Natural Family Planning and the Cross

The axiom that a house divided against itself cannot stand applies in part to the failure of the local Church to incorporate natural family planning instruction into the work of evangelization.  Pope Paul VI, the author of Evangelii Nuntiandi (Evangelization in the Modern World), is also well known as the author of Humanae Vitae in which he proposed that followers of Christ may have to carry the burden of a large family or the cross of the chaste periodic abstinence required by systematic natural family planning.  Unfortunately, some of those who glory in calling themselves conservatives castigate systematic NFP as selfish, and those who glory in calling themselves liberal want a cross-less Christianity regarding marital sexuality.  

Both camps ignore how the right kind of NFP course can be a great agent of evangelization both within the Church and among truth-seeking non-Catholics.  Yes, we have seen truth-seeking anti-Catholics and even atheists approach and then enter the Church after having learned a complete form of systematic NFP, plus ecological breastfeeding, plus a covenant theology that places all of this in the context of Christian discipleship.

Also damaging to evangelization is that almost no one in the hierarchical Church seems to be doing anything to promote breastfeeding despite the fact that it is the most charitable thing a mother can do for her baby.  Doctor Ruth Lawrence, an expert in this area, sums it up succinctly:  “Breastfeeding is the most precious gift a mother can give her infant.  If there is illness or infection, it may be a life-saving gift.  If there is poverty, it may be the only gift.”  

So when are Catholic parishes and missions all throughout the world going to be known as places that encourage and support breastfeeding?  And if they really want to evangelize, when are they going to promote and teach ecological breastfeeding?  Mothers who follow its Seven Standards, which allow baby’s frequent and unrestricted suckling, truly DO experience a delayed return of fertility—–on average about 14 to 15 months.  Much more on this at the NFPI website.

John F. Kippley

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