One time during a conference John and Fr. John Hardon were discussing natural family planning. John wondered what kind of natural family planning Mother Teresa taught to the poor. Fr. Hardon said, “Let’s call her up.” Father called Mother Teresa immediately and John had the privilege of talking to her over the phone. She said some of her nuns teach temperature-only and some nuns teach mucus-only.
In her lecture when she accepted the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, she said this about natural family planning where only the temperature sign was mentioned:
“We are doing another thing which is very beautiful—we are teaching our beggars, our leprosy patients, our slum dwellers, our people of the street, natural family planning. And in Calcutta alone in six years—it is all in Calcutta—we have had 61,273 babies less from the families who would have had, but because they practice this natural way of abstaining, of self-control, out of love for each other. We teach them the temperature meter which is very beautiful, very simple, and our poor people understand.”
And again in this talk, Mother says: “The poor people are very great people. They can teach us so many beautiful things. The other day one of them came to thank and said: You people who have vowed chastity—you are the best people to teach us family planning. Because it is nothing more than self-control out of love for each other.”
Sheila Kippley
Natural Family Planning: The Complete Approach