Natural Family Planning International

The Natural Family Planning course as evangelization

The Lord Jesus Christ is the center of any Catholic evangelization, and that should also be true of Catholic-sponsored courses in natural family planning.  Systematic NFP calls for chaste abstinence during the fertile time in order to avoid pregnancy.  Periodic abstinence is not easy and is not infrequently accompanied by temptations to use contraceptive behaviors.  True, there are excellent pragmatic reasons for not using condoms and diaphragms or practicing withdrawal during the fertile time because all of these have definite problems with effectiveness. 
         But it takes faith and spiritual courage and fortitude to overcome temptations to masturbation and marital sodomy.  The Catholic Church teaches that it is the grave matter of mortal sin to engage in any of these contraceptive behaviors.  Why should a Christian believe such teaching?   
         The reason is found every Sunday.  When we profess the Nicene Creed at Sunday Mass, we are professing not only our faith in the Holy Trinity and the Incarnation but also in the promises made by Jesus.  The Nicene Creed did not drop out of heaven on a golden scroll.  It was occasioned by the Arian heresy that denied the full divinity of Jesus Christ.  At the Council of Nicea in 325, the bishops of the Catholic Church clarified and reaffirmed the Traditional faith in the Lord Jesus as true God and true man, of one being with the Father.  How do we know they had it right?  The ultimate reason is that we believe that Jesus keeps his promises.  At the Last Supper Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit to lead the Apostles and their successors into the fullness of the truth. 
         When we profess faith in the teaching of Humanae Vitae, we are professing our faith that the same Holy Spirit who led the bishops at Nicea also led the centuries-long Tradition against contraceptive behaviors.  It was that same Holy Spirit who guided Pope Paul VI to reaffirm that Tradition in Humanae Vitae. 
         Jesus keeps his promises.  That’s what we profess in the Nicene Creed and by believing the teaching of Humanae Vitae and acting accordingly. 
It is my conviction that this profession of our faith in the Lord Jesus and in his promises should be an integral part of every NFP course.  This is simply a normal part of adult education and evangelization. 

Next week:  Natural Family Planning: The Right Kind of Course

John F. Kippley
Sex and the Marriage Covenant
Natural Family Planning: The Complete Approach

Can bishops require natural family planning instruction?

At the recent Fertility Conference in Milwaukee (July 15-17), the miniscule numbers of Catholics using natural family planning was duly reported.  The question of requiring a complete NFP course as a normal part of preparation for marriage was raised, and that in turn raised another question.  Can bishops and priests make this requirement with any teeth in it? 
         Can they actually refuse to allow a refuse-to-attend couple to marry in the Church?  A moral theologian at the conference noted that Catholics, like everyone else, have a natural right to marry.  Thus, the Church cannot enact rules for marriage preparation that would deny this right.  I agree a hundred percent. 
         But there is something called leverage.  By canon law, the priest cannot refuse to witness the marriage of a man and woman who are qualified to marry, but that doesn’t mean that he has to agree with their choice of place.  If a couple refuses to accept an NFP-course requirement, the priest can calmly tell them that he is obliged by the law of the Church to witness their marriage.  Further, he can witness their exchange of vows either in the Church building or he can witness it in the rectory.  The choice is theirs. 
         The precedent for this is long established.  When I was young, it was common policy that if a Catholic married a Protestant or other non-Catholic, the wedding would take place in the rectory, not the church.  I witnessed such a wedding between my Aunt Harriette and her Lutheran husband. 
         Thus the answer to our question is obvious.  The bishop or even an individual priest can require attendance at an NFP course as a normal part of preparation for marriage.  But will it do any good?  Does the course need to be much more than “Catholic birth control”?  Should the NFP course be an exercise in evangelization?

Tomorrow:  The NFP course as evangelization.

John F. Kippley
Sex and the Marriage Covenant
Natural Family Planning: The Complete Approach

Creating the NFP market: whose responsibility?

I believe the answer to that question is found in Romans 10.  After proclaiming the importance of faith in the Lord Jesus for salvation in verses 1-13, St. Paul continues:  “But how are men to call upon him in whom they have not believed?  And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard?  And how are they to hear without a preacher?  And how can men preach unless they are sent?”

Let’s paraphrase that in reference to natural family planning as a means of marital chastity.  How are couples to know and believe that it is the grave matter of mortal sin to use unnatural forms of birth control unless they are told?  And how are couples to know that natural forms of conception regulation provide a moral and effective way to postpone or avoid pregnancy unless they learn?  And how will most couples learn without attending a course?  And how can they attend a course unless they are sent?  It is obvious that the vast majority are certainly not coming on their own.

In 1989 a committee of American bishops issued a small book on preparation for marriage.  Of special note to us, they urged that every engaged couple should be required to attend a complete course on natural family planning, not just a session squeezed into a busy pre-Cana day.  As of this writing, only six dioceses have such a requirement.  Furthermore, in succeeding USCCB documents on natural family planning (2006) and marriage (2009), the requirement was not mentioned. 

It appears to me that many bishops have hoped that the NFP movement could do the job without much help from bishops and priests.  The stark reality is that the government numbers are telling the bishops that very few Catholics are living chaste and holy marriages.  Granted, the National Survey of Family Growth figures have problems.  They do not include women who are breastfeeding, or letting the babies come as they may, or are infertile or pregnant.  A skeptic might think that many of those surveyed may have been Catholic in name only.  Undoubtedly.  But a look at those who attend church every Sunday is hardly encouraging.  Yes, the NFP use is much higher; it jumps all the way up to a whopping four-tenths of one percent among every-Sunday churchgoers. 

The bottom line is that bishops and priests need to require the right kind of NFP course as a normal part of preparation for marriage. 

Tomorrow:  Can bishops require natural family planning instruction?

John F. Kippley
Sex and the Marriage Covenant
Natural Family Planning: The Complete Approach