, which reaffirmed the Church's ban on birth control, was met with a storm of indignation, even within his own Church.
