The NFP movement 1971-2010: Forty years of near futility
Starting from ground zero in 1971, we saw great growth in numbers up through 1980 when we taught 9,084 new couples. I suspect that other programs experienced somewhat similar results. There was a market. Millions of American Catholics still believed Catholic teaching on birth control despite all the dissent.
In 1981, our numbers started to drop, and they continued to drop about 15% each year well into the 1990s. We had more teachers and better materials. Why did we see fewer couples each year?
The contraceptive culture of the Western world plus a generally contraceptive culture within Catholic education and parishes combined to produce the current reality.
The year 1981 was Humanae Vitae plus 13. A couple getting married in 1981 could have gone through 12 years of Catholic education starting in fifth grade and all the way through college and never heard a good word about Catholic teaching on birth control. Worse yet, if the spouses attended Catholic schools all the way through, they were probably exposed to anti-Humanae Vitae teaching both in high school and in college. From the general culture they would have absorbed the idea that contraception is normative in marriage, and once into the Eighties they could have fallen victim to the notion of sex as sport. From their Catholic culture, they would have absorbed the idea that the Pope was isolated and that contraception was acceptable.
By and large the Natural Family Planning movement focused on the signs of fertility. Some thought that NFP was so good as a means of birth control that NFP instructors no longer had to convey Catholic teaching on sexual morality within marriage. Some of the NFP brochures relied so much on Hollywood-type images that they appeared to be using sex to sell their product.
The NFP movement remained fragmented all during these 40 years. I tried to form a national NFP association, but the idea never gained traction. Thus there was never a unified effort to lobby within the Church for more emphasis on the teaching of marital chastity.
Tomorrow: Creating the market: whose responsibility?
John F. Kippley
Sex and the Marriage Covenant
Natural Family Planning: The Complete Approach